The Only ever Joe Strummer

The day that changed the future!

As I sit here watching Joe Strummer and the Mescalero's "Groundwork" and everyday is the same, wishing Joe was still around with us all.

I will NEVER forget the day I heard that Joe had gone, it was the day before Christmas eve 2002......it was actually at 7pm (Australian daylight saving time)

I opened my e-mails, one was from the Clash list I was a member of it read...... "JOE STRUMMER IS DEAD"

I went numb, white, in shock, as I collected my thoughts I remember thinking NO!!! it's a joke and not funny!

I started screaming and many many tears followed... as I still just like grief you cannit believe it but still you go through the motions! This was a man that I adored I admired, I listened to everyday in songs and words, every word Joe said soaked in like a sponge,

He made more sense than any politician in any party in any part of the world! Joe Strummer dead at 50!!

His heart gave out, the very heart that touched millions of people from every culture every corner of the world!

I spent the night crying with very little support as he was only a 'man' that I had never met!...That was my loss!

The next day was Christmas eve,.... I had to drive a 200km round trip to pick my brother up from a airport, How I did it was auto pilot. Christmas?? Why?? How could I be Happy knowing if I was hurting this bad how his family and fellow band members were feeling?...... yeah Merry Christmas!..... right get over it!

My sister had bout me a ruby and clear crystal named 'Dragon tears' ....it reads.... I thought it so appropriate as she never knew about Joe even though she is older than me. So rather 'eerie' Dragonstears

The Dragon's Tear.... Shed from Sadness forms a precious stone capturing Happiness and Joy rather than a soul torn asunder. Each tear shows not the heartbreak of being alone but rather this form of beauty has it's own magical wonder.

Christmas I tried but kept running to my car to put on a Clash song and crying. I had a few drinks to Joe Christmas that day,.... The bottles I keep in my room, near a framed photo like a shrine to him as I do to Sid Vicious,

but I was only 10 when Sid died so I didn't know really what it all meant. 25 years later though I still grieve for sid.

So the grief I have for 33 years on the planet with Joe expands that somewhat. Remembering the day 'Rock the Casbah' came out so people who were only into 'pop' finally knew who the Clash were!

Day in day out I played the Clash. So excited about Joe's 'bringing it all back home' tour with the mescalero's he had found happiness in after many years out of the rock scene. Some days hit harder than others.

On Joe's Birthday 21-08-2003 I planted a tree a native blackwood tree, something that was close to Joe's heart. Native plants!
it has grown at least 8 times bigger than when I first planted the tree I fittingly call "Strummer" Joe'stributetree

UPDATE........21st AUGUST 2004The council knocked on my door a few months back and told me I would have to get 'rid' of my blackwood 'Strummer' or they would dig it up and take it away,
due to in 20 years it will be 'big'! Great Devonport council!
Tryin to fight them got me nowhere so rather than give Strummer to the council, I donated him to a platypus sanctuary that Land Care are devoloping, so that Strummer can live his 100 years free and safe.
I was upset when 'he left'...Afterall it was a memorial for Joe n the great powers to be MADE ME get rid of it!!!..... but i can visit Strummer anytime i wish to, ironically enough he is planted nearby where my nephew was killed in a motorbike accident.

I placed a bamboo pipe there to fill the 'emptiness' of 'Strummer' then came along........

'JIMMY JAZZ' spiked ivy

So months later bein today Joe's 52nd birthday, 2nd birthday since he passed on...I went back to the same nursery and purchased a 'spikey ivy' that I have planted on top of the bamboo pole,where Strummer was once planted.
jimmy jazz

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE for the 21st AUGUST 2004...what would of been your 52nd birthday!

FOREVER STRUMMER

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