Steve Earle and Taliban John

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | July 22, 2002 | Aly Sujo

[FatherTorque]

What I find is there are some here who can't separate the artist from their politics. If that were the case, my own record collection would be sad indeed.

I'm a big boxing fan as well and this also reminds me of a lot of the people who were on the Ali threads when the movie came out. Plenty of people on those threads were saying what a crappy boxer Ali was. Of course those were always the same ones who vehemently hated him for his political views.

I didn't agree with a lot of the things that Ali did outside the ring, however to claim the man could not box because you didn't like him is just mental masturbation.

[Fletcher J]

I'm sorry, but let's face it. Steve Earle only has one good song - Copperhead Road. While that's one more than most of the musical "talent" these days, I would never go see him in concert now that I know what a loser he is.

The perfect Steve Earle concert:
Steve opens with a scorching rendition of Copperhead Road, follows up with an extended Copperhead Road Medley, and then leaves the crowd wanting more by closing out with Copperhead Road. After the crowd chants for an encore, he comes back out on stage to do Copperhead Road, and then announces he is voluntarily deporting himself from this country never to return...

[Gurn]

let's face it. Steve Earle only has one good song - Copperhead Road.

Um, okay. You're familiar with the one song he had that ever got any airplay. It's a good one, mind you, but it's not even the best song on the album.

Like somebody said, it's better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you a fool, than speak and remove all doubt.

[bok]

While everyone is debating this artists talents. I just want to know one thing, why couldn't steve earle pay a little respect to the memory of Mike Spann? Writing a song for a piece of human excrement like john walker-lindh is baffling to me.

[LurkerNoMore!]

I'm sorry to see him do this.

I discovered him in late 1986 when I stumbled upon the video of his incredible song, "Someday". I still have the video tape I made of it. At that time, I had a hard time finding a music store that had even heard of him.

I know he's been trying to shake his crack habit for years, and heard he was hoping for a artistic comeback. Pretty disappointing.

[LurkerNoMore!]

By the time Copperhead Road came out, I thought he had sold out!

[LurkerNoMore!]

earle ping1

[LurkerNoMore!]

oops.... ping above was meant for you

[Looking4Truth]

The redneck should stick to songs about moonshine and marijuana.

[HoHoeHeaux]

I am a big Steve Earle fan and believe he is a patriotic man. Here is what he says on his website about the song, if anybody cares. I think what he is trying to say here is that we need to look at how this happened and maybe try to prevent it from happaning again.

"In describing, Jerusalem, Steve Earle's newest CD and his sixth album in six years, Earle says, "This is a political record because there seems no other proper response to the place we're at now. But I'm not trying to get myself deported or something. In a big way this is the most pro-American record I've ever made. In fact, I feel URGENTLY American. I understand why none of those congressmen voted against The Patriot Act, out of respect for the Trade Center victims' families. I've sat in the death house with victims' families, seen them suffer. But this is an incredibly dangerous piece of legislation. Freedoms, American freedoms, things voted into law as American freedoms, everything that came out of the 1960's, are disappearing, and as any patriot can see, that has to be opposed."

"John Walker's Blues, which deals with John Walker Lindh, the erstwhile Marin County teenager and admitted Taliban fighter. Opening with the lines, "just an American boy, raised on MTV…I seen all the boys in the soda pop bands and none of them looked like me" and finishing with a recitation of Sura 47, Verse 19 of the Qur'an, Earle wrote the song as the newspapers clamored for Walker to strung up for treason. For Steve, the issue was a little more complicated than that.

"I'm happy with the way the song came out, but I'm nervous, not for myself, but I have taken some serious liberties with Walker, speaking as him, in his voice. I'm trying to make clear that wherever he got to, he didn't arrive there in a vacuum. I don't condone what he did. Still, he's a 20 year-old kid. My son Justin is almost exactly Walker's age. Would I be upset if he suddenly turned up fighting for the Islamic Jihad? Sure, absolutely. Fundamentalism, as practiced by the Taliban, is the enemy of real thought, and religion too. But there are circumstances. Walker was from a very bohemian household, from Marin County. His father had just come out of the closet. It's hard to say how that played out in Walker's mind. He went to Yemen because that's where they teach the purest kind of Arabic. He didn't just sit on the couch and watch the box, get depressed and complain. He was a smart kid, he graduated from high school early, the culture here didn't impress him, so he went out looking for something to believe in."

[Fletcher J]

Um, okay. First, you assume that the only Steve Earle song I've ever heard is Copperhead Road, because that's the only one that I like.

Then you quote an overused cliche in order to call me a fool because I don't like more of his songs... I think you should follow your own advice about fools being wise in keeping their mouths shut.

Actually, I've heard plenty of his music, and I STILL only like the one song. The fact that Copperhead Road is the only Steve Earle song that has ever gotten any real airtime only proves that disk jockeys, music listeners and album buyers across the fruited plains agree with me.

To return to the original discussion, it appears obvious to me that in this case Stevie is resorting to controversy in order to get people to notice him.

[Gurn]

The fact that Copperhead Road is the only Steve Earle song that has ever gotten any real airtime only proves that disk jockeys, music listeners and album buyers across the fruited plains agree with me.

You make my point for me. Millions of people think Shania Twain is a "country" "artist." That doesn't change the fact that she records tripe that only a Philistine could objectively call "music." (Steve says she's the "highest paid lap-dancer in Nashville," but that's another matter.)

Tim McGraw sells records. Doesn't mean he's got talent.

I like songs that say something, whether I agree with the statement or not.

[ProudEagle]

Sounds like ol' Steve's relapsed back on the heroin. I hope he bumps into Toby Keith out on the road somewhere.

This is the same white trash that painted us Vietnam vets as drunken, moonshine running, pot growing screwed up idiots back in '92. Copperhead Road? Yeah, accurate portrayal of men better than he, who served. Doesn't take a lot of talent to write about stereotypes. In any case, who cares what Steve Earle thinks anyway. I hadn't heard his name since '92. And I agree. I'd love to see Toby Keith put a boot up his a**. Guess it would have been a stretch for him to write about Mike Spann eh?

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I used to be a big fan.

No more.

...Earle, who irritated the Nashville establishment for years, calling himself a Marxist ...

Since Steve is a Marxist I am sure he will want to share his music with the masses free of charge. Therefore, I will be uploading my entire Steve earle CD collection (including imports and limited edition singles) onto WinMx,Limewire, Morpheus and every other Napster type service I can find so that everyone can enjoy his music without Steve making a profit. I am sure he'd want it that way.

[ProudEagle]

Therefore, I will be uploading my entire Steve earle CD collection

Good one. Since he's a true Marxist he'll have no problem with that. (/sarcasm)

[stop_fascism]

What makes you think that American leftists are interested in freedom (except perhaps sexual)? Seems to me that they find fellow fascists in the sand nazis.

[Benson_Carter]

"he's the greatest songwriter in America."

you don't wanna go there, bub!

[Benson_Carter]

you want REAL country music?

go get any album by Hank Williams III

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Yee-haw! Saw Hank III last year - great show! I really like his new album, especially "Mississippi Mud".

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I've tried Hank III. He just comes off as an imitation of his grandfather with less compelling songs to me.