#fandomaccessmemory — Public Fediverse posts

Here’s one in memory of Joe Strummer, on the anniversary of his passing.

Back in 2001, a colleague at WFMU named Hova Najarian managed to arrange for Joe Strummer of the Clash to come to the station for an interview and guest DJ set on his show. I was a full time FMU employee back then, and I recall how everyone in the office had these weird jitters because somebody super famous was coming to our little radio station at the end of the day.

I have a history of getting freaked out around famous people. Not that I’ve had many to cross paths with, but whenever it’s happened, I’ve always found myself either slipping into dorky hero worship mode, or getting so spooked by the perceived enormity of the moment that I need to hide. For example, I was once in the same building where PJ Harvey was being interviewed and got so scared that I might accidentally meet her that I went up to the roof and just hung out with the HVAC compressors until I was sure she was gone.

Strummer’s visit was scheduled for the end of the day, and by the time 5 PM rolled around, I’d kind of forgotten about it and was just doing my routine end-of-the-day stuff. Procedural office tasks were farmed out to FMU’s small staff on a rotating basis, and it happened to be my turn to take out the trash, which I’d collected and was in the process of carrying outside to the dumpster.

As I stepped out to the street, I saw Joe Strummer of the Clash reaching to open the door to the real estate office next to FMU’s entrance. Both buildings shared the same address, which is likely why he was confused. Without thinking, I paused in FMU’s doorway and called out to him: “Excuse me, I think the door you’re looking for is over here.”

It was then that Joe Strummer of the Clash, the man whose music had helped guide me out of being a dorky and underachieving teenager into a more serious and semi-confident adult, took his hand off the doorknob he’d been preparing to open and marched towards me. His hand was still outstretched in a manner suggesting that I, mere mortal, should perhaps take it in my own hand and shake it.

Now remember: I am tired. And hungry. And freaked out. It is the end of the workday. Joe Strummer wants to shake hands with me. And I am holding a bag of trash.

So naturally, I immediately fumbled any chance to come off as cool and collected by nearly handing the man who wrote “London Calling” … the bag of trash.

I recovered, albeit awkwardly. I probably managed to introduce myself but was soon further panicked upon realizing that accompanying Joe on this visit was none other than Bob Gruen, the famed photographer who’d taken iconic pictures of John Lennon, Sid Vicious, Jim Morrison, the Rolling Stones, Joan Jett, and pretty much everybody else.

That would be high stress for me all by itself, but I’ve not only got him to deal with, but Joe Strummer. Of the Clash.

Having now identified myself as a representative of the station, Joe and Bob kind of expected that I would shepherd them to whichever floor or studio they were supposed to be in for the interview. So we all go inside and I get into a small elevator with one of the most famous rock & roll photographers in the world, and the guy who sang “Daddy Was a Bankrobber”. Bob Gruen is gushing about WFMU to Joe, namedropping some of his favorite shows and DJs. (I quietly note that I am not one of them, which confirms several dozen suspicions unrelated to this story.) Bob then mentions that one night a week, the station airs archival lectures of the famous British philosopher Alan Watts.

The mention of Watts seems to really stir Joe’s interest, and he looks at me expectantly, as though I might be inclined to elaborate upon this matter.

This is what I said:

“YEAH. ALAN WATTS IS COOL.”

My memory gets fuzzy at this point, but I think Bob Gruen may have offered a polite cough as the elevator made its upward climb. We were only going from street level to the fourth floor -- a 30 second journey at most, but for me it felt like hours. In that moment, it was my singular goal to extract myself from that elevator, and go crawl under my desk to die. My fear of famous people had struck again.

All of this being said, I am happy to report that Joe Strummer was exactly as cool as you’d expect him to be. No attitude, no pretension, curious, kind, soft-spoken. He smelled a bit of cologne and fresh tobacco. He also drank half of a bottled beer while he was doing the interview, and after he left, Hova and I took sips from it in an astonishingly dorky effort to absorb some of Joe Strummer’s DNA into our own systems. It may not be as cool as catching an airborne gob from Johnny Rotten in 1976, but I remain proud of being able to say that in a roundabout sort of way, I once shared a beer with Joe Strummer.

The remains of that beer were sealed up into tiny glass vials and given away to WFMU donors the following year.

Of course I still have mine.

#joestrummer #theclash #wfmu #FandomAccessMemory