Clashed With The Clash

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

One day in NYC I was perched on the roof of our Volvo Station Wagon reading the SOHO News. The Clash were on the cover as they were in town for a bunch of shows.

My girlfriend, Diane and I ,were waiting for someone else to join us as we headed out of NYC for a weekend with friends upstate.

A car pulled up behind us and 3 chatracters jumped out and ran off.

“Hey Diane, Paul Simonon and Joe Strummer from The Clash just jumped out of the car behind us?”

Well that got her attention and mine….

Minutes later the dread locked driver (Don Letts maybe?) came back. I leapt down from the roof of my rusty red wagon and said, “Hey man, that was Paul and Joe from The Clash, what’s happening?

“Yeah, they are doing an interview at WBLS with Frankie Crocker, you wanna come along?”

Diane locked the car and we jumped in the front seat of their vehicle and drove around to WBLS. Don offered us some cognac and we both had a pull, parked and ran up to the building that housed the station.

There we found ourselves, Diane with her handy camera ready and we listened and watched the interview through the glass. Time passed quickly and soon it was over and crashing out of the studio were the boys.

We were the only people there, very few staff around, and we chatted for a bit about music, NY, life, and then they had to blast off. They were our peers. We were all in our 20’s.

They said you guys should come along to the gigs this weekend. I look back at my 24-year-old self and I did not hesitate for a moment.

“We would love to but we are heading off for a weekend in the country to hang with friends, but, would have loved to!”

We rode the lift down and out and bid our farewells. My signed cover of The Soho News, some photos that have disintegrated with time, and a shit-eating grin on my face.

40 years later and with hundreds of gigs under my belt, I still wonder how I refused that invitation?

Simple, my friends are important to me. Tend that garden.