by hiss

“It was either bully or be bullied. I was one of the principal bullies. And there was no protection from anyone.” Johnny Mellor is not remembered as a bully by his schoolmates, so what Strummer is talking about here is an interior process: a self-burying, a hardening-up. It was an operation he would repeat 15 years later, to considerably more dramatic effect, when he became the lead singer of The Clash.

True Life: I was a teenage punk rocker. Dead Kennedys by way of Green Day, or something like that, thanks also to the help of some older kid's cousin who was in a local band that played all-ages hell-holes like the Fireside Bowl. Legend goes, as I recall, Dead Kennedys formed after a big Clash show in the Bay. I never got into the Clash as a kid, and it actually led to a tough situation with some dudes who had a band but no bassist - but wouldn't ask me to play with them precisely because I wasn't into the Clash. Now, as an adult, I'm a little more interested, and for almost exactly the same reasons I rejected them way back when - they're interesting to me now because they were pre-fab, privileged, "poseurs". I wasn't mature enough as a kid to understand why anyone would want to shed the skin they're in (as Joe Strummer had) in favor of something new, and could not comprehend how much of a challenge that would be.

Classic Hubski Q&A style, somewhat relevant to the thread of memory going on in other posts: How and why did you re-invent yourself throughout your life? Culturally/socially, professionally, etc. Interested in it all. I'm currently in a serious transition period, and picking up a lot of skills I never thought I'd want or need. More on that later. Curious about your thoughts/experiences and won't have the time to write throughout the day, but will indeed have the time to read.