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Primus at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, 1030 15th Street, Suite 100, Sacramento, CA on Sep 14
Menomena at Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Avenue, Seattle, WA on Sep 10
Ratatat at Riviera Night Club, 4746 North Racine Avenue, Chicago, IL on Sep 10
The Black Keys at Verizon Wireless Music Center, 12880 East 146th Street, Noblesville, IN on Sep 03
Joe Strummer Loved Bruce Springsteen
[Sound of the City via Letters of Note]
In 1977, when Joe Strummer was asked of his opinion on Bruce Springsteen by documentary producer Mark Hagen, Strummer faxed back a hand written note about why he loves the Boss. It’s a very impassioned note, and gets the heart of the matter for all of those who are fans of the Boss. The film “Bruce Springsteen: A Secret History” is a documentary that was televised in Britain on the eve of the release of Sprinsteen’s box set, Tracks. Strummer wrote: “Bruce is great. If you don’t agree, you are a pretentious martian from venus.”
Amen, Joe.
See the original note after the jump.
And, to show his mutual respect for Joe Strummer, here’s Bruce performing”I Fought the Law”:
4 Comments
Very, very cool to see the note — a very interesting read.
It should be noted that Strummer did not write “I Fought The Law” (Sunny Curtis did), although The Clash’s version is arguably the most impassioned.
So was Bruce giving a tip of the hat to The Clash, Bobby Fuller — or both?
Hey Mr. Murphy,
If you check out where the note was originally posted (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/11/bruce-is-great.html) they say “Springsteen returned the compliment during a gig in 2008, declaring Strummer ‘one of the greatest rockers of all time’ before launching into a rendition of I Fought the Law.”
So I assume the tip of the hat is to Strummer when he plays that song… but it could possibly be both. Wouldn’t be out of the realm of reason.
Jocelyn
Man, I miss Joe Strummer . . .
Strummer mentions the song “Racing in the Street”, which was on Bruce’s ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ album… released June 1978. So I think the year this note is attributed to is incorrect by at least one year. Frankly I would have been surprised if Strummer had made such an impassioned plea in support of Bruce before ‘Darkness’ was released.
Bruce is indeed all the things Joe Strummer says. It’s too bad he got so big, I would selfishly like to have him more to myself. :-)