Redemption Song

Yet another book left laying around by the librarian, it's billed as the definitive biography of Joe Strummer. However, in the book there is a line attributed to Joe Strummer (I think, I don't take notes on these things) where he's discussing reading multiple biographies of the same person and getting a different impression of the person in each one. For the "definitive" biography, that's probably not your money quote. I read Last Gang In Town a few years ago and that was certainly more Clash-centric than this, so I don't know how much new information there is about his life in the Clash. There are plenty of stories about that period and quite a few from the rest of his life that make it worth a read. My favorite was while shooting Mystery Train, Joe and Jim Jarmusch go to see INXS after their gig in Memphis. Joe makes a comment to Michael Hutchence about how it must be nice to be a sex symbol. He replies that Joe Strummer was certainly a sex symbol in the halcyon punk rock days. Joe's response "No, I wasn't a sex symbol. I was the spokesman for a generation." You still are Joe.