Down on the road...

Having an unbearably sad day and finally made myself go for a long walk. 30 blocks outta my way to get a pound of coffee at Fairway. The guy there asked me about my sharpie tattoo. It happens. I told him the story and he asked if he could take a picture of it, much to the bemusement of the couple sidling up for a half pound of Italian. When I got home, as I iced the rehabbing heel, I thought to have a look at something- this clip of Joe Strummer on David Letterman.

This and the show I went to at Irving Plaza were his final appearances in NYC before his sudden, untimely death (of an undiagnosed "congenital heart defect") just before Xmas in 2002. I was flying to London on an overnight and got the news after landing when DJ Krispy met me at Heathrow. Later we went down to Ladbrooke Grove tube station and watched his funeral cortege pass with hundreds of other fans in the rain.

The first time I found this clip on YouTube, I immediately sent it to Summer and we were both in tears. It's one of the most soulful, moving, ethereal performances I've ever seen. I hadn't watched it in a while. Maybe not since The Worst Thing Ever...

"Let the Summer time sun fall on the apple.
Fall on the apple...
Lord, here comes a Buick '49
Black sheep of the angels
Riding down the line
We think there is a soul (we don't know...)
That soul is hard to find down on the road.
Down on the road
We know every road..."

My angel knows. Can't wait to be with you. So very lonely waiting here down on the road, down on the road...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kJ2S9BasUc&feature=related