Steve Earle tonight on Nightline-Upclose

ABC News | 11/14/2002

[ArcLight]

In the post 9/11 world, words are read and heard with a different eye and ear. So when singer/songwriter Steve Earle performed "John Walker's Blues," (as in John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban who was arrested in Afghanistan and admitted he served with the Taliban), there were more than few raised eyebrows:

"If my daddy could see me now - chains around my feet He don't understand that sometimes a man Has got to fight for what he believes And I believe God is great, all praise due to him And if I should die, I'll rise up to the sky Just like Jesus, peace be upon him

We came to fight the Jihad and our hearts were pure and strong As death filled the air, we all offered up our prayers And prepared for our martyrdom But Allah had some other plan, some secret not revealed Now they're draggin' me back with my head in a sack To the land of the infidel."

The song, off Earle's new album Jerusalem, was leaked to a conservative radio talk show host in Nashville. Then came this New York Post headline: "Twisted Ballad Honors Tali-Rat", and it wasn't long before it became fodder for the cable television foodfights.

Steve Earle's answer to all the critics: "I don't condone what he did. But I have a 20-year-old son, which is my main connection to this, and I really do believe it could have been my son or anybody's son. The way that John Walker arrived at Islam could only have happened here. It's a very American story. And when it's presented the way that it was in the media, I totally understand the average person reacting to it violently."

In a fresh conversation with Dave Marash tonight (you may recall a Nightline profile on Earle last year repeated this summer on UpClose), Earle says "there were plenty of people that wanted to make [Walker Lindh] him into a poster child for all our fear...and that you have a right to be judged as a human being and not as, you know, a bogeyman."

UpClose tonight, a singer/songwriter in the long tradition of American troubadours. He's written a book of short stories and just wrote and produced his first play obout another controversial American figure, Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman to be executed in Texas in more than a century. Steve Earle is a man many times divorced, who's done time in prison and nearly killed himself with alcohol and drugs. He's been sober for eight years and reestablished himself in a series of widely acclaimed albums. Now he's back in the news, a lonely voice trying to give voice to a man who has been vilified for his actions half a world away.

Richard Harris Senior Producer Nightline UpClose

[Fred Mertz]

I didn't realize Nightline was still on. I haven't watched it in a long time and won't watch this pabulum either.

[Paul Atreides]

I thought the interest in this pr*ck "songwriter" had waned weeks ago. I guess the media like to keep a bad thing going.

[Sparta]

I wonder if he would like to live under the Taliban.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Did this guy invent the Buick?

[Paul Atreides]

LOL! You're thinking of Harley Earl.

[Yudan]

Man, I'm as Conservative as they come, so I hear where you're comin' from, and I agree that Lindh should rot in Hell for betraying his country.

But cut Earle a little slack. He's always been one to embrace the anti-hero, and he's right -- the way Lindh arrived at Islam is a uniquely American path of leftist rebellion. Pick the most far-flung thing from the mainstream and embrace it with all your might, eh?

Earle has penned some GREAT tunes. I love the lyrics to "Copperhead Road"...

Well my name's John Lee Pettimore
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only came to town about twice a year
He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
He headed up the holler with everything he had
It's before my time but I've been told
He never came back from Copperhead Road

Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge
Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge
Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side
Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside
Well him and my uncle tore that engine down
I still remember that rumblin' sound
Well the sheriff came around in the middle of the night
Heard mama cryin', knew something wasn't right
He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load
You could smell the whiskey burnin' down Copperhead Road

I volunteered for the Army on my birthday
They draft the white trash first,'round here anyway
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
And I came home with a brand new plan
I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico
I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road
Well the D.E.A.'s got a chopper in the air
I wake up screaming like I'm back over there
I learned a thing or two from ol' Charlie don't you know
You better stay away from Copperhead Road...

[Doctor Stochastic]

I thought he invented the motorcycle.

[Straight Vermonter]

Another one I always liked:

I'm an American, boys, and I've come a long way
I was born and bred in the USA
So listen up close, I've get something to say
Boys, I'm buying this round
Well it took a little while but we're in this fight
And we ain't going home 'til we've done what's right
We're gonna drink Camden Town dry tonight
If I have to spend my last pound

When I first got to London it was pourin' down rain
Met a little girl in the field canteen
Painted her name on the nose of my plane
Six more missions I'm gone
Well I asked if I could stay and she said that I might
Then the warden came around yelling turn out the lights
Death rainin' out of the London night
We made love 'til dawn

But when Johnny Come Lately comes marching home
With a chest full of medals and a G.I. loan
They'll be waitin' at the station down in San Antone
When Johnny comes marching home

My P-47 is a pretty good ship
And she took a round coming cross the Channel last trip
I was thinking 'bout my baby and letting her rip
Always got me through so far
Well they can ship me all over this great big world
But I'll never find nothing like my North End girl
I'm taking her home whh me one day, sir
Soon as we win this war

Now my granddaddy sang me this song
Told me about London when the Blitz was on
How he married Grandma and brought her back home
A hero throughout his land
Now I'm standing on a runway in San Diego
A couple Purple Hearts so I move a little slow
There's nobody here, maybe nobody knows
About a place called Vietnam 

[society-by-contract]

Steve's site on altcountrytab:

http://www.altcountrytab.com/steve_earle/

[Paul Atreides]

I don't particularly care what he has written. When he wrote a song defending a traitor, he lost any respect I would have had. I guess it would have been too corny to write a song about those who died on 9-11. After all, there is nothing anti-heroic and wonderfully rebellious in that, is there? It is only people who will never see their loved ones again. No biggy. But, let us celebrate some worthless kid who turns his back on his country. If you think that Lindh made some principled decision and should be respected for what he believes in, and that this guy should be respected for writing a song glorifying that, then you are as full of crap as Earle.

[Yudan]

Paul,

Don't flame me, man. Please re-read my reply, bandage the injury that you received from the underside of your desk on your jerking knee.

Lindh is a traitor, and I would rip the eyes out of his head and piss in his dead skull if I could get my hands on him.

My point is I didn't necessarily see glorification of Lindh's actions, but an examination of rebellion for rebellion's sake.

I will re-read Earle's interview and the lyrics to the somg to make sure I'm not missing something.

[galt-jw]

maybe Charlie Daniels could shoot his ass...

[zingzang]

Letterman should have replaced Koppel and his schtik when he had the chance.

[Paul Atreides]

I am not flaming you, and I am not speaking from a knee-jerk reaction. Also, I came in very tired and didn't mean to take out my anger at Earle, on you. Personally, I have read the lyrics and they do seems to be of the moral relativism vein. I cannot see this songwriter writing a song about say, the bomber of an abortion clinic, about how he was just doing what he believed in. I think that Lindh is a politically correct figure and Earle has latched onto him in order to get across some sort of lefty message.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

Copperhead Road BUMP! I've got a friend who was hanging out in the studio when they recorded that song. < /green envy>

[L.N. Smithee]

To my knowledge, they haven't had anything close to a conservative on that show yet. Steve Earle, Paul Mooney, Norman Lear, the woman who was Reagan's archetypical "welfare queen," they've all been on.

[L.N. Smithee]

I really dug "Copperhead Road" until I made out all the lyrics and realized what it was about.

I am sure all the LP's love that tune.

[Tax-chick]

My favorite is "The Rain Came Down" (from "Exit 0")

"Now my Grandaddy died in the room he was born in,
Twenty-three summers ago.
But I could have sworn he's beside me this morning
When the sheriff showed up at my door.
So don't you come around here with your auctioneer-man,
'Cause you can have the machines,
But you ain't takin' my land!"

And he wrote "Nothing But a Child" too.

Yeah, the guy's a fruitbat, but I think some of his songs are terrific. "Copperhead Road" is my cleaning music - open the windows, crank it up, and fire up the vacuum ...

[lugsoul]

I doubt it - because under the Taliban he would be punished for the expression of an unpopular, non-conformist opinion...