Ballad of Johnny Taliban: Steve Earle Picks Another Dumb Fight

Written by Ken Layne
Published August 12, 2002

He was the barely known opener at a six-act country concert in the sticks south of San Diego. I can't remember exactly how he insulted that afternoon crowd of cowboy hats — maybe it was just his long greasy hair and lack of Nashville sparkle — but it was interesting enough to lure me behind the outdoor stage to his ugly tour bus. Waylon Jennings was singing while somebody on Steve Earle's payroll told me to get lost. Finally Earle stepped down and I asked for a quick interview. He grumbled until he heard "college paper," and then he was Mr. Friendly.

That was 1986, when college radio was going to save rock n' roll from itself. Earle was climbing the Billboard country charts with his debut, "Guitar Town," but he really wanted to be on the playlist with Hüsker Dü and the Replacements. So we sat in the bus for an hour, talking about everything but the popular Nashville music of the day. After a decade of chasing country stardom, it was pretty clear he already despised the prize.

A few nights later, Earle played a cowboy club on the other side of the county. He wouldn't let the promoters or deejays on the bus, but I found the Beat Farmers' Country Dick Montana inside. Narcotics were in evidence. Earle and his band, the Dukes, played a fine show that night — including a long, weird version of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper." The crowd didn't much like it, but Springsteen had been spotted at Tower Records on Sunset Strip forcing copies of Earle's LP on strangers. Now that was important.

That's how Earle's brain works. By the late 1980s, he hated Nashville so much that he started to dress and act like Axl Rose ... or Rose's gun-nut cousin back in Tennessee. He lost his record contract, a couple more wives, and all of his teeth. The judges finally tired of his dope-sick face and tossed him in prison.

This week's trouble is vintage Earle. For his new album, "Jerusa lem," Earle wrote and recorded a new song from the imagined point of view of American Taliban John Walker Lindh. Even though the criminal-narrator formula has long been used by the likes of Merle Haggard, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Springsteen, Nick Cave, Eminem and another thousand songwriters, Earle told a Canadian crowd his latest contribution to the genre "just may get me fuckin' deported."

(On his own Web site, Earle contradicts this claim by saying, "I'm not trying to get myself deported or something" and calls the new CD " the most pro-American record I've ever made.")

It's vintage Earle, both the song and the melodrama. Since getting out of jail and kicking his chemical habits, Earle has painstakingly rebuilt his career with a string of excellent, thoughtful albums. He's become an ace producer and godfather to the alt-country scene. But he still can't get along with people, as proven by his late 1990s' immersion in bluegrass: he worked hard with the Del McCoury Band for "The Mountain," then turned mean when the Christian bluegrass boys got sick of his foul mouth.

page 1 | 2

Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!

Ballad of Johnny Taliban: Steve Earle Picks Another Dumb Fight: Published: August 12, 2002; Type:; Section: Music: Country and Americana; Writer: Ken Layne; Ken Layne's BC Writer page; Ken Layne's personal site

Spread the Word: Like this article?; Email this; Save to del.icio.us

RSS Feeds: All RSS Feeds (240+); Comments on this article; BC articles by Ken Layne; All Music: Country and Americana Articles; All BC articles; All BC Comments

Comments

#1 — August 13, 2002 @ 08:15AM — Bill

Anybody know if this is the same Steve Earle who plays drums in Hermano (hard rock band fronted by ex-Kyuss singer John Garcia)?

#2 — August 13, 2002 @ 17:02PM — M-J [URL]

You claim saying something controversial and then letting the ruckus overshadow the art is a tired act; yeah, well, so is taking one pinch controversy, a smidgen of artist reaction, and using it to spin an oh-so-clever contrarian angle. Have you heard the song, or the album?

#3 — August 13, 2002 @ 18:29PM — zizka [URL]

Walker is a confused kid, he screwed up some, and he's going to have a lot of time to think things over.

He did one thing which the CIA couldn't do, though, and that's infiltrate al Qaeda. He also attained fluency in Arabic, which almost no one in the CIA or the State Department has done. (Not nobody, but few).

Language study is tough. Even (American) liberal arts graduates seldom really learn even just to read one easy European language. (Yeah, French, German and Spanish are easy).

I've studied foreign languages and taught English and Chinese, and in that one respect Walker is an impressive guy.

#4 — August 13, 2002 @ 23:08PM — A

No, I don't believe Steve has ever played drums.

Also, the problems with the Del McCoury Band had to do mostly with money, not Steve's language.

#5 — October 9, 2002 @ 06:24AM — Neil

That was interesting, if kind of all over the map. I would have liked to have seen the thoughts a little more organized. I'm not sure you quite know what things you like and what things you don't. If you do, this doesnn't make it clear.

You seem way to smart to have a sloppy error like this, though --

"Earle told a Canadian crowd his latest contribution to the genre "just may get me fuckin' deported."

(On his own Web site, Earle contradicts this claim by saying, 'I'm not trying to get myself deported or something" and calls the new CD " the most pro-American record I've ever made.')"

There isn't a contradiction. Anyone should be able to see that.

I've done a lot of things in my life that I knew could or even probably would have a certain consequence. That doesn't mean it I did it for that consequence. Basically it's not different than a high school kid saying "If I break curfew to stay with my friends and drink beer, then I'll probably get grounded." That doesn't mean getting grounded was the hoped for consequence.

I'm not trying to compare Steve's comments to that level of maturity, just to a situation that demonstrates how simple and obvious the two statements flow together. They make such obvious sense that calling it a contradiction seems tantamount to a lie.

#6 — February 16, 2004 @ 07:58AM — dj [URL]

this is one o the greatest songs ever written-next to anything by rozz williams- i am bored by radio, mtv, vh1, led zeppelin, give me steve earle!

#7 — February 16, 2004 @ 08:15AM — Eric Olsen

I don't see this as one of is better songs, but I am pleased you have found Steve.

#8 — February 13, 2006 @ 10:13AM — Scott Butki

I have tremendous respect for Earle. He's one of the good ones, in my book.
He does not have a great singing voice but he takes on challenging topics and won't back down.

I wrote a review of two movies by Earle here.

#9 — March 5, 2006 @ 09:48AM — Scott Butki

Making this song was a daring movie precisely because it makes people like this reviewer angry. But I think there's nothing wrong with telling a story from another character's perspective. Look at some of Springsteen's darker songs, for example.

#10 — April 25, 2007 @ 22:31PM — Duck

Well put. But he's always doing something interesting with his presence and stories and the collaboration with the McCoury's was a bright spot, more than worth the trouble. I saw that particular show live in a large club with about 800? people. He started solo with a long 20 minute story song about his hometown. Totally mesmerized the crowd. I don't think anyone even moved until he was finished.