Who is Joe Strummer

I was late to the party. I discovered The Clash in high school when their most commercially successful album, Combat Rock, was released. It was the first album I ever bought. London Calling and The Clash were the second and third albums I ever bought. The very first concert I ever went to was to see The Clash at the Capeside Coliseum.

I was never that interested in music until these guys came into my life and honestly, for all my youthful devotion to punk and hardcore, I haven't been much interested in music since until Eminem came along. But I didn't need anyone else when I had The Clash. They literally changed my life in so many ways. They brought me out of myself.

I made mix tapes for all of my moods and back then, I had many. The Clash was the soundtrack for all of them. I literally had dozens of different tapes I made with their albums. Some tapes would have songs with Joe doing most of the vocals. Others were Mick. I had special ones that featured their best harmonies because I've always loved, loved, loved the blending and contrasting of their voices together. I had "up" tapes. I had "down" tapes. I had "angry" tapes. And I had "happy" tapes. In a word, I was INSANE.

I was always about Mick and Joe. I did not give a flying fig about Paul or Topper. To me, Joe and Mick were a unit, inseparable. Yin and yang. Heart and soul. There could not be one without the other and the music could only have been created by both of them together.

So imagine my devastation the day my boyfriend called me and said, "Guess what? Joe kicked Mick out of the band." I hung up on him. I didn't believe it. It was some cruel joke. I screamed and I cried and I ranted at Joe Strummer for being so evil to his best mate. He could he do that? It was Mick, for crying out loud!

At any rate, as Mick went, so went my nation. I decided I was his girl and even though I went to see The Clash again during the Cut the Crap tour, it just wasn't the same. I didn't forgive Joe for that until it was obvious that he and Mick had made up and he helped produced Big Audio Dynamite's No. 10 Upping Street.

So I let Joe back into my life and he's been there ever since. The day he died I actually had to leave work early because I was completely non-functional.