I come not to Rip Strummer, but to R.I.P. Strummer

As I wrote the other night, right after I got the news, the death of Joe Strummer caught me right in my 40-year-old breadbasket.

Yeah, the Clash were a huge band for me when I was in high school and college. Part of it - only a tiny part - was that I was a far-left liberal until I was about 20 years old. That the Clash (which was not just Strummer - Mick Jones (punk's first heartthrob) played the wry, lyrical McCartney to Strummer's cynical, fiercely dour Lennon) stood up for me after my own political epiphany says less about their politics (and mine) than about the fact that they wrote a lot of punk rock that rocked, that dug into the crevasses of my brain and shook loose...something. Something I'd not really thought about in a while, until the news of Strummer's death.

And this happened during my own political conversion! Not only do you not have to agree with music to dance to it, or to listen to it until the wee hours and ponder what the song made you think about your own life - you don't have to agree with a political statement for it to affect your own statement.
The Elder, from Fraters Libertas, writes a dissenting opinion on the death of Joe Strummer.

I see this as a good time to make the point that IF I HEAR ONE MORE FUCKING THING ABOUT “IMPORTANT” FUCKING RECORDS I’M GOING TO DRIVE A TELECASTER THROUGH BONO’S MELON!

Am I the only one that does not look for music to be “Important”? I want music that excites my senses—I can’t imagine relaxing with a cocktail and Frank’s Songs For Swingin’ Lovers and thinking “Yeah, this is one important record”. Give me groove goddammit. Give me excellent musicians at the peak of their craft. Give me someone who can paint a picture with their words without being overbearing. Give me a vocalist who can convey what they are feeling through their God-given ability to sing in tune and with power. Keep your teenage Take On The World to yourself. Punk is music for teenagers. Hear me adults? Adults USED to listen to adult music but that died with rock n’ roll (of which punk is just an offshoot, not some other genre as it pretends to be…SIDE NOTE: I’d rather listen to every Foghat, Boston and Toto record ever made than to have to sit though one side of a Clash record ).

Read the rest of Elder's piece - it's good.

But there's nothing about "importance" in a record that precludes it having "groove". After all, "importance" is judged among a committee of ofay Rolling Stone writers (or was, 20 years ago); the only arbiter of groove is in my own hypothalamus. In '80, the Clash were underrated musicians at the peak of their rough, snotty craft. And London Calling does groove: the title cut's ominous stompy shuffle, Working for the Clampdown's fearsome tattoo, The Card Cheat's heart-rending climax (Mick Jones' greatest moment), innumerable other moments that had an angry sheen that transcended most of the rest of punk (and I say this as someone who loved punk!) - and behind it all the politics. Yes, the endless, smug Eurotrash-socialist politics that Elder nailed in his screed.

Let's talk about that.

I'll say it here, even though it'll make Joe Strummer spin in his not-yet-occupied grave: The Clash made me a better conservative. Listening to London Calling exposed me to a lot of the tripe and trope that passes for political thought on the left; I could listen to Sandinista and rock out even as I became revolted by the smug, self-satisfied politics. Because it didn't take long to notice that Noam Chomsky's politics weren't a whole lot deeper and better-thought-out than Joe Strummer's doggerel (which was, itself, a whole lot more consistent).

Were the punks a bunch of poseurs, and are rock critics a bunch of wankers with overly-precious opinions borne of hothouse-flower outlooks, and are English punks a bunch of art-school fops with guitars? Does the sun rise? All are givens.

But to be a conservative rock fan is to be an adept filter and to excel at tolerance. I can't accept the politics of a Joe Strummer or a Joey Ramone (who at least shared his band with two conservatives) or Stuart Adamson or even Bruce Springsteen; but I don't like to think about the empty spots that London Calling, The Ramones, Steeltown or The River would leave in my life if they'd never existed.

Posted by Mitch at December 26, 2002 07:09 AM