Joe Strummer
by Simon
It’s been a odd summer. Actually it’s been pretty crap. My poor wife ended up in hospital in July and then last week my dad had a heart attack and a pacemaker fitted. When there has been sun I’ve either been inside a hospital or in a part of the country that is being rained on. I’ve not really been in blogging mood. Never really liked blogging the bad stuff. Sad stuff and headfuck stuff is another matter.
I managed to miss Joe Strummer’s birthday, which was yesterday. I’m not the only one by the looks of it, none of the blogs I follow covered it. Here’s the headfuckery. Joe would have been 60.
60 years old. Here’s the sad and another headfuck moment. Joe has been gone a decade this December.
Here’s one of my absolute favourite Joe moments, Johnny Appleseed from the last album released in his lifetime. He was 48 or 49 when he did this. I really think he was at a second peak during this period, some of the best music he had made in twenty years. Happy birthday Joe.
I didn’t blog Joe’s birthday as I was camping but i raised a glass to him last night. Nice post.
Didn’t realise either! Sorry to hear about the wife and father. Hope both are recovering well.
Good work, our kid.
Been a similar non-summer for me. Mrs van dyke’s broken femur et al. 2 week ‘Holiday’ spent at various hospitals – alongside the whole of human life. Olympics and my painting bedroom walls helped a bit. Am phil o’sophical about it all though. Tales of ‘locked-in syndrome’, ‘Moors Murderer Mother’, ‘Norweigan Killer’ headlines, and stoic paralympians soon temper any suggestions of self-pity.
More serious stories of a ‘Prince’ dancing naked after a few cocktails keep a sense of existential perspective. (Is it normal to strip off after a bevvy? I’d get chinned down the Owl & Ferrett if I performed like that in the Pool Room). It reminds me of my life in the RAF (oh no, he’s off!) where if a group of ‘Other Ranks’ trashed the NAAFI it was mindless hooliganism; whereas similar vandalism in the Officers’ Mess would be treated as ‘high sprits, tomfoolery and letting off steam’. I suspect some of that also extended to the Tory Govt.
Headfuckery, indeed.
Sorry to hear about all that Simon. Hope things get better.