"There was a true soul"

The new issue of Hot Press, out on January 18, includes a personal tribute to Joe Strummer by Bono.

In it, he reveals that Joe was due in Dublin this week to record his part of the song they were co-writing for the Mandela SOS AIDS benefit concert, '48864'.

"I suppose I'm going to have to finish it myself now, I'm going to have to be Joe for keeps," Bono reflects. "And it's a shame because I was really looking forward to singing with him."

Reflecting on Strummer's legacy, he says, "There was a true soul, trying to figure it out, trying to explain himself to the world, and trying to explain the world to us. They (The Clash) had a real decency – that old-fashioned word."

An epic 10 minutes in length, '48864' features such classic Strummer couplets as, "When freedom rises from the killing floor/No lock of iron or rivet can restrain the door/And no kind of army can hope to win a war/Like trying to stop the rain or still the lion's roar/Like trying to stop the whirlwind scattering seeds and spores/Like trying to stop the tin cans rapping out jailhouse semaphore."