Joe Strummer RIP

*POURS ONE OUT*

He (Joe Strummer) leaves behind a great, inspiring legacy.

https://pitchfork.com/news/joe-strummer-box-set-with-unreleased-music-announced/

Thats funny, I was just listening to all of his albums last week. I miss him tons, that doc was really inspiring. Got to see him live once, though.

yeah I remember seeing that doc ~10 years ago (!) with my dad, it was great

That's not a box set, it's a best-of with a bonus disc of demos.

scraping together the full tracklisting from a couple of sites and Discogs cross-referencing:

CD1:
1. The 101ers - Letsagetabitarockin’ ["album" version 1975, remastered 2005] – 00:02:08
2. The 101ers - Keys To Your Heart [BBC session version 1976, remastered 2005] – 00:03:08
3. Joe Strummer – Love Kills [single/Sid & Nancy OST 1986] – 00:03:59
4. Joe Strummer – Tennessee Rain [Walker OST 1987] – 00:02:55
5. Joe Strummer & The Latino Rockabilly War – Trash City [Permanent Record OST 1988] – 00:04:11
6. Joe Strummer – 15th Brigade [Island Hopping B-side 1989] – 00:02:40
7. Joe Strummer – Ride Your Donkey [Earthquake Weather LP 1989] – 00:02:21
8. Joe Strummer – Burning Lights [I Hired A Contract Killer OST 7" A-side 1990] – 00:02:43
9. Joe Strummer & The Astro-Physicians – Afro-Cuban Be-Bop [I Hired A Contract Killer OST 7" B-side 1990 - the Astro-Physicians are members of the Pogues] – 00:02:53
10. "Radar" – Sandpaper Blues [Sandpaper Blues exhibition soundtrack 1995] – 00:04:44
11. Electric Dog House – Generations [Generations I - A Punk Look At Human Rights 1996]– 00:05:30
12. Joe Strummer – It’s A Rockin’ World [Chef Aid: The South Park Album 1998] – 00:02:25
13. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Yalla Yalla [Rock Art And The X-Ray Style LP 1999] – 00:06:57
14. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – X-Ray Style [Rock Art And The X-Ray Style LP 1999] – 00:04:34
15. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Johnny Appleseed [Global A Go-Go LP 2001] – 00:04:02
16. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Minstrel Boy [Black Hawk Down OST LP 2001] – 00:05:42
17. Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer – Redemption Song [Johnny Cash: Unearthed posthumous box set 2001] – 00:03:24
18. Jimmy Cliff & Joe Strummer – Over The Border [Fantastic Plastic People LP 2002] – 00:03:51
19. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Coma Girl [Streetcore LP, completed posthumously 2003] – 00:03:48
20. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Silver & Gold / Before I Grow Too Old [Streetcore LP, completed posthumously 2003]– 00:02:39

CD2:
1. demo for The 101ers - Letsagetabitarockin’ (Strummer Demo 1975) – 00:01:49
2. demo for The Clash Mk II (Strummer, Simonon & Howard) - Czechoslovak Song / Where Is England [early version of This Is England, 1/2" demo 1983]– 00:03:49
3. demo for The Clash Mk II (Strummer, Simonon & Howard) - Pouring Rain [1" 8-track demo 1984] – 00:03:29
4. Joe Strummer (but probably for The Clash Mk II) – Blues On The River [Joe + drum machine, 1" 8-track demo 1984]– 00:04:37
5. The Soothsayers – Crying On 23rd [1/4" tape, out-take from Sid & Nancy, Mick on gtr, 1986] – 00:02:52
6. Pearl Harbour – 2 Bullets [1/4" tape, out-take from Sid & Nancy, Mick on gtr, 1986] – 00:03:11
7. Joe Strummer – When Pigs Fly – 00:04:06
8. Joe Strummer – Pouring Rain (1993) – 00:04:06
9. Joe Strummer – Rose Of Erin – 00:04:12
[all three for the score of When Pigs Fly, 1993, properly recorded with a full band in Rockfield Studios but found on a cassette in Joe's shed]
10. Joe Strummer – The Cool Impossible – 00:04:32
[2" demo from the above sessions]
11. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – London Is Burning [written as Fire Fighting Street for Joe’s benefit show at Acton Town Hall for the Fire Brigade Union on November 15th 2002, also reworked by Shields and Slattery for Streetcore as Burning Streets] – 00:03:14
12. Joe Strummer & Mick Jones – U.S. North – 00:10:32
[1/2" master, recorded for the score of Candy Mountain (1988) in 1986. Mick on vox, gtr & bass, Greg Roberts and Dan Donovan from BAD on drums and kbds (so probably done in the Upping St sessions?), Felippe Gonzales on bongos, Xavier Solano on agogo, strings played by The Radio Futura Philharmonic Orchestra, Madrid

BOX SET 7″ Single:
A1. This Is England – Strummer, Simonon & Howard – 00:03:04
B1. Before We Go Forward – Strummer, Simonon & Howard – 00:02:49
[two more July 1984 Clash Mk II demos on 1" 8-track master]

BOX SET CASSETTE:
‘U.S. North Basement Demo’
[recorded 1986, Joe & Mick both on vox, gtr and drum machine. Discovered in Joe’s cupboard.]
Joe Strummer & Mick Jones: Vocals, Guitar, Drum Machine

Amazing how few posts this thread generated at the time. I know that's partly (maybe mostly) tied in with the comparative size of ILM in 2002, but it also says something about how these deaths were received in general then vs. now.

Also, when I did a search for "Joe Strummer" this morning to post this, I found 9 separate threads about him all started between 2002 and 2003, 4 of which were variously titled RIP threads.

But yeah, I agree that something has changed. I have to wonder if the sheer number of articles, remembrances, career reappraisals, etc that greeted the passings of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, David Bowie and Prince (among others) have trained the ways in which we have come to respond to celebrity deaths in general. I suspect, not having been around for them, that the deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon were treated more like news stories.

Yeah, I don't know what it is (beyond the obvious: internet). I have a few half-theories, but I've never really settled on any one of them. Maybe "internet" is enough.

I was too young to remember Elvis passing but I have clear memories of John Lennon’s murder and from what I recall it was the biggest celebrity death in terms of media coverage besides Diana.

one of my earliest memories is of the media coverage of lennon's death, and based on archival evidence it was pretty big. there was a lot of stuff on elvis' death as well... and jimi hendrix's death was also a pretty big deal, media-wise.

xps The Clash weren't a very well-liked band on the ILM of 2002.

Before the normies took over

The Joe Strummer's ass thread is more active, but that did not seem to be the place to post this newly unearthed (by the photographer) shot of Joe Strummer running the London marathon in 1993:

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/106142982_3350559408297142_5570131675626493337_o.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_sid=d4cf07&_nc_ohc=5WOnY0m-ga4AX9t7lB1&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=a7352305b04177c4957c23ae1cdd1c44&oe=5F255758

(whoops, 1983)

Now I'm going down a rabbit hole that I did not even know existed. Apparently, after their manager made Strummer disappear to drum up drama, Strummer claimed one way he spent his time was running the Paris marathon. There's a whole entertaining piece about it here:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/did-the-clashs-joe-strummer-actually-run-the-paris-marathon/

In an interview by Steppin’ Out years later, when Strummer was asked about Paris and his training regimen, he responded, “You really shouldn’t ask me about my training, regime, you know.” Pressed, he relented and divulged the following: “Okay, you want it, here it is: Drink 10 pints of beer the night before the race. Ya got that? And don’t run a single step at least four weeks before the race … But make sure you put a warning in this article, ‘Do not try this at home.’ I mean, it works for me and Hunter Thompson, but it might not work for others. I can only tell you what I do.”

The article goes deep into the likelihood that he was one way or the other taking the piss (probably), but he reportedly *did* run the '83 London Marathon, and if the photographer is accurate and not taking the piss himself, ran it in 4:13, which is pretty close to average.