What would it mean to find Joe Strummer in your refrigerator?
Metaphorically of course, Joe’s been dead close to two decades, you heard didn’t you?
I ask because the saddest thing was telling people two years later that he had passed – they hadn’t heard and wondered aloud if the Clash would ever reunite and you had to break the news to them – I ask because the biggest lesson of Joe Strummer was not anything he did with The Clash, no, the biggest lesson of Joe Strummer is to not die between Christmas and New Years.
But you can go to your refrigerator now and open it and Joe Strummer might be in there. Metaphorically of course, the punks I knew were so fucking literal, just gotta beat them over the head “metaphor, metaphor” but the light in the fridge will break the darkness and inspire a midnight snack to break the monotony of insomnia on a three-day weekend and the sustenance of the right three chords and the backup singing at just the right moment could fill your soul like a slice of cold pizza and the rest of the gatorade fill your stomach at 1 A.M.
Joe Strummer is in your refrigerator when you take a break from whatever you are creating and the leftovers from Thursday and the rest of the Costco chicken can help you gain three pounds and assist in the all-nighter you have ahead of you as you make the painting or write the novel or find the right chord for that next line or finally master the timing of the punch line for the joke for tomorrow’s open mic, Joe Strummer is in the fridge and he might even hop out and join you as you slather on some butter to that last croissant and eat the donut that has been sitting on your counter winking at you all day.
And you know, The Clash is never going to reunite, so he’s all yours, you can ask him “Joe, I am working on this novel, this painting, this dream of mine and I have a few ways I can take it and I wonder if there is a right way to make it…” and while you fuck your face with the protein and carbs you grabbed (that Joe might have, yikes, been sitting on in there), listen to Joe’s answer, he might guide you past the bullshit and to the part of what you do where you alone can do it.
Joe Strummer is in your refrigerator, go get something to eat and let him tell you how to destroy the walls and take on the world, partner up with mates who have your back and go to war with you and build a stage out of those broken bricks where you all stand and marvel at the world screaming for you to come live in their refrigerator.
You don’t need a diet, you need to let Joe Strummer out of your refrigerator and listen.