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484-3014
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Fri. June 1
4-7 p.m.
EMU Ballroom
Tickets $1
at the EMU Main Desk Only
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r*i™
Food Service
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TWO Food Vans
to serve you
** Freshly Baked Croissants
^ Sandwiches
Fresh Fruit
ts Yogurt
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Look for our new food van at Chapman
Hall, H am 2pm
We re still at our regular location at the
Library turnaround 9:30 am - 2 pm
^ STUDENT
(SB) co-op
ASSOCIATION
Housing, of, by and for Students
Student Owned and Operated
Friendly Co-Ed student Environment for
61 women and men
Adjacent to Campus
Lower Cost Alternative
Double Single
8 Weeks $350.00 $430.00
11 Weeks $450.00 $530.00
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conventional)
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Visit, Write or Call for more info:
Campbell CO-OP, 1670 Alder,
686-5189
Janet Smith CO-OP, 1790 Alder,
686-4261
Students Cooperative Association
1670 Alder
Eugene, Oregon 97401 (503) 342-1665
A Clash Communique
Not
lust
another
SUV na*ned .Toe
Photo courtesy of David McGough
By Cort Fernald
Of the Emerald
This is a public service announcement. . .with guitars.
Know Your Rights
Strummer/Jones
"And the hits just keep on happenin' "
Anonymous disc jockey on
an anonymous FM radio station.
The Clash just keep on happenin' also — in
spite of the odds stacked heavily against them.
The Clash will be in Eugene to play MacArthur
Court tonight. Tickets are still available priced $10 and
$11 for the dance floor and $9 and $10 for balcony
seats. The Crazy 8's are the opening act.
The Clash are the sole survivors of the 1976-'77
rock'n'roll revolt that splashed relevance and integrity
onto the blanched face of British (and American) pop
music. There were only three bands that had the im
pact to affect such a profound change. The Sex Pistols'
career was short-lived, but so very important. The Jam's
career was long, illustrious, but confined primarily to
the other side of the Atlantic ocean. However, The
Clash's influence was worldwide and they stay on —
and on. The Jam's Paul Weller, interviewed after the
dissolution of that group, compared The Clash to The
Rolling Stones, predicting they would go on for 25
years, or more.
Clash fans can only hope Weller is correct.
The comparison with The Rolling Stones is par
ticularly appropriate. The Clash have, since the late
1970s, been heralded as the only legitimate successors
to The Rolling Stones' erstwhile title of ''The World's
Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band.” With hits like "Rock the
Casbah," "Should I Stay or Should I Go” and a history
of songs like "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" and
"Charlie Don't Surf" The Clash have shown the world
they deserve such a title.
But this present Clash is not the original
Clash. The only remaining members of The Clash's ear
ly line-up are Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon. The
Clash line-up has, from the very first, been subject to
change at a moment's notice. In the summer of 1976
The Clash were Simonon, Mick Jones and Keith Levine
(later of Public Image Ltd.). Shortly after this Strummer
joined as lead singer and rhythm guitar player. Terry
Chimes, variously known as Tory Crimes, joined on
drums. Chimes and Levine quickly called it quits. In
January 1977 Nicky "Topper" Headon filled in on
drums.
This line-up lasted for nearly five years, until
Headon was dismissed for what was "officially" termed
in a Clash Communique as a "difference of political
direction." Insiders said the dismissal wasn't so much
political as Headon's persistent problem with heroin.
Around this same time, on the eve of the release of
"Combat Rock” and a British tour, Strummer took the
proverbial hike, grew a beard and became a "free man
in Paris." Strummer, who has called being in a group
like being a robot, basked in the anonymity and went
missing for a couple of weeks.
When Strummer returned, Pete Howard set
up in Headon's place and The Clash toured the United
States. This tour was capped by a headlining spot at the
US Festival for which The Clash shocked their fans by
asking and apparently receiving $500,000. What could
be worse? The Clash opened for The Who on that
group's farewell tour.
But that's just a summary of the troubled history of
one of the best (perhaps "world's greatest") rock'n'roll
bands. In a Clash Communique dated September 1983
it was announced Strummer and Simonon had "decid
ed that Mick Jones should leave the group." The
reason given for Jones' sacking was that he had, accor
ding to Strummer and Simonon, "drifted apart from
the original idea of The Clash."
It looked like The Clash were no more. Although,
music industry insiders said to look for a Clash "live"
LP and for Strummer to go into the movies. This would
have been the logical course, but Strummer was never
one for the logical course. Early this year he and
Simonon auditioned about two hundred guitarists,
finally selecting Vince White and Nick Sheppard, two
veterans of the late 1970s British "punk" movement.
And with this line-up secure for the moment The
Clash have been touring Britain and the United States.
The Clash are currently winding up a 60-day 48-date
tour of this country. The schedule is grueling — driving
through long Midwestern nights, leaving cities like Col
umbus, Ohio, following the seeming endless staccato
bursts of white line on the highway to cities like
Dayton, Ohio or East Lansing, Michigan. Loading in,
setting up — tearing down, loading out — loading in,
setting up — tearing down, loading out. . .the glamour
resides only in the fans' eyes.
^Yes, The Clash will keep on happening.
Strummer, who has been writing while on the road,
has gathered enough material to go into the studio at
the end of this tour. According to the band's New York
office, they will be recording at the Pathe Marconi in
Paris.
The Emerald interviewed Strummer while The Clash
were in Denver. He was approaching the last week of
their 10 week tour and his voice betrayed signs of
fatigue. Strummer spoke of The Clash's type of "rebel
music” and volunteered some perceptions on contem
porary music, the state of the individual in America,
drugs and TV brainwashing. At the end of the interview
Strummer admitted that his answers were less than
candid. "I haven't been very forthcoming," he said,
"but I'm a bit wound up for the gig and we're in the
mountains in Denver and there's a thunderstorm."
Emerald: How are you doing?
Joe Strummer: All right.
Emerald: How's the tour going?
Strummer: Great.
Emerald: This is the last week, are you a little tired?
Strummer: Yeah, that's right. We started in Ten
nessee in March.
Emerald: You played Nashville. How was the
reception?
Strummer: Great.
Emerald: Why are you calling this tour 'Clash Out of
Control'?
Strummer: Well, you gotta call a tour something.
Emerald: One of your earlier tours was called
'Complete Control'.
Strummer: Well, we just feel that America's gone
straight, but so has Britain. Everyone is so straight.
Everything is down to a formula.
Emerald: And you want to breakdown the controls a
bit?
Strummer: Yeah, it's just too (pauses) predictable.
Emerald: The Clash first toured the U.S. in 1979, was
it predictable then?
Strummer: Well, I dunno. It seemed like things
hadn't been so finely analyzed, like hit radio and MTV
and this and that. It seems to be very boring.
Emerald: Do you feel confined by these structures?
In 1979 it was wide open, there were a lot of new
bands and The Clash were happening big. But now you
have to have a certain formula for the AOR radio sta
tions and MTV play.
Strummer: Right, right — I think people are getting
fed up with it at the moment. We just have to put up
with it.
Emerald: How about you — do you get fed up with
it?
Strummer: Oh, yeah, I'm fed up with it.
Emerald: The Clash are playing 'rebel music'...
Strummer: In an attempt to differentiate it from the
formula music.. .see, we feel that a lot of the music be
ing made is merely whatever it takes to 'make it' —
they'll do it. It has no self-respect or belief.
Emerald: You call it 'rebel music', but is it like roots
rock'n'roll?
Strummer: Well, we only got guitars.
Emerald: There's been a spate of synthesizer bands
and they all sound like clones.
Strummer: I agree.. .yeah.
Emerald: Why is it the British periodically come
over and remind Americans what is the essence and in
tegrity of rock'n'roll?
Strummer: Yeah, I think it's because.. .I think it's
because (pauses) you watch too much TV. Seriously.
Emerald: And TV has dulled our minds?
Strummer: Well, not only that, I'm not sure it actual
ly degrades the mind, but it certainly doesn't move it
forward. Call it a kind of a limbo. And couple that lim
bo with the time spent in that limbo and what are you
left with?
Emerald: Twenty minutes and then a commercial
break. You feel that same way about drugs, don't you?
Strummer: Yeah, I mean we felt that they're so old
fashioned now, only hippies continue to take them
with any honesty. Because hippies just say: 'Well, Hell,
we're hippies.' They're still trying to replay the drugged
'60s revolution. We feel that for anybody in the '80s — I
mean there's been like 25 years of it — it's so old
fashioned and boring.
Emerald: Pretty damn dangerous also.
Strummer: Yeah, you're (the United States) gonna
feel the heroin, but we've already got it in Europe. In
Europe there's more heroin — there's mountains of it.
Emerald: Have you been keeping up with the
Democratic primaries?
Strummer: Yeah, I've been following it.
Emerald: Any thoughts on it?
Strummer: Well, I think the Democrats are gonna
go for it. Like Mondale won't beat Reagan (pronounces
it REE-gan). Possibly Hart wouldn't either. I mean, I
don't know what they're gonna do. If I were them I'd
nominate Jesse Jackson and just go for it.
Emerald: You're singing a lot with the addition of
White and Sheppard doing most of the guitar work.
How do you like being the 'frontman'?
Strummer: It's pretty good fun. You can get quite
crazy.
Emerald: Your voice is unique, a classic rock'n'roll
voice.
Strummer: Well, it's OK if I use it right.
Emerald: Have you been pestered by the media
about a reunion .with Mick Jones?
Strummer: No, not yet. You're the first person in
the world to suggest the idea.
Emerald: It seems a natural for that Beatles' reunion
syndrome. The press haven't been asking?
Strummer: (reticently) Nope.
Emerald: How long do you think The Clash can go
on?
Strummer: I'm not sure — until we feel irrelevant
and as long as it's relevant.
Emerald: And the music remains relevant?
Strummer: Yes. Once it's just going through the mo
tions, that's it.
Emerald: You've been writing on the road — is that
the place you like to write?
Strummer: It's not the ideal place — no.
Emerald: How do you go about writing a song?
Strummer: I think you gotta do it at all times. You
don't have to have a guitar with you at all times. I
mean you can whistle, you got lips, or you can beat
your hands against the back of a chair.
Emerald: Do you get a melody line first or do you
get a lyric and put a melody around it?
Strummer: First you have to care something about
something.
Emerald: What have you been writing about lately?
Strummer: (pointedly) It's none of your business.
Emerald: (embarrassed laugh) I didn't mean to pry.
Do I have to wait until it's on record?
Strummer: Yeah.
Emerald: I understand that you'll be going into the
studio in the summer.
Strummer: Hopefully so.
Emerald: You've been out of the studio for a long
time — are you looking forward to it?
Strummer: Yes and no. It's really hard not to doze
off in a studio. They're all designed for the '70s drug
trip, you know. It's very hard to remember that the real
world still exists when you're in a studio.
Emerald: Like the situation Jean Luc Godard filmed
in '2 plus 2' with the Rolling Stones practically living in
the studio.
Strummer: Yeah, right.
Emerald: You're going to Paris to record?
Strummer: That's the plan.
Emerald: Is it (the Pathe Marconi) the same room
the Rolling Stones like?
Strummer: (emphatically) I fucking hope not.
Emerald: Will you be recording with the same line
up (White, Sheppard, Howard, Simonon, Strummer)?
Clash has been so flexible over the years.
Strummer: True, true, but that's the way it is at the
moment.
Emerald: Do you like to do songs in one or two
takes?
Strummer: I think that is definitely the method.
Emerald: Not too many overdubs?
Strummer: Definitely. There's too much
Continued on Page 10
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