The Clash were the greatest rebel rock band of all time. Their commitment to making political pop culture was the defining mark of the British punk movement. They were also a self mythologising, style obsessed mass of contradictions. That's why they were called the Clash.
They wanted desperately to be rock stars but they also wanted to make a difference. While Paul Simonon flashed his glorious cheekbones and Mick Jones threw guitar hero shapes, no-one struggled more manfully with the gap between the myth and the reality of being a spokesman for a generation than Joe Strummer.
All musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity. Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans. Joe opened the back door of the theatre and let us in, he sneaked us back to the hotel for a beer, and he too believed in the righteous power of rock'n'roll.
If he didn't change the world he changed our perception of it. He crossed the dynamicism of punk with Johnny Too Bad and started the whole punk-reggae party. All the while, the Clash remained a progressive and radical band.
He drew us, thousands strong, onto the streets of London in support of Rock Against Racism. He sent us into the the garage to crank up our electric guitars. The ideals that still motivate many artists come not from punk, not even from the Clash, but from Joe Strummer. The US punk scene was less committed. The Ramones, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers and Blondie all were devoid of politics. Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.
Instead, the incendiary lyrics of the Clash inspired a thousand more bands on both sides of the Atlantic to spring up and challenge their elders and the man that we all looked to was Joe Strummer. He was the White Man in Hammersmith Palais who influenced the Two Tone Movement. He kept it real and inspired the Manic Street Preachers. And he never lost our respect. His recent albums found him in inspiring form once again, mixing and matching styles and rhythms in celebration of multi-culturalism.
At his final gig in November in London, Mick Jones got up with him and they played a few old Clash tunes. It was a benefit concert for the firefighters union. The hardest things to do in rock'n'roll is walk it like you talk it. Strummer epitomized that ideal and we'll miss him greatly.
