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Steve Earle and Taliban John
Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | July 22, 2002 | Aly Sujo

Posted on 07/22/2002 8:39:11 AM PDT by Gurn

'U.S. Taliban' Inspires Controversial Ballad

Mon Jul 22,11:00 AM ET

By Aly Sujo

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - A new country-rock song that compares American Taliban John Walker Lindh to Jesus Christ is drawing both raves and howls of indignation just days after the 21-year-old pleaded guilty to aiding the former Afghan regime.

Recorded in Nashville by the maverick Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Steve Earle, "John Walker's Blues" is a stately ballad punctuated by the sound of Arabic prayers, and makes reference to Lindh's interest in music videos, boy bands, and religious fanaticism.

Over a layered backdrop of electric guitars recorded backward, the song serves as a kind of nightmarish funhouse-mirror version of Fess Parker's classic "Ballad of Davy Crockett" of the 1950s:

"We came to fight the jihad, our hearts were pure and strong.

We filled the air with our prayers and we prayed for our martyrdom.

Allah has some other plans, a secret not revealed.

Now they're dragging me back with my head in the sack to the land of the infidel.

If I should die, I'll rise up to the sky like Jesus."

The song is featured on Earle's forthcoming album "Jerusalem," which touches on a number of political and social issues including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It offers a rare sympathetic view of Lindh, the Californian dubbed the "American Taliban" after he was captured fighting alongside troops of Afghanistan ( news - web sites)'s fundamentalist Muslim rulers in November.

UNPATRIOTIC ANTHEM

Some Nashville commentators quickly labeled the song unpatriotic -- par for the course, they say, for an alternative country singer who has long challenged the down-home platitudes of mainstream country music.

"This puts him in the same category as Jane Fonda and John Walker and all those people who hate America," says Nashville talk show host Steve Gill.

"We'll give it airplay once and then it's going into the dustbin of history, where it belongs. I'm not surprised that Steve's singing about that traitor. I'm going to play it just once, and then we'll rip the shred out of it. This is not gonna be a big hit for Steve."

"I'm just an American boy, raised on MTV,

And I've seen all the kids in the soda pop bands,

But none of them look like me.

So I started looking round, and I heard the word of God.

And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word

of Allah, Peace be upon him."

MARXIST COUNTRY STAR

Earle has joked that he's thinking about leaving the country once the CD is released in September, and he told an audience at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Ontario earlier this month: "This song just may get me ... deported."

Earle was in Europe on July 15, when Lindh pleaded guilty to two counts of assisting the Taliban and carrying explosives, and could not be reached for comment.

In a plea deal which scrapped the government's more serious terrorism charges, Lindh agreed to serve 20 years in prison.

The ruckus over the Lindh song marks a return to the political spotlight for Earle, who irritated the Nashville establishment for years, calling himself a Marxist and joining the movement to abolish the death penalty as well as the campaign against land mines.

Earle's supporters say the outspoken singer -- who received his eighth Grammy nomination for his 2001 album "Transcendental Blues" and has won many other accolades -- will welcome controversy.

"He's a big guy," says Grant Alden, publisher of the magazine No Depression, which specializes in alternative country music. "He can take care of himself if anyone confronts him on the issue."

CHALK ONE UP FOR THE OUTLAW

Bill De Main, a Nashville-based music writer and lead singer for the band Swan Dive, says Earle's political leanings "probably finished him off in mainstream country."

Earle became an outlaw country rock star in the 1980s with "Guitar Town" and "Copperhead Road," but his heroin addiction nearly cost him his career.

He got sober after he was arrested for drug possession and spent three weeks in jail, and launched a successful comeback with his own Warner Brothers-distributed record label.

The new album's political agenda, which comes at a time of corporate conservatism, was encouraged by Artemis Records' outspoken chief Danny Goldberg, who once tussled with then-Sen. Al Gore ( news - web sites)'s wife Tipper over rock lyrics and censorship.

Earle has said that the new material serves as his response to the more reactionary elements of post-Sept. 11 politics.

A smattering of like-minded New Yorkers who heard an advance copy of the Lindh song said they were enthusiastic.

"Steve Earle is standing up against the new patriotism, the 'You're with us or you're against us' mentality," said Joan Hirsch, manager of Revolution Bookstore, which stocks anti-war pamphlets and leftist literature.

"(The song) speaks of the U.S. demonization of anyone who would go against the traditional American way," Hirsch said. "It's important for people to come to the defense of artists who are speaking out."

But Martha Bayles, author of "Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music" and a literature professor at Claremont McKenna College in California, said Earle's apparent identification with Lindh reflected "a psychological need to repeat the good old days of the radical 60s, just like Mom and Dad."

"Never mind whether the cause makes any sense -- the point is to march in the streets and get on TV. It sounds as if Earle is singing to this crowd," Bayles said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: controversy; limewire; steveearle; talibanjohn; traitor; winmx
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To: Illbay
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.

61 posted on 07/22/2002 11:19:29 AM PDT by FatherTorque
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To: Gurn
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...
62 posted on 07/22/2002 12:21:33 PM PDT by Fletcher J
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To: Fletcher J
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.

63 posted on 07/22/2002 3:25:59 PM PDT by Gurn
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To: Gurn
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.
64 posted on 07/22/2002 3:28:17 PM PDT by bok
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To: FatherTorque; Gurn
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.

65 posted on 07/22/2002 3:40:06 PM PDT by LurkerNoMore!
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To: Fletcher J
By the time Copperhead Road came out, I thought he had sold out!
66 posted on 07/22/2002 3:42:00 PM PDT by LurkerNoMore!
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To: LurkerNoMore!
earle ping1
67 posted on 07/22/2002 3:43:24 PM PDT by LurkerNoMore!
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To: humblegunner
oops.... ping above was meant for you
68 posted on 07/22/2002 3:47:18 PM PDT by LurkerNoMore!
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To: Gurn
The redneck should stick to songs about moonshine and marijuana.
69 posted on 07/22/2002 3:52:27 PM PDT by Looking4Truth
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To: Gurn
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."

70 posted on 07/22/2002 6:30:39 PM PDT by HoHoeHeaux
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To: Gurn
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.
71 posted on 07/23/2002 7:17:52 AM PDT by Fletcher J
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To: Fletcher J
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.

72 posted on 07/23/2002 8:45:04 AM PDT by Gurn
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To: jla
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?

73 posted on 07/23/2002 9:02:34 AM PDT by ProudEagle
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To: bok; Gurn
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.

74 posted on 07/23/2002 10:27:01 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
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)

75 posted on 07/23/2002 10:40:45 AM PDT by ProudEagle
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To: Steve_Seattle
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.
76 posted on 07/23/2002 6:32:28 PM PDT by stop_fascism
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To: Gurn
"he's the greatest songwriter in America."

you don't wanna go there, bub!

77 posted on 07/24/2002 10:58:35 AM PDT by Benson_Carter
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To: Disgruntled_Voter; Illbay; Steve_Seattle; Gurn; Impeach the Boy; GodBlessRonaldReagan; ...
you want REAL country music?

go get any album by Hank Williams III

78 posted on 07/24/2002 11:13:17 AM PDT by Benson_Carter
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To: Benson_Carter
Yee-haw! Saw Hank III last year - great show! I really like his new album, especially "Mississippi Mud".
79 posted on 07/24/2002 11:49:56 AM PDT by GodBlessRonaldReagan
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To: Benson_Carter; Disgruntled_Voter; Illbay; Steve_Seattle; Gurn; Impeach the Boy; ...
I've tried Hank III. He just comes off as an imitation of his grandfather with less compelling songs to me.
80 posted on 07/24/2002 11:51:19 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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