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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Antispam question: How many total fingers does a human have? Answer: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Fluffy[/i] [br]LONDON (AP) - Joe Strummer, a diplomat's son who became a snarling punk icon as the electrifying singer-songwriter of The Clash, has died at the age of 50. Strummer died on Sunday, said Richard Davies, coroner's officer for west Somerset. A statement released by his record label said Strummer ``died peacefully at his home'' in Broomfield in southwestern England. The British Broadcasting Corp. quoted The Clash's video director, Don Letts, as saying Strummer had died of a heart attack. The coroner's office said an autopsy would be conducted Monday or Tuesday to establish the cause of death. Strummer's influence far exceeded his record sales. Bono, lead singer of Irish rockers U2, said The Clash were ``the greatest rock band. They wrote the rule book for U2.'' Songwriter Billy Bragg said that ``without The Clash the whole political edge of punk would have been severely dulled.'' The Clash emerged from the London punk explosion that produced the Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Stranglers, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Clash's members were older - Strummer once said he hadn't picked up a guitar until he was 21 - and their musical horizons were wider. The band's 1977 debut album combined the guitar shock of songs like the incendiary ``White Riot'' with a strong reggae influence. By the time of their third album, ``London Calling,'' in 1979, the band had fused rock, funk, ska, reggae and blues into a giddy, original musical force. Many critics consider the album punk's masterpiece; Rolling Stone magazine voted it - despite its release date - the best album of the 1980s. ``I will always believe in punk-rock, because it's about creating something for yourself,'' Strummer said in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune in July. ``Part of it was: 'Stop being a sap! Lift your head up and see what is really going on in the political, social and religious situations, and try and see through all the smoke screens.''' Strummer was born John Mellor in Ankara, Turkey, the son of a British diplomat, and - unlike most of his punk contemporaries - educated at private school. After busking on the London Underground and playing with London pub-rock band the 101ers, he joined with guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones in 1976 to form The Clash. The band signed with CBS Records for $200,000. The record company considered the first album too crude for U.S. release, and it wasn't until 1979 that a compilation album, ``The Clash,'' was released in America. ``Here was a record that defined rock's risks and pleasures, and told us, once again that this was music worth fighting for,'' wrote Tom Carson in Rolling Stone of the album. Melding Strummer's rough yelp of a voice and Jones' crisp guitar work with the sinuous rhythm section of Paul Simonon and Topper Headon, the band fused diverse influences with a growing commitment to left-wing politics. Its political voice was most fully expressed on the 1980 triple album ``Sandinista,'' inspired by Nicaragua's 1979 revolution. Performances could be chaotic. In 1980, a fight erupted during a concert in Hamburg, Germany and Strummer was arrested after hitting a fan with his guitar. Despite uncompromising political principles, The Clash were commercially successful by punk standards. The biggest British hit was ``London Calling,'' which reached No. 11. In the United States, the band cracked the Top 30 in 1980 with ``Train in Vain (Stand by Me)'' and had later hits with ``Rock the Casbah'' and ``Should I Stay or Should I Go?'' Their biggest hit came when ``Should I Stay Or Should I Go'' topped the British charts after being used in a Levi's ad in the early 1990s. The band split in the early 1980s after a dispute between Strummer and Jones, who subsequently formed the group Big Audio Dynamite (BAD). Strummer's post-Clash solo work included soundtracks for filmmaker Alex Cox - notably the punk biopic ``Sid and Nancy'' and the historical drama ``Walker.'' He also appeared in ``Mystery Train,'' the Memphis-set 1989 film by American director Jim Jarmusch, and served briefly as lead singer of London-Irish rabble rousers The Pogues. In the late 1990s he formed The Mescaleros, releasing the well-received albums ``Rock Art & The X-Ray Style'' and ``Global A Go-Go.'' Strummer and the band finished their latest tour last month. ``I don't want to look back, I want to keep going forward. I still have something to say to people,'' Strummer said in a November interview with the Liverpool Echo newspaper. Strummer recently collaborated with Bono and Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics to write a song in honor of former South African President Nelson Mandela. Titled ``48864,'' Mandela's number in prison, the song is to be played at a Feb. 2 AIDS benefit concert at Mandela's former prison on Robben Island. Strummer is survived by his wife Lucy, two daughters and a stepdaughter. Funeral plans were not announced. The Clash was voted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is due to be inducted in March. 12/23/02 11:29 EST Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. I attribute The Clash for awakening me to politics at an early age. I don't think I would be the politically minded person I am today without them & their music. They spoke to me in a way the nightly news could not, they taught me to question authority, and gave me alot of GREAT music to listen to and to inspire me. Joe Strummer will be sorely missed by me. A great loss to the music world, just when he was about to be honored for his contribution to the music world, how tragic. Joe, you will always live on thru your music!!! Thanx for all the pleasure you provided me throughout my life. PEACE [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.