All musicians start out with ideals and beliefs, but hanging onto them when a sniff of success comes their way can take real integrity.
The Clash were the greatest rebel rock band of all time, and their their unwavering commitment to making politically inspired songs part of pop culture was the defining legacy of British punk. Without them, the punk movement would be remembered as nothing more than a sneer, bondage-trousers and a safety pin. The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Ramones, The Stranglers, Blondie – even The Jam - none of them came close to the radicalism that informed everything The Clash did and said. They influenced a thousand bands and musicians to follow in their formidable footsteps and still do, and the man they were all looking up to was Joe Strummer.
His tough and gritty stage presence, channelling a poetic sensitivity of everything he saw around him touched people's hearts and roused their spirits like few others have ever achieved. But the real difference about Joe Strummer, compared to so many others, was the way he retained his ideals and identity even in the face of media scrutiny. No-one has ever struggled so manfully to sit in the gap between success, and being the spokesperson for a generation.
As 'The Clash' marched wilfully past the fast-fading punk scare, and became a huge success - playing vast stadium gigs and scoring top-ten hits, it was Joe who felt uneasy playing tracks from their early days like 'Career Opportunities' – despite it's popularity – because it seemed to him to be hypocritical to sing of the struggles of the working class when they were plainly no longer subject to them. It illustrates a real connection to your work if can realise that the content no longer applies to your situation, and to continue to perform it would devalue the song, as well as let down the ideals of your dedicated fans despite them wanting to hear it played. I struggle to think of many of the big names of today struggling with the morals of playing a popular song in their set.
Now, in a business [seemingly] awash with self-serving dullards preaching to robotic followers who live by their every word, their fashion and movements, we are really starting miss the honesty Joe gave us.
Even at a grass-roots level of music, artists seem to gratify themselves with the chase for stardom rather than with respect to their own beliefs and morals. I refer, of course, to the obvious transparency of entertainment shows like 'The X-Factor' which will never be about developing music. I also refer to many of the young artists I meet at local gigs and open mics in and around my home town of Brighton. While the internet has given budding musicians tools like myspace and facebook, through which they can all get their stuff out for people to hear - and this is surely a fantastic thing – it has also given rise to a generation that think that the chase of fame is the goal, and sing songs without ever really considering the words that hold them together.
I'm really not saying that this is the state of all music, as it obviously isn't. There is tons of fantastic new stuff out there, and given the advent of the internet, it is actually much more accessible than it has ever been before. But we miss having a figure like Joe Strummer in the mainstream, someone successful and never wavering from their ideals, someone that people can look up to and try to emulate their honesty and decency, someone who realises the hypocrisy of their fame and is humbled by it.
Earlier this year I experienced a moment of integrity with my band which I am extremely proud of. We had, against our better judgement, decided to apply to a competition called 'Live and Unsigned', which provided an X-Factor-style stage for bands in the UK. As soon as we arrived and started queuing with the other acts waiting to perform to a panel of judges, we instantly realised it was wrong [for us] and that we were going against all of our ideals by even being there. We walked out and went to the pub, and felt good about it.
Joe Strummer knew music shouldn't be about adoration and fame but about a belief in what you are singing and playing, Woody Guthrie once said “We've got to introduce a timeless element to our songs”, and I think that can only be achieved with a sense of honesty.
Don't be seduced by fame and adoration, its up to you not to heed The Call Up.
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