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Joe Strummer
39 quotes
“I'm all lost in the supermarket I can no longer shop happily I came in here for that special offer A guaranteed personality”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , from the album (14 December 1979), co-written with Mick Jones.
Also quoted by: Mick Jones (The Clash guitarist)
“Too many songs have been written about love already, you know? Subject's covered.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on Tomorrow with Tom Snyder (5 June 1981).
“Anybody who makes speeches written by someone else is just a robot.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview for Sounds Magazine on 17 July 1982.
“My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Corey Levitan for Rolling Stone Online on 2 December 1999.
“What I like about playing America is you can be pretty sure you're not going to get hit with a full can of beer when you're singing and I really enjoy that!”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Howard Petruziello for the New York Hangover on March 2000
“When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Judy McGuire for Punk Magazine (2001).
“The men at the factory are old and cunning”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human being. Fuck being an asshole, what you pussies thought it was twenty years ago.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I just want to go back to rockin', but I'm uncertain as to what to actually do … The truth is, I never stopped thinking about rock 'n' roll for a second that I'm on holiday.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What's holding me up is I'm confused about the nature of the music. Because the modern music doesn't reach me. I mean to say the sound of the modern electric production. A lot of sequencers... synths. That's what people are buying. Because that doesn't reach me, it throws me back to like 1948, but I don't want to be there. Back there, I'm talking about blues records.... The roots of rock 'n' roll is rhythm and blues and that's like really where I'm at, where I was always at.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you're allowed to make your mistakes, I think you should. But people don't really like hearing you admit them. Although I'd never wanted to dump on the musicians that were involved in that.... Because it was not their fault.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was trying to prove that I was the Clash and it wasn't Mick (Jones). I learned that that was kind of dumb. I learned that it wasn't anybody, except maybe a great chemistry between us four, and I really learned it was over the day we sacked Topper, and not the day we sacked Mick. There was quite some time between them. We played a whole tour between those times. But it was the day we sacked Tops.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I kept trying to stress that — "Hang on, we're be-bop guys, we're down in the alley on 57th Street. We're not in there with John Reed and "Ten Days That Shook the World." We'd be in the alley with (Charlie) Parker shooting up junk. That's where we were at really.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm a human being. I'm not dumping on what I've done. I mean I know we were doing social (stuff), all right? I just don't like boastin' about it, OK? I know what we were doin'. I know damn well what we did. But I ain't gonna start crying about it now, all right?”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would say it was about time that you believe in something. And sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll ain't it.... A lot of people used to think they were.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything's fucked! It's down to individual people to make life enjoyable. I don't have anything more to say than that. I think people should avoid the world fucking them up. People are becoming too uptight, treating their children bad, being negative.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hate it when I go out and I see parents going, "don't do that", or "stop doing that" when some kid's just hanging off a staircase or something. There's too much of this, "don't do that". The whole thing baffles me.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The way you get a better world is, you don’t put up with substandard anything.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I try and keep an ear out and keep an open mind and enjoy something where I don't know what the hell is going on inside of it. That's what I really get out of it. Because to me it's new. That's what I get out of it. That joyful feeling of you don't know what's going to happen next.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like to just feel how I feel and not worry about it really.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think you have to grow up and realise that we're facing religious fanatics who would kill everyone in the world who doesn't do what they say. The more time you give them the more bombs they'll get. Bin Laden is going to try and kill more people. It helps the fanatics.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Singing into a cold wind is the worst nightmare for any singer. You could hear it in the voice.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We got all the influences for it [Global a Go-Go] from Willesden High Road. When you go out for milk and cigarettes you go through three countries because all the shops and cafes are playing their own music, like going through hell.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros' album Global a Go-Go (2001) and about the song writing process.
“I'd define it as self-awareness: an ability to trust your own judgment. An ability to see through veils of bullshit or spins on stories or propaganda. Maybe an ability to think for yourself.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that the corporation is running it and will always make it appeal to the lowest common denominator. I think we're going to have to forget about the radio and just go back to word of mouth.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's good to be sent back to the underground. There's always a good side to bad things and the good side to this is that at least everyone has to go back down.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'd just like to say to everybody that it's best to check out the independent life: the independent stores and the independent everybodies. We should try not to give our money to any corporations, if we can help it.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's no tenderness, or humanity in fanaticism. Thats what Rock the Casbah is about.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the power's in the hands of people rich enough to buy it.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joe Strummer / Mick Jones, "White Riot", The Clash (1977).
“London Calling - Yes, I was there, too, And you know what they said? Well some of it was true. London Calling at the top of the dial… And after all this, won't you give me a smile?”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joe Strummer / Mick Jones, "London Calling", London Calling (1979).
“You have the right not to be killed, unless it was done by a policeman or an aristocrat.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Clash, "Know Your Rights", Combat Rock (1982).
“No man's land. There ain't no asylum here. King Solomon he never lived 'round here.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Clash, "Straight to Hell", Combat Rock (1982).
“When freedom rises from the killing floor, No lock of iron or rivet can restrain the door. And no kind of army can hope to win a war Like trying to stop the rain or still the lion`s roar, Like trying to stop the whirlwind scattering seeds and spores Like trying to stop the tin cans rapping out jailhouse semaphore.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joe Strummer and Bono, "46664", written for Nelson Mandela's HIV/AIDS festival in 2003.
“I'd like to say that people people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. Show me any country and there'll be people in it. And it's the people that make the country. People have got to stop pretending they're not on the world. People are running about following their little tracks. I am one of them. But we've all gotta stop just stop following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything; this is something that I'm beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other; it's because they've been dehumanized. It's time to take that humanity back into the centre of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed... it ain't going anywhere! They should have that on a big billboard across Times Square. Think on that. Without people you're nothing.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007).
“I'll tell you something. When you see you become part of the cycle of generations, you lose your ego in the process, because you ain't nothin' special. You're just another cipher in the generations. When you devote all your interest into another person, you lose your self-obsession, and that's when you understand what it is. You don't know (anything) without that moment. You don't want anything to harm this helpless being. That's a fantastic change. And that's when you understand what's happening. I never understood anything until my first baby looked at me. I didn't understand (anything). Now I understand.”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have a big legacy of The Clash to live up to and I don't intend to uriny on a legend. I intend to build forward into the next century. The music has to be by the musicians, and there's too much changing things by the record company. I got a message for everyone in a record company: We don't care if you lose your job! You ruin music and I'll get all the smoothers out off the way, the people who smooth the sound off. Let the musicians have the music the way they want it, and not the way you think the grandmothers and 3-year olds will gonna buy it. Cause this is not about 3-year olds or grandmothers... This is Rock and Roll!”
Joe Strummer (1952–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source