Strummer Quotes & Sayings

The 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

The future is unwritten. — Joe Strummer

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

When I was very little, I was into Michael Jackson. At six or seven, it was Madonna, but she's not what she used to be. I've been into everything from Edith Piaf to Joe Strummer to the Velvet Underground to Suicide to A Tribe Called Quest to African music. — Lykke Li

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

He (Joe Strummer) was one of the great English rock stars, bold and influential beyond reckoning. We could do with another one like him, right now. — David Sinclair

The way you get a better world is, you don't put up with substandard anything. — Joe Strummer

I got to watch my heroes meet him and saw how they reacted, whether it was Joe Strummer or Tom Waits. It was peculiar. I'm so stoked to meet Tom Waits, and he's so nervous to meet my dad. It's a head spin. — Jakob Dylan

I found that I was just hopeless at school. It was just a total bore. First, I passed in art and English, and then just art. Then I passed out. — Joe Strummer

You have the right not to be killed, unless it was done by a policeman or an aristocrat. — Joe Strummer

I tend to prefer the band thing. I think playing solo is good for about 45 minutes. I remember when I was on my solo tour that I got a chance to play with Martin Stephenson of the Daintees. He's now refashioned himself as almost a delta blues guitar player and he's got all the technique, all the persona and the charisma on stage. I think I do too, but I'm more of a first position strummer guy with a little bit of filigree work. I could listen to him for hours; I could listen to myself playing solo for about half an hour! — Bill Mallonee

The only place I considered home was the boarding school, in Yorkshire, my parents sent me to. — Joe Strummer

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

I don't want to look back. I want to keep going forward, I still have something to say to people. — Joe Strummer

Yeah, all those things, responsibility, pressure. It's a bit stressful. I try and come to terms with it by not thinking about it. — Joe Strummer

When I started, they told me I only needed 3 chords and the truth ... It turned out I could manage with 2 and some vague ideas. — Joe Strummer

I love English rock music the best and have always been fascinated by The Clash, especially Joe Strummer, their singer. — Carla Bruni

People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world. — Joe Strummer

It is fun to be alive. It's a hell of a lot better than being dead. — Joe Strummer

There is a time to dance to techno and a time not to. — Joe Strummer

When we played Paris, the English punks would come over, and they got to know the French punks. There was some nice scenes in the back alleys. — Joe Strummer

Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth' — Joe Strummer

We did eight gigs in super-stadiums, all the biggest joints - L.A. Coliseum, Oakland Coliseum, Shea Stadium. — Joe Strummer

The hippy movement was a failure. — Joe Strummer

I never got lessons. I took influence from Chet Baker, Ian Dury, and Joe Strummer. I don't hear my voice and think, 'Yeah, that's a banging voice!' It's more about putting the right emotions into the right words and the lyrics than anything else to me. — King Krule

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

I'm proud of all our records. Even the crap ones. — Joe Strummer

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

The pure, absolute quality and nature of each note in itself are only appreciated by the strummer. For some notes have all the sea in them, and some cathedral bells; others a woodland joyance and a smell of greenery; in some fauns dance to the merry reed, and even the grave centaurs peep out from their caves. Some bring moonlight, and some the deep crimson of a rose's heart; some are blue, some red, and others will tell of an army with silken standards and march-music. And throughout all the sequence of suggestion, up above the little white men leap and peep, and strive against the imprisoning wires; and all the big rosewood box hums as it were full of hiving bees. — Kenneth Grahame

I want to grow up with my audience. I don't expect to be getting through to the younger pop crowd. I learned that from Paul Simon. — Joe Strummer

If you look at someone like Joe Strummer or John Lennon, when you heard their music you knew that they wrote it and they cared about it. — Moby

If you ain't thinkin' about man and God and law, then you ain't thinkin' about nothin'. — Joe Strummer

Nonsmokers should be banned from buying any product a smoker created. — Joe Strummer

Without people, you're nothing. — Joe Strummer

For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across. — Joe Strummer

I don't have any other message than don't forget you are alive — Joe Strummer

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

There was an intelligence about him (Joe Strummer) that allowed his band to change and evolve, just as Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols were disappearing up their own bondage trousers. And there was a generosity about Strummer, too, a warmth and humanity about the guy. He was a brilliant musician, a beautiful man, and a charismatic artist. There is a part of me that bitterly resents the fact that the Clash never replaced the Rolling Stones in rock music's hall of heroes. But the Clash were not about milking if for a lifetime ... I thought they were the greatest band I had ever seen. And, half a lifetime on, in a large part of my soul, I still do ... They changed lives. They certainly changed mine. Because they made me believe that, with passion and commitment and a bit of fire in your belly, you could be exactly the person you wanted to be. — Tony Parsons

Anyway, 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

If I had five million pounds I'd start a radio station because something needs to be done. It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that didn't make you feel like smashing up the kitchen and strangling the cat. — Joe Strummer

Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed — Joe Strummer

Anybody who makes speeches written by someone else is just a robot. — Joe Strummer

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 just trying to take their humanity back into the center of the ring ... And follow that for a time. Y'know, think on that. Without people you're nothing. — Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer, Johnny Rotten, and Ian MacKaye were all people who really made me see things differently. — Henry Rollins

There isn't a town in the world I haven't run amok in. — Joe Strummer

A lot of the time I'm semi-insane, but there is a slight bit of intelligence there. — Joe Strummer

And the pebbles fight each other as rocks/And my father bends among them/Two hands outstretching up to me/Not that I can hear. — Joe Strummer

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

With The Simpsons you can go back to work with a keen heart. — Joe Strummer

You've gotta be slightly stupid. — Joe Strummer

Don't forget you're alive. 'Cause sometimes when you walk around the city and you're in a bad mood, you can think, hey, wait a minute, we're alive! We don't know what the next second will bring and what a fantastic thing this is. This can get easily forgotten in the routine of life, and that's something I'm trying to bring to my attention at all times. Don't forget you're alive. We're not dead, you know. This is the greatest thing. — Joe Strummer

The most profound voice of any musician I have ever heard. Joe (Strummer) took his message to the world, and the world listened. He managed to influence more than one generation with his innovative and determined manner, and I am not alone in repeatedly turning to his thoughts and lyrics when searching for inspiration. The Clash was the greatest rock band. They wrote the rule book for U2. — Bono

I like to just feel how I feel and not worry about it really. — Joe Strummer

As the floods of God
Wash away sin city
They say it was written
In the page of the Lord
But I was looking
For that great jazz note
That destroyed
The walls of Jericho
The winds of fear
Whip away the sickness
The messages on the tablet
Was valium
As the planets form
That golden cross Lord
I'll see you on
The holy cross roads
After all this time
To believe in Jesus
After all those drugs
I thought I was Him
After all my lying
And a-crying
And my suffering
I ain't good enough
I ain't clean enough
To be Him
The tribal wars
Burning up the homeland
The fuel of evil
Is raining from the sky
The sea of lava
Flowing down the mountain
The time will sleep
Us sinners by
Holy rollers roll
Give generously now
Pass the hubcap please
Thank you Lord — Joe Strummer

I only saw my father twice a year. If I'd seen him all the time I'd probably have murdered him by now. He was very strict. — Joe Strummer

In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human beings. — Joe Strummer

Don't write slogans, write truths. — Joe Strummer

A lot of people... use a calculator! — Joe Strummer

everybody has a story to tell — Joe Strummer

When you're out to get the honey you don't go killing all the bees — Joe Strummer

We aren't particularly talented. We try harder! — Joe Strummer

I think we're going to have to forget about the radio and just go back to word of mouth. — Joe Strummer

There is nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent. — Joe Strummer

I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. — Joe Strummer

To me, our music is like Jamaican stuff - if they can't hear it, they're not supposed to hear it. It's not for them if they can't understand it. — Joe Strummer

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

All hippies around now just represent complete apathy. — Joe Strummer

We sing in English, not mimicking some American rock singer's accent. That's just pretending to be something you ain't. — Joe Strummer

All the power's in the hands of people rich enough to buy it. — Joe Strummer

I like to read because it's the opposite of being on the go. Reading is the perfect antidote. — Joe Strummer

Greed, it ain't going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you're nothing — Joe Strummer

And so now I'd like to say - people can change anything they want to. And that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks - I am one of them. But we've all got to stop just 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. That's because they've been dehumanised. It's time to take the humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed, it ain't going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you're nothing. That's my spiel. — Joe Strummer

I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all. — Joe Strummer

The hippy movement was a failure. All hippies around now just represent complete apathy. There's a million good reasons why the thing failed, OK. But the only thing we've got to live with is that it failed. — Joe Strummer

I began thinking there should be an American phrase book, 'cause I've got an Italian phrase book, and an Arabic one ... now a British one. I think it'd be pretty good to have an American phrase book. — Joe Strummer

I get on all right with my parents. But I don't see them very much. They split up when I was eight. I stayed with my mum, but I felt it was a bit soft with her. I could do whatever I liked, and I wasn't getting nowhere, so I went to stay with my dad. — Joe Strummer