sarahbowman101's review
4.0
Reading this book, especially at the end, sad. I missed my chance to ever see Joe. He toured quite a bit near the end with the Mescaleros and often played a heavy rotation of Clash songs and I never saw him. It was particularly interesting to read about the later parts of his life, as I have read other Clash bios before. But to get an idea of the man he became was quite interesting. I am of the opinion that Joe was much more articulate, funny and interesting in his lyrics than he often was in real life. This book did drag a little bit though and slowed me down!
missnicelady's review against another edition
3.0
Finally finished this exhaustive (and often exhausting) bio of Mr. John Mellor/Joe Strummer. Salewicz, who got to know the Clash when he worked as a journalist with the NME, interviews everyone Strummer sang, snogged, or smoked a spliff with -- and that's a lot of people, let me tell you! The man achieved superhuman levels of creativity, philandering, and substance intake. His death at 50 is less surprising than the fact that he actually made it to 50.
I love the Clash and find Strummer fascinating, but maybe not 600 pages' worth of fascinating. And Salewicz inserts himself into the narrative regularly and awkwardly, which is distracting. But strangely enough, the book gets more interesting after the breakup of the Clash, as Strummer wanders in a creative and personal wilderness for nearly two decades, struggling with untreated depression, broken relationships, and regret.
I love the Clash and find Strummer fascinating, but maybe not 600 pages' worth of fascinating. And Salewicz inserts himself into the narrative regularly and awkwardly, which is distracting. But strangely enough, the book gets more interesting after the breakup of the Clash, as Strummer wanders in a creative and personal wilderness for nearly two decades, struggling with untreated depression, broken relationships, and regret.
kalinichta's review
This is a great book, but the reality of one's heroes can be a little hard to take sometimes, so I've had to put it down for a while. I'll definitely be coming back to it.
adriannepeterson's review
4.0
Exhaustive to be sure, and so long that I didn't actually finish it - it might be better consumed with pauses here and there. The simultaneous push-pull fascination/repulsion at seeing an icon seared bare can be intense. With deeper understanding of the person adding context, perhaps we can see more deeply into the intention of Strummer's music, art, poetry.... At the same time, Strummer was indeed human, and Salewicz, being a friend as well as a journalist, certainly serves up an intimate and detailed portrait of Strummer as well as his friends, antagonists, loves and personalities of the punk era.
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