Joe Strummer quotes

Joe Strummer was a British musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder and frontman of the punk rock band The Clash. His work helped shape the sound and message of punk music in the late 1970s and 1980s. He is remembered for his political activism, passionate performances, and lasting influence on generations of artists. Here are 53 of his quotes:

When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there. (Joe Strummer)
I hate it when I go out and I see parents going, 'don't do that', or 'stop doing that' when some kid's just hanging off a staircase or something. There's too much of this, 'don't do that. View quote
Joe Strummer
For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across. View quote
Joe Strummer
My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more. View quote
Joe Strummer
Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one. View quote
Joe Strummer
I just want to go back to rockin', but I'm uncertain as to what to actually do ... The truth is, I never stopped thinking about rock 'n' roll for a second that I'm on holiday. View quote
Joe Strummer
What's holding me up is I'm confused about the nature of the music. Because the modern music doesn't reach me. I mean to say the sound of the modern electric production. A lot of sequencers... synths. That's what people are buying. Because that doesn't reach me, it throws me back to like 1948, but I don't want to be there. Back there, I'm talking about blues records.... The roots of rock 'n' roll is rhythm and blues and that's like really where I'm at, where I was always at. View quote
Joe Strummer
If you're allowed to make your mistakes, I think you should. But people don't really like hearing you admit them. Although I'd never wanted to dump on the musicians that were involved in that.... Because it was not their fault. View quote
Joe Strummer
The way you get a better world is, you don't put up with substandard anything. View quote
Joe Strummer
All the power's in the hands of people rich enough to buy it. View quote
Joe Strummer
Anybody who makes speeches written by someone else is just a robot. (Joe Strummer)
I like to just feel how I feel and not worry about it really. View quote
Joe Strummer
You have the right not to be killed, unless it was done by a policeman or an aristocrat. View quote
Joe Strummer
[T]he toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough. View quote
Joe Strummer
What I like about playing America is you can be pretty sure you're not going to get hit with a full can of beer when you're singing and I really enjoy that! View quote
Joe Strummer
I'm a human being. I'm not dumping on what I've done. I mean I know we were doing social (stuff), all right? I just don't like boastin' about it, OK? I know what we were doin'. I know damn well what we did. But I ain't gonna start crying about it now, all right? View quote
Joe Strummer
I think you have to grow up and realise that we're facing religious fanatics who would kill everyone in the world who doesn't do what they say. The more time you give them the more bombs they'll get. Bin Laden is going to try and kill more people. It helps the fanatics. View quote
Joe Strummer
Too many songs have been written about love already, you know? Subject's covered. View quote
Joe Strummer
I would say it was about time that you believe in something. And sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll ain't it.... A lot of people used to think they were. View quote
Joe Strummer
I'd like to say that people people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. Show me any country and there'll be people in it. And it's the people that make the country. People have got to stop pretending they're not on the world. People are running about following their little tracks. I am one of them. But we've all gotta stop just stop following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything; this is something that I'm beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other; it's because they've been dehumanized. It's time to take that humanity back into the centre of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed... it ain't going anywhere! They should have that on a big billboard across Times Square. Think on that. Without people you're nothing. View quote
Joe Strummer
It's good to be sent back to the underground. There's always a good side to bad things and the good side to this is that at least everyone has to go back down. (Joe Strummer)
I'd define it as self-awareness: an ability to trust your own judgment. An ability to see through veils of bullshit or spins on stories or propaganda. Maybe an ability to think for yourself. View quote
Joe Strummer
I'll tell you something. When you see you become part of the cycle of generations, you lose your ego in the process, because you ain't nothin' special. You're just another cipher in the generations. When you devote all your interest into another person, you lose your self-obsession, and that's when you understand what it is. You don't know (anything) without that moment. You don't want anything to harm this helpless being. That's a fantastic change. And that's when you understand what's happening. I never understood anything until my first baby looked at me. I didn't understand (anything). Now I understand. View quote
Joe Strummer
Yeah, all those things, responsibility, pressure. It's a bit stressful. I try and come to terms with it by not thinking about it. View quote
Joe Strummer
I don't want to look back. I want to keep going forward, I still have something to say to people. View quote
Joe Strummer