Rocker Joe Strummer Is Rolling With the Punches, as Always

“Rock the Casbah� is on the list of “inappropriate songs� circulated by the nation’s largest radio conglomerate after the events of Sept. 11.

And there’s renewed relevance to other, older Clash songs, such as “Tommy Gun� (“You’ll be dead when your war is won�) and “Hate and War� (“The hate of a nation a million miles from home�).

In this charged atmosphere comes Clash founder Joe Strummer and his current band, the Mescaleros, who have flown to the United States to promote their latest album, “Global A-Go-Go.�

Strummer says he considered canceling the tour after the terror attacks:

“Immediately after it happened, I thought maybe people aren’t in the mood for something as frivolous as entertainment. But I got a couple of pals in the city, and I called them, and they said come.�

He flew into New York--�the plane was half-empty�--to play on “Late Show With David Letterman.� While there, he says, “we went down to ground zero to take a look. I took in a lungful. The smell is quite strange.

“You’d never think anybody could conceive of something so terrible.�

He didn’t seem to mind that “Rock the Casbah,� a Top 10 hit in 1982, was on a list of unsuitable songs.

“So was ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,�’ he says. “I think for the line ‘Life goes on.�’

Not so far removed from “Rock the Casbah,� Strummer blends a dizzying array of international reference points with compelling world beats on the “Global A-Go-Go� album, issued in July. He mentions “good hip-hop in Islamabad� amid titles such as “Bhindi Bagee� and “Mondo Bongo.�

A Band of ‘Individualistic, Pretty Strange People’

The son of a British diplomat and born in Turkey, Strummer, 49, heads a band that seems half his age, spanning years as well as time zones.

“Promise me you’ll put these guys’ names in the article,� he says, mentioning percussionist Pablo Cook, bassist and guitarist Scott Shields, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Martin Slattery, Tymon Dogg on violin and mandolin, and Richard Flack on background vocals and loops. Two more musicians lifted from the band the Longpigs accompany them on bass and drums, freeing Shields to play more guitar on the road.

With all the musicians, the sounds can take a lot of directions, he says.

“The credit has to go to all the musicians in the Mescaleros, who are all quite individualistic, and pretty strange people,� Strummer says. “So they play strange. And that has really given the album its sound.�

Strummer’s familiarity with the echoey throbs of reggae dub that dominate the sounds dates to his earliest days with the Clash.

“I keep going back to King Tubby and the classic period of dub, from ’74 to whatever,� Strummer says. “They seem to have done it all back then. I haven’t really heard anybody add anything since.�

It seemed to blend naturally with the blasting rock of London, he says, “Because there’s a large West Indian population over here. And in all the cities, we got a lot of blues dances, where they play reggae in basements, basically. There was always a lot of that going on.�

With the short blasts of upheaval that made up the classic first Clash album in 1977, they also took time to include a Junior Murvin staple they had heard at one of the parties.

“We had ‘Police and Thieves’ on our first record, and that really pointed the way we were going to go,� Strummer says of the Clash.

The reaction was somewhat mixed in the gob-splattered atmosphere of those days.

“A lot of the dyed-in-the-wool punks who don’t like change at all were probably howling in horror,� he says. “But mostly, people seemed to really go with it.�

In addition, reggae fans began to get a taste of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Don Letts, who’s the guy who made all our videos and the documentary

The Clash went on to live up to its “only band that matters� ranking--one that stuck long after it began imploding in the mid-1980s, after just one U.S. hit, “Rock the Casbah.�

“We had the one hit record,� Strummer says. “Which, if you think about it over the last 25 years, it doesn’t seem like much.�

But he agrees the band managed to open doors for others.

“That’s true,� he says upon reflection. “We made some headway.�

*

Roger Catlin is rock music critic for the Hartford Courant, a Tribune company.

*

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros play today at the House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, 9 p.m. $27.50. (714) 778-2583. Also Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and next Friday at the Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 8 p.m. $30 (Next Friday sold out). (310) 276-6168.