Steve Earle

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

From MTV to the Taliban
Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith are writing songs about terrorists and
the Taliban. So why is country maverick Steve Earle getting all the heat?

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By Anders Smith Lindall, salon.com

July 25, 2002  |  Songwriters from Neil Young ("Let's Roll") to Paul
McCartney ("Freedom") have weighed in on the Sept. 11 terror attacks and
their aftermath. Next week Bruce Springsteen will deliver a full album,
"The Rising," on the subject. Even Attorney General John Ashcroft
addressed the topic in a tune he wrote, "Let the Eagle Soar." Now
roots-rock iconoclast and career rabble-rouser Steve Earle is set to
have his say -- and he's already catching flak.

Earle's album "Jerusalem" (E-Squared/Artemis) won't reach stores until
Sept. 24, but advance copies of the disc are already stirring up
controversy. At issue is "John Walker's Blues," a song Earle wrote and
sings from the perspective of John Walker Lindh, the 21-year-old
California native who last week pled guilty in federal court to taking
up arms with the Taliban.

The Earle brouhaha began with a New York Post article on Sunday.
"Twisted ballad honors Tali-Rat," the headline hollered. "Lindh is
glorified and called Jesus-like," declared Post scribe Aly Sujo. The
piece quoted Steve Gill, a radio host in Earle's adopted hometown of
Nashville, as saying that Earle belongs "in the same category as Jane
Fonda and John Walker and all those people who hate America." Appearing
Tuesday on CNN, Gill urged listeners to boycott the album.

Why all the fuss? "John Walker's Blues" opens with four naked notes on
guitar, then Earle's lazy Texas drawl. "I'm just an American boy, raised
on MTV," he slurs, backed by a slow, even beat. Earle's Lindh discovers
Islam, and the first chorus swells over chiming electric guitar chords:
"A shadu la ilaha illa Allah/There is no God but God," Earle sings. It's
hard not to notice the similarity to Earle's 1997 song "Taneytown," a
tale set to a similar minor-key melody and told through the eyes of a
boy who killed in self-defense.

full: http://www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2002/07/25/earle/index.html?x

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Louis Proyect
www.marxmail.org



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