A large ensemble of musicians and celebrities will be honoring the life of Joe Strummer of The Clash in A Song For Joe: Celebrating The Life of Joe Strummer. The two-hour long event will stream on Strummer’s birthday, August 21, starting at 3:00 P.M. ET at JoeStrummer.com. All donations benefit Save Our Stages, which is the National Independent Venue Association’s project to push for the U.S. Congress to protect independent live music venues and promoters.
The event is being produced by singer/songwriter Jesse Malin, radio personality Jeff Raspe and Strummer estate manager, David Zonshine. It will feature previously unreleased live footage of Strummer as well as performances and testimonials from Strummer’s peers.
Among the guest appearances are members of The Strokes and The Pogues, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Americana musician Lucinda Williams, indie rock band Cherry Glazerr, “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen, Celtic punk rockers Dropkick Murphys, film director Jim Jarmusch, actor Steve Buscemi, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.
Many of these performers have been up to new things recently. Josh Homme discussed the possibility of a Kyuss reunion earlier this year, and more concretely, released covers of Them Crooked Vultures’ “Spinning in Daffodils” and Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.” Lucinda Williams dropped new album called Good Souls Better Angels in May. Albert Hammond Jr. and Nikolai Fraiture of The Strokes released the indie rock group’s first album in seven years, The New Abnormal. This is actually the second time Dropkick Murphys and Bruce Springsteen will appear together this year, the first being their Streaming Outta Fenway concert in May.
Joe Strummer passed away in 2002 from heart disease, but some of the unreleased recordings from his solo career bubbled up to the public in 2018, eventually resulting in a compilation called Joe Strummer 001. He was much more recognized as the frontman for legendary punk pioneers The Clash.
On the live venue crisis, event producer Malin said for his Rolling Stone story, “Very few venues are going to be able to survive. We need real financial help from the federal government, like they just did in Britain with the $2 billion-dollar bailout. The government needs to acknowledge that the arts are essential to our culture, community and growth.”
Photo credit: Kalyn Oyer
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