Good (Monday) morning and welcome back to the blog, thanks for dropping in. I’m trying to get into gear with extra coffee and so far bed still sounds bloody tempting.

I really hope most of you had time to read the most excellent two-part editorial by The Baker over the weekend which made for great reading. Please make sure you go back and read the comments section on each post where he was kind enough to answer a wide variety of your questions, definitely required reading and thanks again to The Baker for spending so much time writing his replies, hopefully he’ll want to join us again in the future.

As you would anticipate there are a growing number of Joe Strummer/Clash tribute events coming up in November and December to recognise the 10th Anniversary of Joe Strummer passing. I don’t even like writing that sentence as it reminds me just how much time has now passed. The Clash Bloggette asked me the other day did I think I’d still be writing this blog in 20 years time as a 65 year old man, I shot back “I doubt it” and then a more sedate “if people still come to the site and read it, then of course”, so barring death expect the blog to run a few more years yet. As for the anniversary events; expect a special preview of everything on tap in about a weeks time, there are going to be a fair few choices for many of us around the world. This week I’ve got some catching up to do and (hopefully) a podcast with an interview in the very near future, at least two and perhaps three people are lined up to chat about The Clash with me…for you…as it were.

One thing I never wrote about back in July somehow was the rather unexpected guest appearance by Mick Jones on the comeback single by The Wallflowers. Apparently they’d been away for seven years (who knew, a bit like Arsenal!) and are now back in business with a new album. I’d be lying if I said I was a fan or knew very much about them except for the most common knowledge such as the band includes none other than Bob Dylan’s son Jakob. Since hearing the song which is featured below I had wondered briefly if the association with Mick came about due to Bob’s own fondness for The Clash? If memory serves me correctly I think I read (in a Clash book?, correct me below) that the younger Dylan was even taken to a Clash concert in New York circa 1981 when he would have been about 12 years old and went on to be a huge fan growing up. As this interview with Jakob Dylan on Spinner.com shows though the appearance by Mick Jones on the track ‘Reboot The Mission’ seems to have had fr more to do with Jack Irons which when reading it (the article) had totally escaped me that he was now with The Wallflowers as of the beginning of this year. Irons, as you know, was previously with The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam but also briefly worked with Joe Strummer as part of The Latino Rockabilly War. He has quite the history it has to be said. The song itself is fine, Mick featuring in the chorus and Joe Strummer name-checked in the lyrics with appropriate reverence. I like it. I would suggest that Jakob was either misquoted or forgetful when mentioning London Calling and how many sides it had, he’s only a shade younger than me so surely remember vinyl:

“There’s the really dominant Clash songs everyone knows, but there was a lot of stuff on Sandinista! or the second side of London Calling that was very different than some of the more topical or radio songs people knew.”             Jakob Dylan

That’s all from me for now, more shortly of course plus don’t forget you can stay current or interact via our growing Facebook gang or complain to me via Twitter and if you don’t want the hassle of visiting the site it can be mailed nice and fresh to you each day via the RSS feed.

The Wallflowers featuring Mick Jones ‘Reboot The Mission’

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