Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer

All this week PopMatters is offering exclusive excerpts from the new Chris Salewicz biography of Joe Strummer, published this week in the U.S. by Faber & Faber.

Monday [5/21]: In the first installment, beginning with news of Strummer’s death, Salewicz remembers Joe’s drive, humor, and constant internal conflict. [read | listen]

Tuesday [5/22]: Hop aboard the Anarchy tour bus for an exclusive ride with everyman’s thinking man and his smart band: the Clash’s first tour, first single, and their first album. [read | listen]

Wednesday [5/23]: Strummer hangs with Warhol; Thatcher comes to power, and after a lot of sweaty work in a shadowy space in the back of a garage, London Calling is unveiled like a gleaming, bad-ass drag racer. [read | listen]

Thursday [5/24]: Megavitamins and beer, egos and conflict, Combat Rock goes on tour and Mick Jones gets the (combat) boot. [read | listen]

Friday [5/25]: Earthquake Weather sets Strummer wandering solo through his “wilderness years” in the not so barren climate of Southern California. [read | listen]

Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer

by Chris Salewicz

Faber and Faber

May 2007, 640 pages, $30.00

Excerpts from REDEMPTION SONG: The Ballad of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz, published this week by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Copyright © 2006 by Chris Salewicz. All rights reserved.