Top 70 Quotes & Sayings by Joe Strummer
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English musician Joe Strummer.
Last updated on December 22, 2024.
When we played Paris, the English punks would come over, and they got to know the French punks. There was some nice scenes in the back alleys.
I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't.
I found that I was just hopeless at school. It was just a total bore. First, I passed in art and English, and then just art. Then I passed out.
We sing in English, not mimicking some American rock singer's accent. That's just pretending to be something you ain't.
With The Simpsons you can go back to work with a keen heart.
Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control. And it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realized that you either became a power or you were crushed.
To me, our music is like Jamaican stuff - if they can't hear it, they're not supposed to hear it. It's not for them if they can't understand it.
All hippies around now just represent complete apathy.
You can only follow what's on your mind. In fact, a song is something you write because you can't sleep unless you write it.
The hippy movement was a failure.
The only place I considered home was the boarding school, in Yorkshire, my parents sent me to.
We did eight gigs in super-stadiums, all the biggest joints - L.A. Coliseum, Oakland Coliseum, Shea Stadium.
Politically at that time, with Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the White House, it wasn't looking too great for the Left. And we were always on the left.
I think we're going to have to forget about the radio and just go back to word of mouth.
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!
I get on all right with my parents. But I don't see them very much. They split up when I was eight. I stayed with my mum, but I felt it was a bit soft with her. I could do whatever I liked, and I wasn't getting nowhere, so I went to stay with my dad.
If you ain't thinkin' about man and God and law, then you ain't thinkin' about nothin'.
You don't write on tour; it takes all your concentrating to make the gig - that's survival technique. Afterwards, you run around town to find interesting hipsters and go to all the interesting spots. You got to go to every hotspot until everything has closed down.
Yeah, all those things, responsibility, pressure. It's a bit stressful. I try and come to terms with it by not thinking about it.
The future is unwritten.
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.
I'm proud of all our records. Even the crap ones.
I began thinking there should be an American phrase book, 'cause I've got an Italian phrase book, and an Arabic one... now a British one. I think it'd be pretty good to have an American phrase book.
I don't want to look back. I want to keep going forward, I still have something to say to people.
We didn't have any solution to the world's problems. I mean, we were trying to grow up in a socialist way to some future where the world might be less of a miserable place than it is.
If I had five million pounds I'd start a radio station because something needs to be done. It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that didn't make you feel like smashing up the kitchen and strangling the cat.
A lot of the time I'm semi-insane, but there is a slight bit of intelligence there.
If you ain't thinkin about man and God and law, then you ain't thinkin about nothin'.
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.
I like to read because it's the opposite of being on the go. Reading is the perfect antidote.
To me our music is like Jamaican stuff - if they can't hear it, they're not supposed to hear it. It's not for them if they can't understand it.
When you're out to get the honey you don't go killing all the bees
People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world.
Strummer's Law: No input, no output.
Don't forget you're alive. 'Cause sometimes when you walk around the city and you're in a bad mood, you can think, hey, wait a minute, we're alive! We don't know what the next second will bring and what a fantastic thing this is. This can get easily forgotten in the routine of life, and that's something I'm trying to bring to my attention at all times. Don't forget you're alive. We're not dead, you know. This is the greatest thing.
Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed
All the power's in the hands of people rich enough to buy it.
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.
The way you get a better world is, you don't put up with substandard anything.
I don't have any other message than don't forget you are alive
I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.
In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human beings.
You have the right not to be killed, unless it was done by a policeman or an aristocrat.
When I started, they told me I only needed 3 chords and the truth... It turned out I could manage with 2 and some vague ideas.
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.
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... It's time to take that humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time... Think on that. Without people you're nothing.
The toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough.
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'. The whole thing baffles me.
I learnt that fame is an illusion and everything about it is just a joke. I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.
I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. ... I want to grow up with my audience. I don't expect to be getting through to the younger pop crowd. I learned that from Paul Simon. ... 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. ... People have told me songs I've written have changed their life. That's remarkable. That keeps your faith.
everybody has a story to tell
We`re all going to have to learn to live together and develop a greater tolerance and get rid off whatever our fathers gave us in the way of hatred between nations.
Greed, it ain't going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you're nothing.
You've gotta be slightly stupid.
There is nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
It is fun to be alive. It's a hell of a lot better than being dead.
Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth'
I like to just feel how I feel and not worry about it really.
Don't write slogans, write truths.
We aren't particularly talented. We try harder!
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