Elvis Ate Dynamite

Miniature replica of Joe Strummer’s famous Telecaster

I’d like to think I know a lot about Joe Strummer. He is, after all, my favorite artist. Like a typical obsessive fan, I own every official Clash and Joe Strummer release in one form or another, except for some recent compilations. I’ve read a fair number of articles about Joe in and out of the Clash, including the Antonino D’Ambrosio-edited essay collection, Let Fury Have the Hour: Joe Strummer, Punk, and the Movement that Shook the World. And, of course, I bookmarked JoeStrummer.com for easy reference. As one does.

So how come I never knew that Joe Strummer was left-handed?

Not that left-handedness or right-handedness matters, of course. But Joe played a right-handed guitar. As in, he played a right-handed guitar right-handed. Not like Jimi Hendrix, who flipped over a right-handed Stratocaster and made it wail like the voice of God. 

No, left-handed Joe Strummer taught himself to play a right-handed guitar with a pick in his right hand and his left hand doing the fretwork.

I owe this revelation to Brenda Perlin (@losangelespunkrocker on Instagram — a fascinating account, by the way), who posted a clip of Joe Strummer’s final interview on arte.tv. You can find the excerpt on YouTube. It’s well worth a listen.

In it, Joe explains that when he first learned to play guitar, he couldn’t afford one of his own, so he borrowed various guitars from his right-handed friends. And, rather than flipping them over (a la Hendrix) and restringing them — no easy feat with a Strat or a Telecaster, where all the tuning pins are on the same side of the headstock — he forced himself to play with his right hand.  

That, Joe says, is why he called himself Joe Strummer — because he never got the hang of playing solos, so he just played chords. Reminds me of a recent-ish interview with Bob Mould where he said, “I’m pretty comfortable saying that I excel at rhythm guitar.”

So, you see, if this lawyer/legal editor gig doesn’t work out, maybe there’s hope for me yet.

But, really, the story of left-handed Joe Strummer learning to play right-handed guitar out of necessity is a perfect encapsulation of Joe and the Clash. They were DIY artists before there was such a thing. From rewiring and re-plumbing abandoned council flats (that’s in the interview too!) to Mick selecting non-musician Paul Simonon to become the band’s bass player to Simonon coming up with the band’s name and signature look, the Clash basically built an airplane mid-flight and flew it around the world.

You learn something new every day, I guess. That’s why music is an endless source of inspiration.