Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash

my rating of this book says i really liked it, but as it is a band bio, it was, at times, tedious..almost, at times, really effing boring. but who cares, right? i have been going through, like, the second great awakening of loving the clash (maybe it's an every 20 years thing? maybe i ought to save the other decent bio for when i'm 55?), so it just isn't enough to listen to, talk about, think about the band...is imperative to _learn shit_, too.

joe strummer is, clearly, the best of the icons who seem too-good-to-be-true, but here is an entirely true story: When i learned that john mellor (or whatever his given name was) was convinced that rock musicians were like mythological figures until he got giddy for woody guthrie and decided that show more he, too, could fight fascists on guitar, i was so fired up that i wanted to tell everybody! how is it that i never put that together?! of COURSE joe strummer was into woody guthrie (talk about a roots rock rebel, right?)! anyhow, i even told my dad all about strummer and guthrie (and also how the name "strummer" was another way to cut-up on himself for his supposedly 'clumsy' playing)...and, as a result of this conversation, my dad dusted off, tuned, and started playing his old guitar again. really! show less

This is the definitive biography of The Clash. Pat Gilbert not only interviews just about every person who was involved with the band but he also paints a detailed picture of what England was like in decades following WWII. The book is well organized and the reader can easily imagine what it was like to be on the road or in the studio with The Clash. Gilbert provides a discography and a bibliography. The only thing I was disappointed with was the lack of photos. There were a few pages but it wasn't enough. This book is a must-read for any fan of The Clash.

- just when I thought that the last thing the world needed was another book about the Clash, I'm proven wrong: this book is a well-written, very readable summary of the information in earlier books with lots of new, additional quotes/obsevations from many different people..

pretty good