The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer: Radicalism, resistance and rebellion

By Gregor Gall

Joe Strummer was one of the twentieth century’s iconic rock’n’roll rebels. As frontperson, spokesperson and chief lyricist for The Clash, he played a major role in politicising a generation through some of the most powerful protest songs of the era, songs like ‘White Riot’, ‘English Civil War’ and ‘London Calling’. At the heart of this protest was the struggle for social justice and equality.

The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer examines Strummer’s beliefs on a range of issues – including socialism, alienation, exploitation, multiculturalism and humanism - analysing their credibility, influence and impact, and asking where they came from and how they developed over time. Drawing on Strummer’s lyrics, various interviews and bootleg recordings, as well as interviews with those he inspired, The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer takes the reader on a journey through the political influences and motivations that defined one of the UK’s greatest punk icons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Release date: Jun 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781526148971

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The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer

ffirs01-fig-5001.jpg

The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer

Radicalism, resistance and rebellion

Gregor Gall

Manchester University Press

Copyright © Gregor Gall 2022

The right of Gregor Gall to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Published by Manchester University Press

Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL

www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 5261 4898 8 paperback

First published 2022

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Cover design by James Hutcheson

Photograph: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo

Typeset

by New Best-set Typesetters Ltd

Dedication

To Hugo, our beloved rescued dog, who gave me much-needed thinking time when walking him. And to Fiona and Tomás, for all The Clash/Strummer books they bought me for birthdays and Christmases.

Contents

List of figures

List of insets

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Studying Strummer: issues and approach

2 Perceptions of Strummer's politics

3 Strummer's politics and philosophical perspectives

4 Rebel rock and its ramifications

5 Rocking against the rich

6 Advocate not activist

7 Straying from socialism

8 Strummer's influence: secondary sources

9 Follower testimony

Conclusion

References

Index

List of figures

1.1 Strummer with Topper Headon in the documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)

1.2 Strummer interviewed for MTV's Spotlight in 1989

3.1 Strummer with Ray Gange in the film Rude Boy (1980)

4.1 The Clash interviewed for Norwegian TV in 1984

4.2 Strummer appears with The Pogues on RTE's The Session in 1987

4.3 Strummer with The Clash at the Us festival in San Bernardino, California in 1983

7.1 Strummer on WCCA TV's Video Jam in 2001

8.1 Strummer on Planet Rock Profile in 2000

List of insets

1.1 The Clash

1.2 Categories of bands according to their left-wing political sentiments

2.1 Anarchist

2.2 Class warrior

2.3 Leftist

2.4 Anti-capitalist

2.5 Communist

2.6 Marxist

2.7 Progressive

2.8 Revolutionist

2.9 Socialist

Preface

I bought London Calling in 1980. So began a forty-year-plus fascination with Joe Strummer's politics. When asked by a school friend how I defined myself, rather than say a ‘socialist’ I said a ‘Clashist’. No one else I knew was ‘into’ The Clash the way I was. For a long time I had only Clash records because The Clash played such a wide range of musical styles that satiated me. My burgeoning interest in left-wing politics came largely from Strummer's influence. His lyrics and statements were a major influence in sewing together a world view which was also informed by being made aware of global inequalities when studying West Africa in A-level geography. I saw The Clash three times at Brixton Academy in 1984, being the most enthralling times of my life. For my unofficial school magazine, WOT? (11 April 1984), I reviewed the 9 March 1984 gig: ‘The high priests of political punk are back [to] … sweep away the meaningless music. Pop will die and rebel rock will rule.’ After attending those gigs, with their hard, heavy and tight performances, I was hugely disappointed with Cut the Crap, but not as dismissive as many, having at least heard how the new material could have sounded on record. Listening to the bootlegs over the years and discovering their Lucky 8 demos – and now the ‘Mohawk Revenge’ remastered album version – reinforced my view of the importance of that material, as well as what could have been. The Clash's demise led me to look for others to fill the void. But none were capable. I missed Strummer's Latino Rockabilly War on the ‘Rock against the Rich’ tour in Aberdeen in August 1988. When The Mescaleros played Glasgow, I saw them three times, missing out on the Edinburgh gig of the final tour. Those gigs were good, but not a patch on those in 1984. It was not until after his death that I began to collect Strummer materials because of the off-putting tendency to regard him as a hero. In doing so, it became evident these insufficiently studied his politics and their impact. This became the primary rationale for this book.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to those that gave testimony and uploaded material on YouTube and to the Blackmarketclash website and Internet Archive for making accessing materials possible during the pandemic. Thanks especially are due to Mark Anderson, Mark Bedford, Adam Bell, George Binette, Louise Bolotin, Colm Bryce, Colin Coulter, Andrew Dallas, Nigel Flanagan, Kris Jozajtis, John Kelly, Rose Lewis, Tim Lezard, Hassan Mahamdallie, Jim Monaghan, Jeremy Tranmer, Tony Walsh, Simon Whittle and Matthew Worley for providing further contacts and materials. Thanks are also due to Anthony Mercer for his help in improving the manuscript.

Abbreviations

Introduction

In the pantheon of politically progressive rock ’n’ rollers, Joe Strummer stands tallest. Articulate, self-righteous, intense and energetic, he was no ‘ordinary Joe’. He was the most radical, politically aware and politically engaged performer of his peers. He prosecuted his politics with mass appeal, making him more successful in this task than any others from punk onwards. In 1969, radical folk singer Phil Ochs proffered that any hope of revolution lay in ‘getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara’ (Schumacher 1996: 227). Strummer came closer than any other to achieving this. He understood music was a cultural battleground in the fight for social justice (see Harker 1980: 23). For that, he will always be remembered. His legacy is a living one. It is one that seems to shine brighter the longer apolitical pop reigns. This helps begin to answer the question: why study Strummer? So, this is the story of Strummer's politics: what he thought, said, meant and did. Crucially, it is also the story of what impact he had. It is the story of his politics of radicalism, resistance and rebellion against the established order. It is the story of how one determined and talented individual made such a difference to the attitudes and behaviours of so many others.

Upon his death on 22 December 2002, the Guardian (23, 24 December 2002) believed he was the ‘political inspiration for a generation’ and ‘the political conscience of punk … punk's rebel with a cause’. The Telegraph (24 December 2002) remarked he was the ‘political voice of punk … [and] the punk movement's voice of anti-Thatcherism’ while MOJO (March 2003) argued Strummer was ‘not simply the heart of The Clash [but] also the heart of punk itself’. Later, Hewitt (2011: 179) wrote: ‘He drove the band forwards politically, picking up on oppression all over the world and putting his anger at injustice into songs.’ Radical musician Tom Morello, in his eulogy, contended: ‘Strummer was the heart, the soul, and the conscience of The Clash.’ And the Irish Independent (1 October 2018) believed Strummer was the ‘political firebrand of punk’. But it did not take Strummer's death to reveal his significance for rock ’n’ roll radicalism. Caroline Coon, counterculture veteran and one-time Clash manager, noted The Clash was the ‘most politically aware’ (MM 26 March 1977) of punk bands.¹ After its demise, the NME (7 October 1989) noted: ‘The Clash were the greatest political pop group of all time’ while Du Noyer (1998: 1) believed The Clash was ‘the most overtly political of all punk groups’. Though the music was important and is largely attributable to Mick Jones, the cutting political edge came from Strummer as principal lyricist. Fletcher (2005: 26) observed Strummer was ‘always the most politically involved of The Clash’. Clash chronicler Chris Knowles (1994: 31) believed: ‘First and foremost, The Clash were about ideas. How many bands can you say that about now? Bands today may be about an image or an attitude or a sound, but who now feeds your head like The Clash?’. Simonelli (2002: 129) stated: ‘The Clash were the most politically committed of the punk bands, featuring songs angrily denouncing the United States, dole queue politics, racism and the apathy of people in opposition to these problems.’ Again, it was Strummer who supplied these ideas through his lyrics.

From punk onwards, the most common remark made about The Clash is ‘they changed my life’.² Yet again, Strummer played the key role in accounting for this. Tens of thousands of emails were sent to the Strummersite website within days of his death saying ‘you changed the way that I thought and felt about life’ (Temple 2007). Indeed, more than any other rock band, The Clash was said to have changed the lives of so many (e.g. Needs 2005: 51, RNZ 4 February 2012). During the time of The Clash, and for many years afterwards, Strummer was repeatedly told by various individuals: ‘You changed my life.’ Followers repeatedly stated elsewhere Strummer changed their lives. And yet there has been no examination of this phenomenon. Basic questions of how and why this change took place have not been asked, let alone answered, in popular, critical or academic studies. Consequently, these statements remain unsubstantiated and uninterrogated assertions. The absence of ‘when’ questions is less puzzling given much of the affected period is likely to have been during The Clash's existence, especially from 1977 to 1985. More advanced questions might concern what specifically about Strummer, his lyrics and politics led to this change, allowing room for the musicality and Jones's role to be included. Maybe this absence of examination is to be expected, given many Strummer studies have been written by music journalists. Yet it is more surprising among followers when examining their own followership (e.g. Davie 2004, Beesley and Davie 2019) as well as among studies by critical thinkers and academics. One partial exception exists, namely, Bedford (2014). However, it covered just ten interviewees and primarily concerned the social background of Strummer and Clash followers (see p.255). Filling this gap provides the primary rationale for this study. So, what scholarly questions arise from this phenomenon? A series of interrogatives – how, why, when, where and who – help generate the basic questions. The particular line of investigation for this study is about political change and, specifically, about Strummer's impact on influencing and advancing left-wing politics within people's world views. The framework used is socialist realism (see p.15).

So, to expand, this study's purpose is to examine what Strummer's politics were and then what impact they had on people. This first task may seem to some unnecessary because many of his lyrics and statements are well known and their meaning is seen as self-evident. However, different people have different views on what exactly his lyrics and statements mean, and what their significance is. Just as importantly, Strummer's politics have been characterised in many different ways, from rebel to radical to revolutionary. Moreover, there has been no comprehensive study of Strummer's politics across all his life as the few that do take an interest examine just his Clash years. The second task is much more self-evidently required as explained already. Drawing on testimony gathered from Clash and Strummer followers, this study asks the aforementioned questions. Thus, this study will not only show that both tasks are necessary but also demonstrate Strummer was a considerably more complex character than is often appreciated. The study will also show the agency of the persona of Joe Strummer was the key link between what his politics were and what impact they had. In other words, he was one of a kind, and this study will interweave his agency with the surrounding environment of space and time in order to identify and explain his influence. The need for this study becomes more apparent given the constant criticism of Strummer as a fake and hypocrite because of what was thought about his parents’ social background, fruits of his commercial success and allegations of his own myth-making.

The approach taken is to acknowledge and laud Strummer's success in popularising radical ideas and helping these have a transformative power among many followers. But this is carried out in a critical manner, recognising Strummer's weaknesses and limitations, especially in terms of his understanding of socialism, his approach to women and gender, not delivering on promises made, and working with others. So, unlike many other studies, he will not be put on a pedestal.

Rationale

In addition to what has already been outlined, the most basic reason for conducting this study concerns the subject matter of music and politics where the questions are ‘why music?’ and ‘why politics?’. Strummer's politics and their associated impact were fundamentally about trying to help create progressive social change, and his means was music as part of a cultural front in a war of politics. Here, music can have a visceral power in a way that other forms of art and culture normally do not. This is because music has a greater potential power for it can induce and incite stronger human reactions, both emotionally and intellectually. Lyrics allow recording artists to speak more directly to listeners than visual forms of art and culture do for the viewer and more succinctly than via novels. When music is performed live, the highest peaks of inducing human response can be scaled. And, when the lyrics for music and the times of the music collide conducively, the ability to induce and incite can help produce powerful progressive political phenomena. Moreover, as an introduction to basic political ideas, lyrics are generally a more appealing and less onerous format than reading political tracts or attending meetings. Therefore, taken together politics and music can comprise a potent combination. Indeed the early radical union organiser, Joe Hill, wrote: ‘A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over … [it] will succeed in reaching a great number of workers who are … too indifferent to read a pamphlet’ (Winters 1985: 41).

But it is not just a case of any politics and any music. Strummer's persona, politics and period are critical to understanding why he had the impact he did – as he frequently recognised when he identified the significance of being at ‘the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, saying the right words’ (Shelley 1988). In analysing his political thought, action and impact, this study will demonstrate and explain why Strummer mattered, why he still matters and to whom. From this, lessons may be gleaned more generally about how, when and why music can be used for progressive political effect.

Moving beyond these concerns, it has been commonly assumed and asserted that Clash song lyrics were the primary vehicle for the change, with Strummer being their main author, and that the change was a political change, prompting the endorsement of left-wing values and, even, activism. Yet, so far, there is no substantive evidence to support this. Most writings on Strummer's lyrics seek to analyse their content and context without recourse to examining their impact on people (e.g. Cohen and Peacock 2017a, Coulter 2019a). It is not apparent these interpretations are necessarily correct, assuming there is even one correct interpretation. And, as Strummer's lyrics were sometimes obtuse and complex and he did not often explain them in interviews, it is not self-evident listeners discerned and comprehended their intended meaning. However, from various conversations with Clash followers, it seemed these assumptions and assertions were sufficiently plausible to merit further investigation. In doing so, it became clear that while his lyrics were the primary means for disseminating his political world view, they were not the only means, with interviews, actions and on-stage pronouncements playing an important part.

Next is that consideration of Strummer's politics and their effects has been slight. By ‘politics’, it is meant not just what he professed his beliefs to be but also what actions he took to prosecute them. In biographical studies based on interviews and secondary materials, whether individual studies (e.g. Salewicz 2006) or as part of The Clash (e.g. Gray 2001, Needs 2005, Gilbert 2009), followership books (Davie 2004, 2018, Beesley and Davie 2019) or popular studies of Clash lyrics (e.g. Egan 2015, Jucha 2016, Popoff 2018, Wyatt 2018), his politics were not touched on in any depth because they did not constitute a central concern. Moreover, these works were by journalists, and often by those with close personal relationships with Clash members and Strummer himself, so superficiality and partiality were evident. Even with works concentrating solely on Strummer's politics, coverage of key issues was partial. Though covering all his life but also as much about The Clash as Strummer himself, D’Ambrosio's (2004a, 2012a) collection comprised impressionistic journalism, not scholarly writing. It lacked critical faculty, expressing itself in hyperbole, personal reminiscences and assertion. Faulk and Harrison's (2014a) and Cohen and Peacock's (2017a) collections primarily examined the meaning and context of Strummer's Clash lyrics. Meanwhile, Coulter's (2019a) collection was similar but took a more specific focus. A clutch of academic articles (e.g. Bindas 1993, Harrison 2002) does not alter this picture. Indeed, it reinforces it. So, overall, the weakness of these Strummer studies is that they look largely at his lyrics, rather than also elsewhere, so scant attention is paid to what he did and said outside of these and without examining the effect of what he said and did. No monograph, based on original research, analysing all Strummer's politics and their effects yet exists until now. This study does this and, in doing so, examines themes and components in his politics such as those underlying his anti-fascism or his concept of ‘urban Vietnam’ and his views on capitalism, class, freedom, socialism and individual responsibility. Unlike almost all other studies (e.g. Egan 2015, Jucha 2016, Popoff 2018), this study avoids the tendency to underplay Strummer's contribution by conflating the politics of The Clash with his politics. Garofalo (1992: 2) observed: ‘[T]he political potential of mass-mediated popular music has been largely overlooked … where ideological struggle … takes place. While there is no question … the forces arrayed in support of the existing hegemony are formidable, there are also numerous instances where mass culture – and in particular popular music – issues serious challenges to hegemonic power.’ Studying Strummer goes some way to help to redress this lacuna, so following Street's (2012: 1) injunction to treat music not just as a vehicle for expressing political values but an expression of political values.

Strummer's situation and The Clash in context

There are many recording artists providing social commentary from left-wing perspectives in their lyrics and statements (and often also supporting left-wing causes). Their perspectives have ranged across the left of the political spectrum from progressive to radicals, socialists, anarchists and Marxists. In Inset 1.2, the better-known ones within Strummer's lifetime are listed by category. The term ‘leanings’ is used to indicate the categories are not exclusive and all-encompassing. ‘Radical, left, progressive’ covers those expressing anti-racist, anti-fascist, pro-feminist, pro-worker and social democratic sentiments. It is the most populated category because it is not only much broader ideologically than the more easily defined and, thus, narrower ones of anarchist and socialist/Marxist, but also because it is an amalgam of ideological perspectives covering humanism, social democracy and radical liberalism. Overall, Strummer with The Clash, Latino Rockabilly War (LRW) and Mescaleros would be placed within this category, because though Strummer proclaimed he was a socialist for a period, ‘socialist’ does not best describe his overall political world view (see pp.88, 121, 208–210, 220–222) and the broadness of the category captures more adequately the diversity of his views (see

Chapter 2).

Inset 1.1 The Clash

The Clash was formed in 1976 in London by manager Bernie Rhodes working with Mick Jones (lead guitar, vocals) to recruit Paul Simonon (bass) and Joe Strummer (lead vocals, rhythm guitar). For most of The Clash's existence, Nicky ‘Topper’ Headon (1977–82) was the drummer, being bookended by Terry Chimes (1976–77, 1982–83) and Pete Howard (1983–85). Signing to the major record label, CBS, for a £100,000 advance, The Clash became one of, if not the, biggest punk bands. Its first single, ‘White Riot’, was released on 18 March 1977, preceding its first eponymously entitled album on 8 April 1977. Five further albums (including double and triple albums) ensued in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982 and 1985, with highest chart positions in Britain ranging from two to nineteen, generating twenty singles. After the Sex Pistols’ implosion in early 1978, The Clash became the standard bearers of punk. Until late 1985 when folding, over 600 gigs were played in Britain, Europe, North America and Australasia. From 1978 onwards, however, The Clash no longer confined itself to punk music, becoming the forebearers of what was later termed ‘world music’. Combat Rock (1982) was the album that broke The Clash – broke it into the fabled home of rock ‘n’ roll, namely the mass American market, and began to break them apart as a band as a result of commercial success which ended their debts to CBS. This involved the sacking of Headon and Jones by Strummer and Simonon. The Clash never had a number one single in Britain during its existence – this would come about on the back of a Levi's jeans advert in 1990. Despite numerous large financial offers to reform, The Clash, unlike the Sex Pistols, never did. Such offers ceased with Strummer's death in 2002.

This categorisation provides the foundation from which to suggest, though there were many other left-wing recording artists in Strummer's lifetime, none had the same influence as Strummer. By influence, it is meant changing individuals’ political attitudes and behaviours in a progressive direction at micro-, meso- and macro-levels and to do so with breadth and depth over space and time. Notwithstanding any preference for particular left-wing politics, it would seem counterintuitive to believe The Clash with Strummer at its head did not have more influence than Crass or The Redskins in these terms. Yet this study, in concentrating on Strummer alone and not engaging in comparative analysis with these other recording artists, cannot conclude this with academic assuredness. That said, there would seem to be a strong case for doing so when considering the length of these groups’ lifetime, their record sales, number of gigs played with sizeable audiences attending and general media profile. When turning to the explanations for this, and setting aside the influence of the varying resources of the different record labels involved to promote The Clash, Crass and The Redskins, there are some plausible explanatory factors such as the power of the persona of Strummer, the particular and more appealing politics he espoused, the more favourable context of the period in which The Clash emerged and the musicality and synthesis of styles of the songs created by Jones in particular.

Inset 1.2 Categories of bands according to their left-wing political sentiments

Anarchist leanings

Bad Brains, Black Flag, Chumbawamba, Conflict, Crass, Dead Kennedys, Dils, Discharge, Exploited, Flux of Pink Indians, Fugazi, Millions of Dead Cops, Poison Girls

Socialist/Marxist leanings

Alistair Hulett, Easterhouse, Gang of Four, Henry Cow, Marxman, McCarthy, Newtown Neurotics, Prairie Fire, Redskins, Stereolab, Coup, Hurriers

Radical, left, progressive leanings

*

Algiers, Asian Dub Foundation, Angelic Upstarts, Au Pairs, Bikini Kill, Billy Bragg, Cabaret Voltaire, Delta 5, Downtown Boys, Dropkick Murphys, Enter Shikari, Manic Street Preachers, MC5, New Model Army, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Stiff Little Fingers, System of a Down, Beautiful South, Good, The Bad and The Queen, Housemartins, Jam, Levellers, Mekons, Men They Couldn't Hang, Motihari Brigade, That Petrol Emotion, Pop Group, Raincoats, Red Guitars, Ruts, Specials, Style Council, The The, Three Johns, Wakes, Tom Robinson Band

* Bruce Springsteen is not included because his overall politics are barely centre-left, being a Democrat and influenced by Catholicism. Lennon, Marley and Dylan are discussed elsewhere (see pp.74, 278).

Strummer's salience

Many believe Strummer's songs are about freedom and liberty, and oppression and exploitation, and have a universality and timelessness to them. For example, reviewing ‘This is England’ (1985), The Nation (27 December 1986) stated the lyrics could be about ‘anyplace where public policy has left a community to rot’ while an UNCUT (August 2017) retrospective review of London Calling (1979) perceived its lyrics: ‘spar[ed] it … becoming a period piece tied to the fleeting causes that inspired it [because it] focused on everyday desperations of life on the urban margins’. The universality and timelessness arise for six reasons. First, enduring and commonly felt compassionate concerns under neoliberal capitalism, be they about war, poverty and injustice. Second, events and people were seldom specifically ever referred to directly so that prior knowledge of such detail was not needed to understand lyrics in the first instance (and which did not make the song seem ‘dated’).³ Two obvious exceptions are ‘Spanish Bombs’ (1979) on the Spanish Civil War and ‘Washington Bullets’ (1981) on Salvador Allende, Víctor Jara, the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro, and the Dalai Lama, where their effect has been, rather, to stimulate listeners to learn more about them (see p.263). Third, though Strummer was often specific about his lyrical context (America, England, Vietnam etc), he was never particularly detailed about what these lyrics meant more widely and never developed his conceptualisation of them in terms of their economic, political, physical and social connotations. Consequently, they remain at quite a general level. Fourth, Strummer's politics were largely derived from emotive and experiential, rather than intellectual, standpoints, and he did not seek, thereafter, to intellectualise his standpoint. This made for an effective way to construct affecting lyrics. Fifth, and following from this, his conceptualisation of liberty and freedom were often implicit, being the opposite to oppression and exploitation or freedom from oppression and exploitation (rather than freedom to). That may sound trite given lyrics are not appropriate mediums to develop treatises on the concepts of freedom and liberty. But it is to recognise he spoke in evocative general ways, testifying to his skill as a wordsmith which allowed him to succinctly present ideas and issues in poetic ways. Specifically, by being against and not for broadened his appeal. Sixth, and lastly, his lyrical obtusity (see pp.66–67) often aided the aspects of universality and timelessness.

Overall, this chimes with Laing's (

2003,

2015) analysis. Laing (2003: 345) differentiated between ‘protest music’ and ‘music of resistance’, where the former concerned ‘explicit statements of opposition’ which identify a specific issue or enemy while the latter is ‘coded or opaque’. Much of Strummer's lyrical output fell into the latter category. Laing (2015: 56) also compared The Clash's ‘Career Opportunities’ (1977) to Chelsea's ‘Right to Work’ (1977), concluding the latter blames unemployment on unions while the former did not ‘adopt the Left's alternative which called for the creation of full employment to fulfil the right to work [but] emphasised instead a general critique of the work-ethic and of the powerlessness of those in the most menial occupations’. And, in summarising Hebdige (1979: 124–127) when applying to The Clash, Laing (2015: 57) suggested, in comparison with The Derelicts: ‘The lyrics of The Clash had no such specific strategy … their strength lay in the tangible images they conjured up, not in some flawless ideological argument.’ Many have characterised Strummer's Clash lyrics as ‘social realist’ (see p.16) while Coulter's (2018, 2019a) laid out the ‘left melancholia’ thesis. Both provide some support for the argument here that Strummer's lyrics connect to, but also simultaneously float above, specified and specific events. They engender feelings as much as thought – in order words, emotional as well as intellectual responses.

Pattison (1987: 141) stated: ‘Clash songs, always sardonically acute about what's wrong with the world, have little to say about any political program to make it right.’ ⁴ It is reasonable to take this to cover Strummer's whole lyrical canon given he was the primary lyricist for all the bands he led and wrote in broadly the same way throughout. As such, there is much that is right and wrong about Pattison's statement. Like many other radical lyricists, more emphasis was put on what is wrong rather than how to put it right,⁵ reflecting attempts to connect with people's so-called ‘lived experience’ in the first instance. But, for Strummer, however imperfectly, inconsistently and ambiguously, his lyrics can also be read as calling for alternatives to the status quo. ‘White Riot’ (1977), ‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’ (1978), ‘Clampdown’ (1979), ‘The Equaliser’ (1980) and so on point up elements of both means and ends for change. Even when taken alongside his interviews, quite what these alternatives would look like as social systems and societies was often imprecise (see p.274). But to suggest lyrics should proffer something about a political programme, as Pattison did, is to believe lyrics can do more than they can. Here, at most, they can point to political alternatives, but that would not mean laying out a programme. That is the place of political treatises and not, in essence, political poems set to music. To attempt to use lyrics to lay out programmes would be to potentially undermine the timelessness and universality discussed earlier. Strummer was wise enough to use his lyrics to acknowledge alternatives existed rather than set them out and examine their portent.

Strummer's salience has also been recognised in songs. Examples are Bankrupt (‘Come Back Joe Strummer’), Beatsteaks (‘Hello Joe’), Celtic Social Club (‘Remember Joe Strummer’), Cowboy Mouth (‘Joe Strummer’), Die Toten Hosen (‘Goodbye Garageland’), Gaslight Anthem (‘I'd Called You Woody, Joe’), Junior Prom (‘You, Me & Joe Strummer), Principe Punk Foundation (‘Joe Strummer’), The Radiators from Space (‘Joe Strummer’), Radical Picnic (‘In Our Blood – Tribute to Joe Strummer’), Stiff Little Fingers (‘Strummerville’), The Hold Steady (‘Constructive Summer’),⁶ The Stingrays (‘Joe Strummer's Wallet’), The Vagabonds (‘John Mellor’), Wild Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire (‘Joe Strummer's Grave’) and Zips (‘Road to Strummerville’). There are also examples of other mediums such as ‘How I Spent My Strummer Vacation’, the second episode of The Simpsons’ fourteenth season, ‘Meeting Joe Strummer’ (Edinburgh Fringe 2006), ‘Strummer and Me’ (BBC Radio 4 2012). And, although not solely about Strummer, there were also many Clash tribute bands such as 1977, Know Your Rights, Guns of Brixton, Take the Fifth, Straight to Hell, London Calling, Casbah Rock, Combat Rock, Combat Rockers, Complete Clash, Counterfeit Clash, and Broadway Clash.

Music and social change

The perennial question facing musicians of radical bents is: ‘Can music change the world?’ Although more a journalistic than critical question, its potency derives from the prospect of the psychological power of music to move the human mind and body into action, especially with the association of popular music with the vigour of youth. When the question is asked in a blunt manner, it is almost suggested music – as a non-human force external to humankind – has the potential to change humans on the scale of humanity itself. When asked in a more nuanced manner, such as ‘Can music be a force for change?’, the question allows for music to reflect changes as well as be used to project feelings, ideas and values in ways which may be empowering and transformative. In so doing, music may help to change the way people look at the world, that is, their world views and perspectives, rather than the world itself. Thus, music can help inform, potentially changing the way people think and then act in a subjective manner (as opposed to acting directly on the world itself in an objective manner). When this happens, music may be said to capture, represent and project a political zeitgeist. This logic led Street (1986: 166) to remark: ‘Pop's inability to change the world is compensated for by its ability to articulate and alter our perceptions of that world, and perhaps more importantly, to give a glimpse of other, better worlds.’

In an early Clash interview, Strummer stated: ‘None of us is going to change anything … Rock doesn't change anything. But after saying that – and I'm just saying that because I want you to know that I haven't got any illusions about anything … I still want to