In The Mix

Joe Strummer on 9/11: "The world just can't be that bad. It just can't be."

The week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I interviewed Joe Strummer, the leader of the great British punk-rock band The Clash for the first and only time.

11 comments

Joe Strummer on 9/11: "The world just can't be that bad. It just can't be."

POSTED: Friday, September 9, 2011, 11:59 AM

Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

The week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I interviewed Joe Strummer, the leader of the great British punk-rock band The Clash for the first and only time.

“The evil brilliance is just too much,” Strummer said, speaking from his home in Somerset, England where, a little over a year later, he would die of a heart attack at age 50. “I can’t get away from those images when I go to bed at night.”

Those images are burned into all of our brains, and we’ll be reliving them in remembrance this weekend. But The Clash were first and foremost Romantics, and in the aftermath of the tragic day, Strummer chose to be optimistic.

To me, that's maybe the most depressing thing about the 10^th anniversary of September 11: When we look back on the culture of fear and endless war of the 9/11 decade, it’s hard not to conclude that Strummer's belief that the horrific events would somehow lead to more good than harm was hopelessly naive.

“There’s got to be some good that comes out of it," he said. "Maybe people are just going to be nicer to each other. Because it’s just too horrible. The world just can’t be that bad. It just can’t be.”

"Death or Glory" is below.

Previously: Yo La Tengo Sun Ra Academy of Music Freakout Follow In The Mix on Twitter here

11 comments

Comments (11)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:42 PM, 09/09/2011

(still) the only band that matters. their catalog could have been the soundtrack t the london riots.

— eaglesfillthesky

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:23 PM, 09/09/2011

London Calling...............the best album of the '80's ? Ha ! It's the best album ever !

— king123

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:23 PM, 09/09/2011

This is a band that should have been as big as the Rolling Stoines. They were the soundtrack for a big part of my life. RIP Joe.

— exphillyinvegas

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:50 PM, 09/09/2011

Very nice, Dan - and maybe a few of us have gotten nicer.

— frankenslade

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:40 PM, 09/09/2011

Great work again, Dan.

— Tyrone Biggums

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:37 PM, 09/09/2011

Say it ain't so, Joe... unfortunately the world is a bad place with bad people... that is why we created The Peacemaker.

— sillybilly

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:55 PM, 09/09/2011

"...1977'S Got a Hold On Me!"...R.I.P.JOE...Thanks for the post Danno.

— bigmic

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:48 PM, 09/09/2011

I saw Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros at NYC's Irving Plaza shortly after 9/11. They opened with a mournful instrumental featuring Joe on guitar and his old busking mate Tymon Dogg on fiddle. The two of them were working the music up to a savage intensity, culminating in Joe on his knees in front of Tymon strumming with a fierce intensity while Tymon wailed into the void. It was a goosebump inducing obvious tribute, without a word being said. I lived in NYC at the time and through it, and I will never forget that.

— perkele

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:10 PM, 09/10/2011

Nice piece BUT enough with the media's frenzy about the anniversary. Most people would rather quietly remember that day and not have it turned into a media/marketing event.

— andrew1964