***************************************************************************** *** stargore-77.neocities.org *********************************************** ****************************************** e-mail: stargore@disroot.org ***** ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** *** Title: Shine Up My Shoes ************************************************ ** ** ** Fandom: Hard Core Logo (book & movie) ** ** Warnings: references to canon suicide & death. AU. ** ** Summary: ** ** JOE DICK "NOT DEAD" ** ** JOE DICK RETURNS: 30 DATE ACOUSTIC TOUR PLANNED ** ** FOR 1997, SAYS ED FESTUS ** ** WHERE'S JOE DICK? ** ** An unpublished 2001 interview with Joe Dick, the prairie lazarus. ** ** ** ** Notes: This fic was originally posted to Ao3 on the 16th of November, ** ** 2025. ** ** ** ***************************************************************************** ** ** ** Transcript of a phone interview, conducted in November, 2001: ** ** ** ** Michael Turner: /What happened, Joe?/ ** ** ** ** Joe: The gun jammed. Watch the tape, you see a little bit of blood, but ** ** that's just from fragments and powder. I spent six hours in surgery ** ** and I have some gnarly fucking scars that mean the mohawk is gone ** ** forever. The gun fucking jammed. Alright? ** ** ** ** Turner: /That's not what I meant./ ** ** ** ** Joe: Well I gotta tell you, it turns out that they don't just let you ** ** go out on tour when you just got out of brain surgery and you're ** ** several thousand dollars in the hole to a charity. I kind of had to do ** ** the dog for a while, okay? Lie low. Play dead. Hope they leave you ** ** alone. Settle some lawsuits. ** ** ** ** Plus when you just shot yourself in the head and lived, every ** ** motherfucker wants to buy you a drink and ask you about it, right? ** ** So that took up a lot of my time, these last few years. That's where ** ** the motherfucking 1997 fucking acoustic fucking tour went. ** ** ** ** That tour was all Ed's idea anyway. You have to let 'em know ** ** you're not dead, he said. Capitalize on the opportunity. ** ** I bet he was sorry I didn't die. ** ** ** ** Then I had to stop drinking, 'cause I'm on some pretty heavy-duty ** ** medication these days. So I started getting the band together. ** ** A new band. ** ** ** ** Turner: /Right/. ** ** ** ** Joe: And if you want to know what happened to Hard Core Logo, why we ** ** never set the world on fire. Don't fucking ask me that. I never wanted ** ** that. It was you people -- rock journalists, fucking Canadian ** ** nationalist rock journalists -- who wanted Hard Core Logo to be the ** ** next coming of the Clash. You people, and a certain tow-headed muppet ** ** whose eyes were bigger than his stomach. ** ** ** ** Me, I knew we were never gonna be in the big leagues. We're Canadian, ** ** for god's sakes. The last Canadian punk band to crack the American ** ** music market was Sum 41, and I'm surprised they didn't put up an ** ** electric fence along the border after that. ** ** ** ** Turner: /So you've got a new band/. ** ** ** ** Joe: Damn straight. ** ** ** ** Turner: /And you're touring North America/. ** ** ** ** Joe: 45 dates between April & August. ** ** ** ** Turner: /Where's Billy?/ ** ** ** ** Joe: Billy can go fuck himself. No, don't print that, I love Billy. ** ** I love Billy, he's great. What's he's doing now? Fucked if I know. ** ** Jenifur didn't last long, huh? ** ** ** ** [sound of laughter] ** ** ** ** He's probably still in El Lay. I guess old punks need to retire ** ** somewhere, and LA is a pretty good retirement village. ** ** ** ** We're playing a date in LA - he's welcome to come down and watch. ** ** Hell, he can come down and play if he wants. All is forgiven. ** ** That's your title, okay. ** ** ** ** The new band shits all over Hard Core Logo. The quote is: ** ** "You don't understand yet, but you will." That's your subheading. ** ** ** ** Turner: /Who are the new band?/ ** ** ** ** Joe: These are the most shit-hot folk musicians I could round up. ** ** I searched every coffee bar, conservatoire and Irish pub in Vancouver, ** ** Calgary and Edmonton. You have never heard of these people but they ** ** will fucking blow you away, okay? ** ** You don't understand yet, but you will. ** ** ** ** Turner: /So, Joe, folk music?/ ** ** ** ** Joe: Hey, all my music is folk music. Music of the people. ** ** ** ** Turner: /This is the first time it's come with fiddles and washboards, ** ** though. What do your fans think?/ ** ** ** ** Joe: What do my fans think? They think what I tell them to think. ** ** Come on, man. It's not difficult. I have been listening to this shit ** ** since before you were born. I was a little kid in the 60s and I ** ** remember the folk revival. Sexy girls with long, straight hair singing ** ** about mining disasters and shipwrecks. That shit is the real ** ** proto-punk. Isn't Greil Marcus required reading anymore? Mystery Train? ** ** The roots of North American rock are in blues, country and folk. ** ** This is the folk. Jesus Christ, it's been done before. The Clash got ** ** there in 1978. Joe Strummer got there in 1998, god bless him. ** ** ** ** Turner: /What's the lineup?/ ** ** Joe: We've got a banjo, a fiddle, upright bass, washboard and guitar. ** ** If we play at a venue with a drum kit, we might get somebody in to ** ** play drums. We're free and easy, you know. We're flexible. ** ** ** ** Turner: /Why come back? ** ** ** ** Joe: I don't understand the question. ** ** ** ** Turner: Your band broke up, you tried to kill yourself and you nearly ** ** went to prison. Why tour again? ** ** ** ** Joe: Why do I keep touring? ** ** ** ** Look, I know, I fucking know I'm a freak, okay? I am perfectly aware ** ** of that. I know I should have a girlfriend and a real job and a long ** ** lease on an apartment, okay? So don't try to tell me. I know. ** ** It's not that I'm not capable. I could be you, doing your job. ** ** Shit, I know how to do your job better than you know how to do ** ** your job. But I like to tour, and I like to play, and if I can, ** ** I'm gonna. I have to. Everything else goes by the wayside. ** ** ** ** This is who I am. ** ** This is what I've got. ** ** I'm going to die with my boots on. ** ** ** ***************************************************************************** *** End notes: ************************************************************** *** *** ** This fic was inspired by a 1996 review of Hard Core Logo for Slate ** ** magazine. Editor Andrew O'Hehir noted that "/Hard Core Logo seem to be ** * a composite of many dubious musical units of their era/" with * * "/an undeniable hint of the Clash/", and wondered "/what exactly are * * Strummer and Jones doing these days/?" * ** ** ** As it happens, Joe Strummer came out of his "wilderness years" in ** *** the late 90s and formed a new band, the Mescaleros. They signed to *** *** an independent label and toured across the US and Europe, releasing *** ** two albums and recording a third before Joe Strummer died suddenly ** ** of an undiagnosed heart condition in 2002. ** * * * The title of the fic is from the Chumbawamba song Fade Away. * ** /Wake me up if you catch me falling gently into the night/ ** ** /Shine up my shoes, 'cause I can't get used to the dying of the light/ ** *** *** *** This textfile was created on the 3rd of December, 2025. *** ***************************************************************************** *** who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually happened and walked **** **** away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly daze of Chinatown soup ***** ****** alleyways & firetrucks, not even one free beer *********************** *****************************************************************************