Strummer

4 9.1

An English musician who was the lead singer of the punk band The Clash

proper noun
/ˈstrʌmər/

: Strummer

Few who attended the Memorial Day weekend festival in 1983 can forget the rants of Joe Strummer, frontman for the New Wave British band The Clash, when he heard Van Halen was being paid more than $1 million to perform that weekend and insisted that some of the proceeds from the event go to charities.
Joe Strummer
Strummer of the Clash
Mr. Strummer

Bob Marley's song sung by Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer.

Examples

Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer did a version of Redemption song together.
No business, no show!" - Joe Strummer

Blog text (30)
Joe Strummer was a diplomat's kid, while Mick Jones was poor.

Blog text (26)
The Who did a tour with the Clash one year, and between acts, Townsend would hand his Fender guitar off to Joe Strummer, passing the torch.

Blog text (24)
After witnessing, and even taking part in the 1976 Carnival riots, Strummer told an interviewer, "That's when I realized I had to write a song called 'White Riot' because it wasn't our fight."

Academic text (2014)
Julien Temple's new documentary explores the life of Strummer, the iconic singer of The Clash.
Though the Clash split up in 1986, Strummer later found new popularity with the band the Mescaleros.
Johnny Cash and Strummer did a version of Redemption songs together, showcasing their musical collaboration.

Surface Forms

Strummer main

Morphology

Strummer = strum (semi-transparent) = strum + er

Formally built from 'strum' + '-er', which is transparent in form, but as a proper name/stage name it functions as an identifier rather than a descriptive common noun.

Etymology

Strummer comes from the word strum, which means 'to play by brushing the strings of a guitar', so the stage name points to John Graham Mellor's role as a lively guitar player and fits his energetic performances with The Clash.