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18 Apr 2008 THE SILENCE OF THE BASS GUITAR

Finally I saw "The Future is Unwritten", a documentary by Julien Temple on Joe Strummer, leader of The Clash. As a fan, the movie often touched my heart, as a man it made me question: "Where am I at?" But one thing, maybe more than Joe Strummer's loss, left me highly disturbed: the silence of the bass player, Paul Simonon. I've always admired him, because he was handsome, cool and tender, clumsy in his first performances, classy later on. A hard worker, a classmate rather than an elder brother like Strummer. His absence in the movie seems to endure the hostile atmosphere that poisoned the backstage as The Clash disrupted. Beyond death.

I saw Joe and Paul play toghether twice in Rome, mid eighties and mid nineties. Second time they performed "Straight to Hell", one of my favourite tunes (I used it as a lullaby to put my daughter asleep!). In that moment, they were playing for me.

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