Joe Strummer - Coma Girl

First performance: 27/06/2009


Coverinfo

Bruce covered the song only once:
 
 
2009-06-27 Worthy Farm, Pilton, England ( Glastonbury )
 
Springsteen and the band headline at Glastonbury Festival on the Pyramid Stage. He chose to open the show with an acoustic solo rendition of 'coma girl ' to pay tribute to Joe Strummer. Strummer was a figurehead for the festival and when it came time to Bruce to play the festival , he wanted to pay tribute with this song.

 

Songinfo

'coma girl' was taken from the album 'Streetcore' originally recorded with The Mescaleros. Streetcore is the third and final studio album by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros. The album was completed after the death of frontman Joe Strummer, primarily by Martin Slattery and Scott Shields, and released on 21 October 2003. The album marks the band's transition from their previous genre-bending work to a more straightforward rock album, reminiscent of Strummer's early work with The Clash. The album received a positive critical reception and is generally seen as a return to form and a high point for Strummer to have gone out on. Due to Strummer's death, many of the vocal performances are first takes. "Midnight Jam" is completely without lyrics – instead, samplings of Joe's BBC Radio show Joe Strummer's London Calling are intermixed with the music. Music videos were released for the album's two singles, "Coma Girl" and "Redemption Song". Music videos were released for the album's two singles, "Coma Girl" and "Redemption Song". The video for "Redemption Song", which was directed by Josh Cheuse who designed the cover art for Strummer's 1989 album, Earthquake Weather and who also appears in the video, is a tribute to Strummer's life and legacy. Filmed in November 2003 in Manhattan in the East Village, the video opens with a clip of Strummer talking from The Clash documentary Westway to the World with the focus of the video being a mural of Strummer that was painted by graffiti artists Zephyr and Dr. Revolt outside of the bar Niagra which is owned by musician, Jesse Malin.
 
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

2021-03-10 SiriusXM Studio, New York City
Bruce plays the song for the second time during his 'From My Home to Yours' series Episode 19, themed "Fans and Bands", delving into musicians and their muses.
Bruce :  " That was 'Coma Girl', by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros. Joe was a religious attendee of the Glastonbury Festival, and that's where it feels like this song came from. Quote: 'I was crawling through a festival way out west … through all the stages I wandered … Coma Girl and the excitement gang, Mona Lisa on the motorcycle gang.' A classic fan's tribute from my brother from another mother, Joe Strummer. You are deeply missed.  
 
 
2020-11-25 SiriusXM Studio, New York City
Bruce plays the song during his 15 th episode of 'From My Home To Yours', the episode just before the American presidential elections, this episode is called "We're A Winner".
Bruce: "Coming up, Joe Strummer. Now Joe Strummer was a regular fixture at the Glastonbury Festival, and I believe that's what he wrote this song about. 'Coma Girl'."
 
 
It turned out that Clash frontman Joe Strummer was a huge Springsteen fan. 
"Bruce is great," Strummer wrote in a 1995 fax to Mojo. "If you don't agree you're a pretentious martian from Venus. His music is great on a dark, rainy morning in England, just when you need some spirit and some proof that the big wide world exists."
 
 
 
 
The admiration worked both ways, and when Strummer died in 2002 Springsteen was more than happy to honor him furing the Grammy telecast with a killer performance of "London Calling" alongside Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl and Steve Van Zandt.
 

Lyrics

I was crawling through a festival way out west
I was thinking about love and the acid test
But first I got real dizzy with a real rocking gang
Then I saw the Coma Girl and the excitement gang

And the rain came in from the wide blue yonder
Through all the stages I wandered

Coma Girl and the excitement gang
Mona Lisa on the motorcycle gang
Coma Girl
Coma Girl
Coma Girl was beating with the Oil Drum gang
Some fast food fanatic was burning down the burger van
Somebody was wailing off their head
Nobody was ripping the teen scene dead

And the rain came in from the wide blue yonder
I thought you and me might wander
Chorus

As the nineteenth hour was falling upon Desolation Row
Some outlaw band had the last drop on the go
Let's siphon up some gas let's get this show on the road
Said the Coma Girl to the excitement gang

Into action everybody sprang
The oil drums were beating out dulang dulang

Coma Girl and the excitement gang
Mona Lisa on the motorcycle gang
Coma Girl
Coma Girl