Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "This is how I heard about Joe's death: Don Letts, the Rastafarian film director who had made all the Clash videos, called me at around..." (more)
Key Phrases: silent telephone, Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this biography of punk icon Joe Strummer, music writer Salewicz focuses on the heady days of the punk explosion and Strummer's long hiatus after leaving the Clash. Born John Graham Mellor in 1952 in Ankara, Turkey, to diplomat parents, Strummer enjoyed a peripatetic childhood before being parked at a British boarding school. An art school dropout, Strummer (who was known then as "Woody") lived a hand-to-mouth existence in London squats before rock impresario Bernie Rhodes selected him to head a new punk band, and Woody became Joe Strummer, the sardonic, gravelly voiced rabble rouser. For a long moment, the Clash channeled the most progressive elements in pop culture, blending punk anger, rasta vibes, bank robbers, cowboys and revolutionary traditions into music that remains compelling today. After the band's breakup in 1985, Strummer fell into a long depression that Salewicz attributes to heavy pot smoking and a family legacy that included his brother's suicide. Yet Strummer had revitalized his career and was making excellent music before his sudden death of heart failure in 2002. As a young writer in the punk years, Salewicz had plenty of access to Strummer, and does a good job of providing a blow-by-blow account of the tours and albums. However, Salewicz provides little historical context, thereby diminishing the importance of the Clash. Despite nearly 600 pages of analysis, Strummer remains an opaque figure. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Salewicz recounts the passage of John Mellor, aka Joe Strummer, front man for the iconoclastic punk band the Clash, who died in 2002 of a congenital heart defect. A diplomat's son, he was born in Ankara, went to boarding school in London, and later became a squatter before singing with a pub rock band. After he saw the Sex Pistols in 1976, he was invited to join the Clash, which immediately drew attention for its adrenaline-fueled performances and "not overearnest" protest songs. The band produced a number of critically acclaimed albums, London Calling being the best known. After ill-advisedly firing cofounder-guitarist Mick Jones, which he regretted for the rest of his life, Strummer entered his wilderness years, recording soundtracks and acting in a few movies before finding his way back to critical success in the Mescaleros. Salewicz reveals a brooding, self-medicating manic-depressive, blunt but charming, thoughtful but reckless, both family man and womanizer. Salewicz's scores of interviews with those who knew Strummer also reveal a well-loved, immensely talented man who died too soon. Benjamin Segedin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 057121178X
• ISBN-13: 978-0571211784
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #509,311 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Joe Strummer's mother - a statement from her family, Oct. 17 2007, October 17, 2007

By	Rona M. McIntosh (Scotland) - See all my reviews

This book has depicted Anna Mackenzie, Joe's mother, as an alcoholic and a depressive. Those of us who knew her as a sister or an aunt want to challenge this portrayal. She was a quiet, dignified and private person who was also to us unfailingly warm, welcoming, kind and tolerant.

She was the second child of nine, born on a croft and used to hard work from an early age. She became a nurse which in the 1930s was a job even more physically demanding than it is today. We are mystified by the references to her house as "shabby" and "run down". Neither she nor Joe's father Ron was interested in acquiring or flaunting household possessions. Nor did they sit about as if "they had been used to servants": Anna cooked and looked after the house while Ron was in charge of the garden and the DIY repairs and maintenance.

When we visited her in Warlingham or when she was at home in Bonar Bridge, there was no sign of her drinking excessively. She was a social drinker who had one or two gins in an evening - a habit which she probably picked up in India. She recalled with astonishment and disapproval the large amounts of drinking by others that she had observed in the diplomatic communities. At home, she'd usually go to bed early, leaving her nephews and nieces talking with Ron. He wasn't an alcoholic either though he drank more than she did. Nobody in Anna's family that we've spoken to can understand why she's been portrayed in this way. There's no drinking culture among the Mackenzie women.

Like most people, Anna had to cope with deaths in her family. Her older brother Donald died when she had just turned 17 and her older son David killed himself. She rarely referred to David and did not discuss how his death had affected her. That was not the Mackenzie way. She never struck us as depressed however; she was always reserved, content to lead a quiet life.

She loved and supported Joe; she approved of his principles; she worried about him. She admired Gaby and adored her granddaughters. Joe inherited many of her good qualities.

She was loved by us and greatly liked and respected by all those who really knew her. She deserves for all this to be known.

On behalf of Jessie Mackinnon, Iain Gillies, Anna Gillies, Mairi Macleod, Jan Macleod, Rona McIntosh, Alasdair Gillies, George Macleod, Jane Mackinnon.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After a long wait, a monumental effort, June 30, 2007

By	RTBIO (IA) - See all my reviews

Wow, it seemed like I had this book on pre-order FOREVER. It was well worth the wait. After reading the book I'm glad it wasn't rushed out and can see why it took a long time to compile. This bio is a monumental project and certainly wasn't thrown together in haste.

If I were hypercritical I might complain that there were times I found it hard to follow just who was being quoted, or if the author was simply relating his own experience, but I won't dwell on that. The subject matter is simply too precious and the anecdotes told just too special to quibble over the small stuff. Though Joe barely made it past 50, the book relates the experiences of many folks in Stummer's life and certainly has a huge amount of ground to cover. I just couldn't put it down. When I reached the end I felt almost as sad as the day...well, you know.

If you are a fan of Joe Strummer, The Clash, punk rock or grew up through the late 70's-early 80's, you cannot and should not avoid this book!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revealing, up-close-and-personal account of the frontman's life..., July 20, 2007

By	BlogOnBooks "BlogOnBooks" (Los Angeles CA) - See all my reviews

The lead sheet that comes with this book says "The importance of the Clash to modern music is almost impossible to overstate." A strong statement, to be sure, but one that is hard to argue. And while the band was certainly not solely one man's vision, Strummer (nee John Mellor) was the captain of it's apocalyptic view. Salewicz, a longtime writer for England's New Musical Express (NME) is in a fortunate position to write this revealing, up-close-and-personal account of the frontman's life as he covered the punk revolution from it's inception in the UK as well as having been a longtime friend of the subject at hand. (He even wrote his obit for the Independent in London.) In his three years of researching the book, Salewicz leaves no stone unturned - interviewing all of Joe's main band mates, managers, A&R men, etc. as well as a multitude of friends, wives, lovers and professional cohorts - taking us through his early days with the 101'ers all the way to the band's final stadium shows with the Who and even past the last show with Mick Jones at California's famed 'Us' festival. What comes across is a man full of contradictions - a sometimes angry spokesman for the beaten down proletariat, a man who when approaching his 'wilderness years' remained full of self doubt, through to his rebuilding of position with the Pogues and finally his latest band the Muscaleros. As both a journalist as well as a close friend, Salewicz gives perhaps the best view yet into this conflicted soul who fronted what many consider to be the most important band in rock'n'roll. Cheeseburger! - Blog on Books