Joe the Strummer

by

by Eric Martin

I must confess that I have an unfair advantage over many of my fellow citizens come election day in that my designated polling place happens to be in the lobby of my apartment building.  No distance to travel, no consulting a map, no mixups: just roll out of bed and pull the lever in my boxers.

Despite my cushy voting existence, today, things didn’t exactly go as planned.  I ended up spending an hour on a line that stretched a full city block just to get back into my lobby.  The line was easily more than twice as long as 2004 – and this is New York City! Where our votes count little!  And yet, there was this interminable line of people exuding a palpable excitement, if a bit dampened with a touch of groginess.

On an unrelated note, my mind kept inserting various Clash tracks into my cerebral disc player while I was waiting to vote, and I haven’t been able to get the buggers out all day.  Then I got to thinking that Joe Strummer would probably be smiling broadly at today’s events – it’s his kind of election.  And that’s when it dawned on me: Joe Strummer has chosen me as his vessel to communicate to the people from beyond the grave on this most joyous of days.  Joe in his own words:

Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator

Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands sound systems
And if they’ve got anything to say
There’s many black ears here to listen

But it was Four Tops all night with encores from stage right
Charging from the bass knives to the treble
But onstage they ain’t got no roots rock rebel
Onstage they ain’t got no…roots rock rebel

Dress back jump back this is a bluebeat attack
‘Cos it won’t get you anywhere
Fooling with your guns
The British Army is waiting out there
An’ it weighs fifteen hundred tons

White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution

Punk rockers in the UK
They won’t notice anyway
They’re all too busy fighting
For a good place under the lighting

The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha you think it’s funny
Turning rebellion into money

All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They’d send a limousine anyway

I’m the all night drug-prowling wolf
Who looks so sick in the sun
I’m the white man in the Palais
Just lookin’ for fun

I’m only looking for fun

19 thoughts on “Joe the Strummer”

  2. You guys really should go to a mail-in vote as we have in Oregon. No hassle. Discuss your vote with your spouse in the comfort of your own home. No standing in line. Fill it out a bit at a time as you study the candidates and propositions. When done, just drop it into one of the collections box (they look just like mail collection boxes) conveniently located around town. No muss, no fuss, and no way the Republicans can intimidate or mislead voters.

  4. …pull the lever in my boxers.
    Sorry…it’s a bit childish, but I had to giggle :)…
    Yeah, Eric; get a grip……

  5. Election Day ’08 Best New Euphemism winner:
    “pull the lever in my boxers.”
    (and the votes come spurting out)

  7. Chris: ever realize how OFTEN Dems lie, cheat, and imtimidate? Just NOW, in NH, the Dem Sec. of State has been trying to keep GOP observers AWAY from the polls. And there has been complaints of the Dems illegally registering illegal immigrants.
    I have MANY reasons for despising the Dem party. Dishonesty being one of them.
    Sincerely, Sean

  9. I have MANY reasons for despising the Dem party.
    how lucky for you!
    and how doubly-fortunate that the GOP has never done anything even close to lying, cheating or intimidating. they are as pure as God’s own tears, and twice as nutritious.

  10. Sean, if you have evidence of any organized attempts to violate the integrity of our elections, then I’d love to hear it. I know that there are a few cases these days, and I know that there were some serious cases in the past (Chicago 1960, for example). But I am unaware of any evidence of misbehavior by Democrat sympathizers on anywhere near the level that we have seen among Republican sympathizers.

  13. Election Day Gloating

    No, not over the result. (After all, who could possibly guess what the result’s going to be, what with all the shifting momentum and whatnot being “reported”? I mean, that’s bound to be a complete, imponderable enigma.) No, I’m gloating…

  14. Oh man, I was crushed when Joe Strummer passed on. I loved that guy. God bless you for making me think of him on this day.

  17. from your post:
    Lately I’ve been thinking Joe Strummer, Eddie Hinton and John Lennon would be smiling, if they were still here, at the thought of an Obama presidency.
    Lennon! Yes. And Hinton too.

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