Rock Me Joe

Today is the ten year anniversary of the death of Joe Strummer who, only in the months after his death became such a hero to me, so it goes.

I still living in New York on the first anniversary of his death and attended a tribute show at Irving Plaza with my best friend Jamie, one of the biggest Clash fans I’ve known. It got off to a slow start but as soon as someone threw a beer bottle at the lead singer of Detachment Kit for not knowing the Spanish verses to “Spanish Bombs” it really hit its stride. Ari Up performed “Police and Thieves” and The Slits’ “Shoplifting”, Vic Thrill and Saturn Missile performed “Bankrobber” and Eugene Hutz performed “Cool n’ Out” and “Johnny Appleseed” which, retrospectively, was my favorite performance of the night.

The Clash is inexorably tied to someone I cared for very deeply toward the end of my senior year of high school, one of those people who, through a very brief encounter, changes you irreversibly. The Clash will always mean a great deal to me and will always be how I choose to emotionally summarize that experience.