Mick Jones: The Right Profile

In less than a decade, the songwriting duo of Mick Jones and Joe Strummer wove the Clash's incendiary idealism into songs that embraced the group's diverse influences from dub to R&B, forcing fans and critics to rethink the meaning of punk. On October 20, the Rock Hall debuted its latest exhibit, Revolution Rock: The Story of the Clash. The collection highlights the career of the 2003 Rock Hall inductees, with everything from Strummer's typewriter and favorite Telecasters to bassist Paul Simonon's smashed instrument featured on the cover of London Calling and the outfits from the group's Combat Rock days. Sony will release a 19-disc collection on November 14, featuring all of the Clash's singles, aptly titled The Singles. We sat down with the man behind many of those monumental recordings.

First off, how is it being in a museum, especially being surrounded by people such as Bo Diddley and Sam and Dave?
It's nice when people are interested in what you are doing, or what you have done. You know, it's a bit weird being alive and being in a museum as well — it's quite heavy to go day by day with that weight. And at the same time, it's really cool, and it's great that people find out about the band and stuff, because it's really a worthwhile thing. I think more importantly we [the Clash] were nice guys. In a way, we always thought how we might be nice to others. That's what was really meant with all the records and everything we said. We tried to help people along.

And I know you've said that in the early days that was one of the things that separated you from many of the other bands of that time — that you didn't have this nihilistic outlook.
That was one kind of strain of [the London punk scene of the late '70s]. It was like really destroy — all things must be destroyed. And we were like the other side in a way, and we were saying, 'Like, wait, hang on a minute.'

You've also had a positive message.
Yeah, I think it's important. But it didn't stem out of being right-on political or anything like that. It had more to do with how we were affected ourselves, personally. And that is what we wrote, from a very personal level.

How important is it to have a positive message in music?
I don't subscribe to the "miserablist" school at all, you know what I mean? I think things are bad enough as it is. Everybody has problems, and I think music is part of the thing that helps you get through them or something. That's what it's supposed to do, It's supposed to uplift you, isn't it — not make you go even further down, cry.

How difficult was it choosing from years and years of memories what would go in the exhibit?
It was a [case of] what is left available as well, because I have given a lot of stuff away, and I know the others had as well, but I know they've got some good stuff, and I am looking forward to seeing it, but I know they got some good stuff in the rest of the museum as well.

Specifically, the Clash, albums that are decades old now, still continue to influence a whole new generations of musicians. Why do you think that is?
I think because Joe [Strummer] meant it. He wasn't a faker in any way, and neither were the rest of us. And people recognize that. They can tell. It's just a magic thing really, because the four of us got together and we clicked — a great thrill, that. Only once in a while something like that happens, I guess. It was a really heartfelt thing, and it was honest and sincere. And I think that's probably why. We knew what we were about, we didn't tell you how it was going to be, "you're going to give your love to me." [clapping and singing Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away"]

I think you've influenced a lot of people as a guitarist. What were some of your idols growing up in terms of being a guitarist?
It was lucky for me, because I grew up in the late '60s, and I started going to concerts really young. I would go see any band before I had any kind of discriminatory facility at all — I liked everything. Then I started to realize what I did like and what I didn't like. It was a wonderful time to grow up, because it was very exciting. Carnaby Street, the swinging '60s — it really was like that, and it was a very exciting time. I followed all the bands, and I knew I wanted to be in a band. too. Rock & roll was, even then, a whole lot more than music. It was about style, how you were and how you might have possibly lived if you were lucky enough. Then we carried on that in what we [the Clash] did. But guitarists, specifically, were Keith Richards and Mick Ronson. I used to go see them. David Bowie — Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars — I thought they were a proper band; I thought that was the band. I was a bit upset when they broke up! Pete Townsend also is like a modern master, and not very well appreciated. Jeff Beck, of course. Jimmy Page, I must say. All the greats.

You're naming all these "greats," so is it strange to you when people talk about "the legendary Mick Jones?"
Yeah, it definitely does your head in a bit. I [tried] walking around normally, and I started not thinking about it all the time, and then someone comes up [gestures as if asking for an autograph], which is nice, but then they bring you back in.

Is it difficult for you to get out and just hang out at the pub?
No, it's OK. But as soon as people start to get to know me, I won't go there again. It's just that I don't want to talk.

Are you a shy guy?
No, I just want to think sometimes, that's all I mean. I don't mean to be selfish or uncommunicative.

You produced Baby Shambles, the Libertines. What was is like working with the younger generation?
Really good. They're really charming and totally talented. I thought that was going to be the last record that I ever made by the time we finished the Baby Shambles [Down in Albion, 2006]! It got kind of taken over by this other stuff, all this other stuff. So, I was making the record, and I knew even before I finished the album, that they ain't going to be listening to it in some ways. They're going to be [focusing on] this other stuff that really took over with the press and all the scandal.

It kind of got a bit ridiculous, no?
Over nothing!

So, what are you listening to now of the newer bands?
Well, I like The Streets. Have you heard Lily Allen? She's good. I like things like that. I like certain new stuff. The Killers, this new record [Sam's Town, 2006], I started liking. I wasn't sure about the last one, but this one I kind of like. They're all right those guys. There's loads of bands in England — the Paddingtons, the Holloways, the Kooks. Just so many groups. There's a lot of groups that have come out of that since the Libertines, post-Libertines type. In England — and London especially — we have some new subgenre every couple of weeks. It's new wave this week, and it was emo last week … or 'grindie' a couple of weeks before that, which is a mixture of grime, which is like kind of heavy, dire music, and indie, so it's called 'grindie.' It's an amalgam. They swap and change. They're constantly changing, but only the good stuff really gets through in the end. But there's many good bands just coming up at different stages in their development. You got to do a lot of records; although, things are so much faster now, if you see with the Libertines that went from start to over in only a couple of albums. And that's how fast it can go.

Is that why you've become really keen to put some of your things on the Internet, free to download?
Well, I've been doing that with Tony [James, Carbon/Silicon, formerly of Generation X], for over four years. We're not coming and going, 'oh wow, the Internet.' We wrote the song called "MPFree," which is the name of our label, you know.

And the Carbon/Silicon stuff, particularly "Magic Suitcase…"
That's fantastic and I'm so pleased that you're listening and interested still in what I am doing now. Because it's nice to talk about your defining moment, but as I was saying, it's quite hard because you want to do something new if you still think you got something to say — or are under that illusion. I try to keep most of my contemporary, mad crackpot ideas, and I keep them for my songs. So, if you really want to know what I think, I best express myself through my songs.