Punk Rock Warlord: the Life and Work of Joe Strummer

Barry J. Faulk is a Professor in the English Department at Florida State University, and the author of Music Hall and Modernity (2004) and British Rock Modernism (Ashgate, 2010). He has published numerous articles on British literature and cultural studies. Brady Harrison is Professor of English at the University of Montana. He is the author of Agent of Empire: William Walker and the Imperial Self in American Literature (2004) and editor of All Our Stories Are Here: Critical Perspectives on Montana Literature (2009). He has published stories, essays, and articles in books and journals in the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, and Australia.

"This important contribution to popular music studies is the first collection of critical essays on John Mellor and challenges the existing narratives around the idol Joe Strummer. Overall, the book can be recommended to scholars and fans who have a general interest in punk rock, The Clash, and a critical approach towards the human being behind the ‘Joe Strummer’ label."- Dr André Rottgeri, Universität Passau, Universität Paderborn, HfM Karlsruhe"Barry J. Faulk and Brady Harrison’s edited collection of essays on The Clash’s frontman, Joe Strummer, Punk Rock Warlord: The Life and Work of Joe Strummer, reads much like the experience of a punk rock gig: there are strong, conflicting views expressed in different styles and tones, and excitement and inspiration spring up from the various chapters. The editors have purposefully gathered a group of informed, yet diverse voices-from academics spanning the disciplines of history, English, and communication studies, to public service workers turned teachers, to independent writers, artists, and journalists.""What this collection of voices adds to the growing field of popular music studies is a new urgency, in the words of the editors, to break away from the universal perspective of modernism that has dominated the study of music and instead to focus on the vexed problem of what constitutes authenticity in music and to offer a critique of musical practice as the product of free, individual expression. Given the explosion of new studies of punk rock and popular culture and the already growing body of work and documentaries on Joe Strummer and The Clash, Faulk and Harrison’s volume is a timely re-assessment of punk’s year zero moment of the mid-to-late 1970s and indeed provides a nuanced, complex account of one of punk rock’s earliest icons.""A timely, comprehensive portrait of a widely discussed and often misunderstood punk artist. It is an accessible collection of scholarship coming from diverse backgrounds that pushes beyond mere idolatrous popular praise or critics’ squabbles about a band’s integrity or worth and informs its audience of Strummer’s real achievements in music and politics as well as the sometimes paradoxical nature of his professed beliefs. The essays also provide sound cultural and historical context of Britain’s complex social, racial, and economic landscapes during the 1970s and 1980s."

• Contents: Introduction: John Woody Joe Mellor Strummer: the many lives, travails and sundry shortcomings of a punk rock warlord, Barry J. Faulk and Brady Harrison. Part I John/Woody/Joe: ‘Don’t call me Woody’: the punk compassion and folk rebellion of Joe Strummer and Woody Guthrie, Edward A. Shannon; Joe Strummer: the road to rock and roll, Lauren Onkey; From the 101’ers to the Mescaleros, and whatever band was in-between: Joe Strummer’s musical journey (or, why Woody?), Brian A. Cogan. Part II I Don’t Trust You: ‘This is Joe Public speaking’: why Joe Strummer’s passion is still in fashion, Mark Bedford; Saint Joe: an apostate writes, Alex Ogg. Part III Why Should You Trust Me?: Revolution rock?: The Clash, Joe Strummer and the British Left in the early days of punk, Matthew Worley; The creation of an anti-Fascist icon: Joe Strummer and rock against racism, Jeremy Tranmer; The last gang in town: masculinity, feminism, Joe Strummer and the Clash, Maria Raha. Part IV Strummer on Broadway (and Sunset): ‘I am so bored with the USA’: Joe Strummer and the Promised Land, Justin S. Wadlow; Culture clash: the influence of hip hop culture and aesthetics on the Clash, Walidah Imarisha; Mystery train: ‘Joe Strummer’ on screen, Chris Barsanti. List of references; Index.