Post by kingoftrees on Aug 19, 2002 11:52:57 GMT -5
Anyone catch Steve Earl today on the Today show? He performed his song "John Walker Blues". It is from John Walkers' point of view. It is very powerful with references to Allah and Jesus and the confusion of a 20 year olds mind. Some people have decided to boycott the album and have called Steve Earl "un-American". Sounds familiar. Close minded people. I hope you all have a chance to hear it, just found it on Kazaa.
Below are the Lyrics:
I'm just an American boy raised on MTV
And I've seen all those kids in the soda pop ads
But none of 'em looked like me
So I started lookin' around for a light out of the dim
And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word
Of Mohammed, peace be upon him
A shadu la ilaha illa Allah/ There is no God but God
If my daddy could see me now--chains around my feet
He don't understand that sometimes a man
Just has 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 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.
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Pretty powerful stuff. I think it is a great work of art, nothing more, nothing less. To ostricize Steve Earle for his creative work would be on par with people who still believe Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) should be ostricized because of his quote regarding Salman Rushdie (albeit taken out of context).
There is a lot of stuff on the net regarding Steve and this song. Go to Yahoo or Google and do a search to read further into it. Would like to see what you all think.
Peace
