40 Year Itch : Joe Strummer's Lightening Bolt

That's Joe Strummer on the right

The 101ers : Keys to Your Heart

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   On April 3, 1976 the Sex Pistols opened for Joe Strummer's pub rock / rockabilly/ R and B band, the 101ers, at the Nashville. Within five seconds of hearing the punk rockers' opening set, Strummer saw the light: "As soon as I saw them , I knew that rhythm and blues was dead and that the future was here," Strummer told rock journalist Caroline Coon later in 1976. "But hearing the Pistols, I knew. I just knew. It was something you knew without bothering to think about it. Punk Rock is the music of the now."

    Just three months later, Strummer, Mick Jones, Bassist Paul Simonon, drummer Terry Chimes and a third guitarist , future Public Image Ltd's Keith Levene, played their first gig, supporting the Sex Pistols at the Black Swan Pub in Sheffield on July 4. They called themselves The Clash.

     The band's early playlists included the Strummer-penned 101er single "Keys to Your Heart", "London's Burning", "White Riot", "Career Opportunities", "1977" and "I'm So Bored of You" ( later rewritten as "I'm So Bored of the USA").

     Also at the gig that April evening was future Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan who would later say of the Sex Pistols "They were the best rock'n'roll band of all time . I just couldn't believe it. This was the band I'd been waiting for."

40 Year Itch : The Brotherhood of the Eye Patch

James Booker : Junco Partner

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Last Wednesday I woke up with double vision. It was an interesting commute to get into work . Then the novelty wore off and I realized I'd better see a doctor. That doctor told me to go straight to the emergency room. That's because double vision, or diplopia, can be a sign of a stroke or aneurysm, a brain tumor, multiple sclerosis or some kind of rare disease. It can also just be one of those things that happen without explanation...which is where I am right now. So I am writing this with an eyepatch, expecting any day to get an appointment scheduled with one of three neuro opthamologists in the Seattle area. Not an appointment. An appointment scheduled. I'm told it may weeks before I ever see one of them.

  So to make the best of a not very good situation, I took out a gold pen and painted a star on my patch in tribute to New Orleans pianist James Booker, who , 40 years ago, released Junco Partner. The title track is about a junkie. It had already been done by Dr John, but Booker's version runs deeper. It's more wounded. And I can identify with that these days.

Across the Atlantic, Joe Strummer and his pub rock band, the 101ers, was also playing "Junco Partner" in their live set. The Clash would later record a version for Sandinista!