News
Can you measure a soul?
Douglas Hofstadter thinks you can. In the 2007 summation of his life's work, “I Am a Strange Loop,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning mathematician/physicist argues (non-religiously) for the existence of a “spirit” or a state of consciousness that he calls a “soul” -- and further asserts it can be quantified.
On Hofstadter's scale, Mother Theresa's soul was bigger than, say, Charles Manson's. By his definition, animals could be said to have souls too, although a dog's soul will by necessity be smaller than a typical human's, and a goldfish's smaller yet.
You may scoff, but Craven finds a lot of merit in Hofstadter's theories. And amongst the many arguments to support those theories, there looms the original White Man in Hammersmith Palais: Joe Strummer.
Joe Strummer was a man with a lot of soul. I'm not speaking here in the sense of “soul music,” but in the sense that Hofstadter uses the word. Strummer (who is known best to the hoi polloi as the lead singer of the 1980s punk band, the Clash, and who died almost eight years ago from a previously undetected congenital heart defect) was larger-than-life, cared deeply for people and the planet, and many were changed in the turbulent wake of his passion.
Even in the late '70s and early '80s heyday of punk rock, Strummer stood out. Older than his peers, Strummer had been playing with his second band, the pub rock outfit called the 101'ers, for a couple years already before the night in April 1976, when one of their gigs was opened by a new and startling combo called the Sex Pistols.
Strummer, who had been driven toward left-wing politics following the suicide of his neo-Nazi brother, David, several years earlier, saw revolutionary potential in the new genre of punk rock. When he was approached by guitarist Mick Jones and punk impresario Bernie Rhodes shortly thereafter to join the new band they were forming, he jumped at the opportunity.
During the next decade, Strummer and the Clash fundamentally changed the face of rock ‘n' roll. They transformed punk from a nihilistic, fashion-oriented fad into a movement infused with a political awareness and sense of purpose absent from the music industry for several years. They also mined varied influences that widened the musical scope of punk. (Their cover of Junior Murvin's “Police and Thieves” and their original “[White Man in] Hammersmith Palais” are considered the first punk-reggae songs, and they introduced a brand new audience to the nascent genre of hip-hop when they enlisted Grandmaster Flash to open for their legendary 1981 Times Square concerts.)
In the years since Strummer's passing, his legend lives on. In 2006, New Orleans rockers Cowboy Mouth sang about breaking up with a girlfriend:
“She had to go Simply because And I let her go Like she never was 'Cuz I didn't know And I don't care what she does She had to go 'cuz she didn't know who Joe Strummer was.”
Strummer was never comfortable with his status as a rock god. He was a man, and as such, the victim of personal foibles, some of which contributed to the breakup of the Clash in 1985. But for the better part of 30 years, he lived by his values honestly and with compassion.
One might even say: With soul.
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Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, helping the American Heart Association teach heart healthy habits in Colorado.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
Douglas Hofstadter thinks you can. In the 2007 summation of his life's work, “I Am a Strange Loop,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning mathematician/physicist argues (non-religiously) for the existence of a “spirit” or a state of consciousness that he calls a “soul” -- and further asserts it can be quantified.
On Hofstadter's scale, Mother Theresa's soul was bigger than, say, Charles Manson's. By his definition, animals could be said to have souls too, although a dog's soul will by necessity be smaller than a typical human's, and a goldfish's smaller yet.
You may scoff, but Craven finds a lot of merit in Hofstadter's theories. And amongst the many arguments to support those theories, there looms the original White Man in Hammersmith Palais: Joe Strummer.
Joe Strummer was a man with a lot of soul. I'm not speaking here in the sense of “soul music,” but in the sense that Hofstadter uses the word. Strummer (who is known best to the hoi polloi as the lead singer of the 1980s punk band, the Clash, and who died almost eight years ago from a previously undetected congenital heart defect) was larger-than-life, cared deeply for people and the planet, and many were changed in the turbulent wake of his passion.
Even in the late '70s and early '80s heyday of punk rock, Strummer stood out. Older than his peers, Strummer had been playing with his second band, the pub rock outfit called the 101'ers, for a couple years already before the night in April 1976, when one of their gigs was opened by a new and startling combo called the Sex Pistols.
Strummer, who had been driven toward left-wing politics following the suicide of his neo-Nazi brother, David, several years earlier, saw revolutionary potential in the new genre of punk rock. When he was approached by guitarist Mick Jones and punk impresario Bernie Rhodes shortly thereafter to join the new band they were forming, he jumped at the opportunity.
During the next decade, Strummer and the Clash fundamentally changed the face of rock ‘n' roll. They transformed punk from a nihilistic, fashion-oriented fad into a movement infused with a political awareness and sense of purpose absent from the music industry for several years. They also mined varied influences that widened the musical scope of punk. (Their cover of Junior Murvin's “Police and Thieves” and their original “[White Man in] Hammersmith Palais” are considered the first punk-reggae songs, and they introduced a brand new audience to the nascent genre of hip-hop when they enlisted Grandmaster Flash to open for their legendary 1981 Times Square concerts.)
In the years since Strummer's passing, his legend lives on. In 2006, New Orleans rockers Cowboy Mouth sang about breaking up with a girlfriend:
“She had to go Simply because And I let her go Like she never was 'Cuz I didn't know And I don't care what she does She had to go 'cuz she didn't know who Joe Strummer was.”
Strummer was never comfortable with his status as a rock god. He was a man, and as such, the victim of personal foibles, some of which contributed to the breakup of the Clash in 1985. But for the better part of 30 years, he lived by his values honestly and with compassion.
One might even say: With soul.
------------------
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, helping the American Heart Association teach heart healthy habits in Colorado.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
