The Best Fighter In Town

There's always a deeply flat feeling inside you the day after playing a good solid gig I find. Last night our band played an exciting, tight set - and there's no describing exactly how good that feeling is, being on stage in front of people, jumping up and down, feeling the music, strumming that guitar as hard as you can and singing the words in such belief and conviction that they could be wedding vow. A feeling of true highness. An ecstasy of the soul. It makes it all the more difficult to contemplate or wonder where that feeling has gone by the time you get to the following evening, a Saturday evening, and are spending it at home on your own. You wonder if that brilliant feeling was even there in the first place - and whether it will ever come back.

Today is the 10th anniversary of the death of Joe Strummer, lead singer of The Clash and many more things besides. Joe died of an undiagnosed heart defect on the morning of the 22nd of December in 2002 after being out walking the dogs. He'd just embarked on a new exciting resurrection of his career with a new band and was creating and writing a style of music that not only reminded us of his early years in The Clash, but was tinged with an edge of something completely different, completely fresh. There is no telling what he would have achieved and created in the following years, if he hadn't died unexpectedly at the young age of only 50. 

He achieved a great deal in his short time. Formed and fronted the most important band of all time, never being blinded by their success, played in several other bands, made films, became a role model for thousands of young people, and wrote hundreds of inspirational and accessible, relevant songs - I think its surprising how much of the music we listen to has lyrics that bear absolutely no relevance to our lives and situations, we just swallow the same old standard words all the time, never reflecting on what they actually mean to us. A that's the main thing he provided - a real character, someone you could identify with, a far cry from some of the pomposity and other worldly lives some highly revered artists are perceived by us to have. 

I suppose for me, being 16 at the time and just finding The Clash for the first time, the feeling left behind after Joe died is very similar to how I feel tonight. Its a weird flat feeling to think that someone with such energy and drive - just check out some of those early Clash performances on youtube - suddenly be gone, and in the time of his own renaissance and resurgence, just leaves you wanting more and wondering what could have been. Euphoria, then silence. 10 years is a long silence for one of the loudest voices out there.

But everything is temporary, whether its a half an hour set at a little music club on the south coast or an entire lifetime, it won't last forever. But that never makes it unimportant. Any achievements small or large all count, and won't be forgotten. For me, Joe Strummer provided us with more than most. When I'm angry, happy, sad or indifferent, there's always room to listen to his music, his words and his attitude. For that I will eternally be grateful, if only in the small capacity that a fan can, and those recordings and words will never die. So, I'm sitting here tonight, feeling quite morose and lonely - but next to a record player blasting out punk rock at top level makes things a little better. So I'll raise a glass to Joe tonight, who in my mind will never really die.