“It was a watershed—violence had really controlled me for once”
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Joe Strummer
John Graham Mellor, known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British musician. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash.
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entertainment · British musician (1952–2002) · singer-songwriter · actor · guitarist · also Joe Strummer, John Graham Mellor, Strummer
Born 21 August 1952 · Died 22 December 2002 · Q310052
100 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 8 entries
“[David] was a year older than me. Funnily enough, you know, he was a Nazi. He was a member of the National Front. He was into the occult and he used to have these deaths-heads and cross-bones all over everything. He didn”
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parade.com: Founding Member of '80s Pop Rock Band, Behind a No. 1 Hit He Paid Joe Strummer For, Turns 65
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madhouse.com.ar: CINE: «HELL W10», O DE CÓMO JOE STRUMMER FILMÓ EL FIN DE THE CLASH… SIN SABERLO
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senalcolombia.tv: Joe Strummer y su amor secreto por la música colombiana: el legado de la voz de The Clash | Señal Colombia
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Public attention spiked: 8,315 Wikipedia readers in one day, 6.3× the usual 1,327, with 0 article edits. Coverage that week: “Founding Member of '80s Pop Rock Band, Behind a No. 1 Hit He Paid Joe Strummer For, Turns 65” (parade.com).
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National Today: Joe Strummer Birthday
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Far Out Magazine: The two bands Joe Strummer called touched by God: “It’s kind of miraculous”
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2024· 1 entry
American Songwriter: Essential Joe Strummer: 4 Songs Every Clash Fan Should Know
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2023· 1 entry
Rolling Stone ranked Strummer at number 125 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time
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2022· 5 entries
CelebrityNetWorth: What Was Joe Strummer's Net Worth?
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Ultimate Classic Rock: Watch Eddie Vedder Cover Joe Strummer’s ‘Long Shadow’
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Yahoo: Joe Strummer’s Mescaleros Albums, Rarities Bundled for New Boxed Set
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American Songwriter: Joe Strummer Remembered with Box Set Commemorating Punk Icon’s 70th Birthday
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Ultimate Classic Rock: 40 Years Ago: Clash Tour Postponed After Joe Strummer Vanishes
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2021· 2 entries
brooklynvegan: Fender announces Joe Strummer Collection with 2 signature guitars
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Released album “Assembly”.
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2020· 1 entry
brooklynvegan: Joe Strummer tribute livestream this week w/ Springsteen, Bob Weir, Josh Homme & many more
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2018· 5 entries
Released album “Joe Strummer 001”.
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Rolling Stone: Hear Joe Strummer’s Previously Unreleased Demo for the Clash’s ‘This Is England’
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The Guardian: Joe Strummer demos and rarities to appear on new compilation
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Yahoo: Hear “London Is Burning” From New Joe Strummer Demos & Rarities Comp
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Pitchfork: Joe Strummer Box Set With Unreleased Music Announced
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2016· 1 entry
Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrayed Strummer in the film London Town which tells the story of a Clash-obsessed teenager who crosses paths with Joe Strummer by happenstance in 1979 and finds his life changing as a result
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2013· 4 entries
The Guardian: Placeta Joe Strummer inaugurated in Granada
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The Guardian: I Need a Dodge! Joe Strummer on the Run – video preview
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The mural was destroyed due to construction; a new mural was unveiled that September, accompanied by a large celebration with Mick Jones in attendance
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Released album “Live in London”.
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2012· 1 entry
Marking 25 years of Childline (the free counselling service for children and young people in the UK), BT commissioned artists to design and decorate full-sized K6 red telephone box replicas, with Strummer featuring in an
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2007· 3 entries
Combining elements of Strummer's main guitars, namely an attempt at the "road worn" finish of his 1966 Telecaster, which he used until his death
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With a reliced flat black finish and an exact replica of the neck profile of his '66 Telecaster
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“Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007).”
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2004· 2 entries
Al Barr, lead singer of the Boston punk band Dropkick Murphys, named his son Strummer in honour of Strummer
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German punk band Die Toten Hosen released an EP called "Friss oder stirb", which included a tribute song for Strummer called "Goodbye Garageland"; it is a lyrical co-production with Matt Dangerfield from London's 77 punk
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2003· 1 entry
“Joe Strummer and Bono, "46664", written for Nelson Mandela's HIV/AIDS festival in 2003.”
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2002· 30 entries
Died 2002-12-22.
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“I was trying to prove that I was the Clash and it wasn't Mick (Jones). I learned that that was kind of dumb. I learned that it wasn't anybody, except maybe a great chemistry between us four, and I really learned it was over the day we sacked Topper, and not the day we sacked Mick. There was quite some time between them. We played a whole tour between those times. But it was the day we sacked Tops.”
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“About why The Clash focuses on political songs.”
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“Anybody who makes speeches written by someone else is just a robot.”
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“For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across.”
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“[T]he toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough.”
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“Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one.”
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“My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more.”
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“What I like about playing America is you can be pretty sure you're not going to get hit with a full can of beer when you're singing and I really enjoy that!”
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“When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there.”
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“Penso che la gente debba sapere che noi dei Clash siamo antifascisti, contro la violenza, siamo antirazzisti e per la creatività. Noi siamo contro l'ignoranza.”
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“I'm all lost in the supermarketI can no longer shop happilyI came in here for that special offerA guaranteed personality”
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“Ho avuto un'esistenza itinerante tra luoghi differenti. In Messico ho anche frequentato per due anni una scuola di lingua spagnola. In ogni situazione noi eravamo guardati come fenomeni da baraccone. Ho fatto il pieno di immagini e suoni in posti davvero strani. Da bambino ho avuto diverse cose piuttosto bizzarre. (p. 19)”
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“[Riferito alla sua adolescenza] Ero rinchiuso in uno schifoso collegio dove mi riempivano la testa di stronzate. Per me fu come intravedere la strada della liberazione. Vivi! Goditi la vita! Affanculo tutte le revisioni contabili di questo mondo! (p. 21)”
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“Too many songs have been written about love already, you know? Subject's covered.”
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“Bisogna ammettere che Mick Jones è un brillante arrangiatore. Qualsiasi altro gruppo avrebbe suonato in levare, tentando di assimilare il ritmo reggae, noi invece avevamo una chitarra in battere e una in levare. Intendo dire che l'ha veramente sistemato alla grande. È un genio. (p. 185)”
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“Non abbiamo mai venduto tantissimi dischi. I Clash non sono come questi gruppi punk di oggi, che vendono dieci milioni di album o roba del genere. (p. 439)”
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“The men at the factory are old and cunning”
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“You don't owe nothing, so boy get running”
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“It's the best years of your life they want to steal.”
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“In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human being. Fuck being an asshole, what you pussies thought it was twenty years ago.”
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“I just want to go back to rockin', but I'm uncertain as to what to actually do … The truth is, I never stopped thinking about rock 'n' roll for a second that I'm on holiday.”
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“If you're allowed to make your mistakes, I think you should. But people don't really like hearing you admit them. Although I'd never wanted to dump on the musicians that were involved in that.... Because it was not their fault.”
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“I kept trying to stress that — "Hang on, we're be-bop guys, we're down in the alley on 57th Street. We're not in there with John Reed and "Ten Days That Shook the World." We'd be in the alley with (Charlie) Parker shooting up junk. That's where we were at really.”
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“I'm a human being. I'm not dumping on what I've done. I mean I know we were doing social (stuff), all right? I just don't like boastin' about it, OK? I know what we were doin'. I know damn well what we did. But I ain't gonna start crying about it now, all right?”
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“I would say it was about time that you believe in something. And sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll ain't it.... A lot of people used to think they were.”
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“Everything's fucked! It's down to individual people to make life enjoyable. I don't have anything more to say than that. I think people should avoid the world fucking them up. People are becoming too uptight, treating their children bad, being negative.”
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“I hate it when I go out and I see parents going, "don't do that", or "stop doing that" when some kid's just hanging off a staircase or something. There's too much of this, "don't do that". The whole thing baffles me.”
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“The way you get a better world is, you don’t put up with substandard anything.”
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“I try and keep an ear out and keep an open mind and enjoy something where I don't know what the hell is going on inside of it. That's what I really get out of it. Because to me it's new. That's what I get out of it. That joyful feeling of you don't know what's going to happen next.”
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2001· 3 entries
“BBC News Online's Martin Vennard interviews Joe Strummer at the Womad Festival in the Canaries. Vennard, Martin (13 November 2001). Strummer talks war and music. Entertainment. BBC NEWS World Ed..”
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“About Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros' album Global a Go-Go (2001) and about the song writing process.”
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The band signed with Californian punk label Hellcat Records and released their second studio album, Global a Go-Go
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1999· 2 entries
Which was co-written with Antony Genn, called Rock Art and the X-Ray Style
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“from CD Now (September 1999) with Jason Gross”
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1998· 1 entry
Made a guest appearance on the animated television show, South Park and appeared on the album Chef Aid: The South Park Album featuring songs from and inspired by the series
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1997· 2 entries
While in New York City, he worked with noted producer and engineer Lee "Scratch" Perry on remixed Clash and 101ers reissue dub material
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Strummer played the character of "Brand New Cadillac" songwriter Vince Taylor in F
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1996· 1 entry
“bands must be contributing to global warming by their buses, equipment trucks and the diesel used to power the stages. Can you imagine how much CO2 the pressing and the distribution of a CD creates? What shall we do about it?”
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1993· 2 entries
Released album “When Pigs Fly”.
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Began an affair with Lucinda Tait, which finally ended his relationship with Salter
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1991· 1 entry
Replaced Shane MacGowan as singer of the Pogues for a tour after MacGowan's departure from the band
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1989· 3 entries
Released album “Earthquake Weather”.
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Strummer produced a solo record with the band the Latino Rockabilly War
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Strummer appeared in Jim Jarmusch's film Mystery Train as a drunken, short-tempered drifter named Johnny (whom most characters refer to as Elvis, much to Johnny's dismay)
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1988· 1 entry
“Interviewed by Richard Cromelin for the Los Angeles Times (31 January 1988). Cromelin, Richard (31 January 1988) . "Strummer on Man, God, Law and the Clash". Los Angeles Times.”
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1987· 2 entries
Released album “Walker”.
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Played a small part in the film Walker, directed by Alex Cox, as a character named "Faucet", and wrote and performed on the film's soundtrack
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1982· 3 entries
“The Clash, "Straight to Hell", Combat Rock (1982).”
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“The Clash, "Know Your Rights", Combat Rock (1982).”
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Strummer went into hiding and the band's management said that he had "disappeared"
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1979· 2 entries
“Lost in the Supermarket, from the album London Calling (14 December 1979), co-written with Mick Jones.”
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“Joe Strummer / Mick Jones, "London Calling", London Calling (1979).”
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1978· 1 entry
At the age of 26, he started a relationship with Gaby Salter shortly after her 17th birthday
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1977· 1 entry
“Joe Strummer / Mick Jones, "White Riot", The Clash (1977).”
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1975· 3 entries
Strummer accepted £120 (equivalent to £930 in 2025) to marry South African citizen Pamela Moolman so she could obtain British citizenship (before the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force) by doing so
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Stopped calling himself Woody Mellor and adopted the stage name Joe Strummer, subsequently insisting that his friends call him by that name
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With the £120 he was paid to marry Afrikaaner Pamela Moolman, thereby allowing Moolman to remain in Britain
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1974· 1 entry
The band fell apart and Strummer moved back to London, where he met up again with Dogg
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1973· 1 entry
Strummer moved to Newport, South Wales
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1971· 2 entries
Studied at Central School of Art and Design (1970–1971).
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Strummer became a vegetarian in 1971 and remained so until his death in 2002.
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1970· 2 entries
Strummer moved on to the Central School of Art and Design in London, where he briefly considered becoming a professional cartoonist and completed a one-year foundation course
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Studied at City of London Freemen's School (1961–1970).
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1952· 1 entry
Born 1952-08-21.
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