Couple of cool Joe Strummer anecdotes that have been making the rounds. The first is from Give ‘Em Enough Rope producer Sandy Pearlman:
When the Clash got here, the first thing they did was go out and see Animal House five times. They claimed to think Animal House was a documentary, and they thought John Belushi was the greatest living American. That was great. I think that actually created a lot of bizarro energy. The other thing they wanted to do was to see Michael Bloomfield play. So they went to see him a couple times and talked to him, and he sort of knew who they were or pretended to. That was their first couple days in San Francisco, doing that and discovering that the Holiday Inn they were staying at in Chinatown had probably been the place where a lot of Dirty Harry was shot. Belushi, Bloomfield, and Dirty Harry represented their trinitarian introduction to America.
The second is from Bauhaus / Love And Rockets bass maven David J:
The following night we played at The Roxy Theater on Sunset Strip. Strummer was there again. Post show he invited us back to his hotel to meet with his ‘cousin Jose’ (neat tequila gold.) We became well acquainted and before long Strummer was imparting wise words of advice concerning instruments. He strongly objected to my choice of guitar, an Ovation acoustic with a plastic back. “The thing is Dave, you’ve got no bassist so you really need that bottom end, yer know?” All yer hear with that fuckin’ Ovation is, ‘thwackey, thwackey, thwackey’ and that ain’t no fuckin’ good! What yer need is The Big Wood! Do yer know what that is?” No? Well, I’ll tell yer! The Big Wood is like a big old fuckin’ Gibson or a Gretch or a Guild, something with a bit of soul to it, a big jumbo chunk of fuckin’ wood and none of that fuckin’ plastic shit! You look at any of yer serious guys, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Van fuckin’ Morrison, they all got the Big Wood. Now Barry!” (our tour manager at the time. ) At this point Stummer is literally on his knees. “Barry, will you promise me something? Tomorrow morning I want yer to drive down to the fuckin’ river, then I want yer to take those fuckin’ shit Ovation guitars and throw ’em in it! Then take him down to Sunset and get him sorted with the Big Wood! Right!”
Right! We did and it made all the difference in the world.
That last time I saw him in San Diego, the first thing he said to me was, “You
got it, right? You got The Big Wood!” (I had’nt seen him since ’89! ) I gladly answered in the affirmative.