From the Random House website-a release to look forward to:
Bruce Springsteen's America
The People Listening, a Poet Singing
Written by Robert Coles
Category: Biography & Autobiography - Music
Imprint: Random House
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Pub Date: October 2003
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 0-375-50559-8
Also available as an eBook.
In this compelling book, Robert Coles, the celebrated Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, turns his attention to popular music legend Bruce Springsteen, and to the powerful impact Springsteen’s work has had both on the lives of his audience and on this country’s literary tradition. Coles places Springsteen in the pantheon of American artists—Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Percy, among others—who understood and were inspired by their “traveling companions in time,” the ordinary people of their eras.
With wisdom and a unique personal perspective, Coles explores Springsteen’s words as contemporary American poetry, and offers firsthand accounts of how people interact with them: A trucker listens to “Blinded by the Light” during long, lonely nights and reminisces about his mother; a schoolteacher is astonished when a usually silent student offers a comparison between “Nebraska” and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; a policeman responds to “American Skin (41 Shots),” reflecting on his own role in his family and community. As these people, and others, candidly discuss the meaning Springsteen’s words have in their lives, Coles listens and, with the special insight and compassion that are the trademarks of his art, sheds new light on “The Boss,” removing the legendary American rock musician from fan-filled stadiums and placing the poet in a greater social, cultural, and philosophical context. Coles sees Springsteen as a representative of a uniquely American documentary tradition—as a sing-ing and traveling poet who does not simply embody the culture of which he is a part but fully engages it, interacting with its people and creating a conversation that has helped to shape a distinct way of looking at, and living, American life today.
“These are the voices of Bruce Springsteen’s America—individuals young and old, from various parts of a nation, linking themselves in words of reminiscence, reflection, assertion with certain of a singer’s songs. In their sum as listeners, these Americans provide a chorus of resonance to an outpouring of engaging, stirring, inspiring music sent during our recent times toward the many who hearken to the summons of a troubadour.”
—Robert Coles, from Bruce Springsteen’s America
People listen and reflect on their lives and on the words of Bruce Springsteen:
“He’s a writer and a teacher; and he’s a politician . . . urging people who stop and listen toward action. He’s a born storyteller—a novelist who’s out there holding up right and wrong, and drawing the line between the two.”
—a businessman on “Born in the U.S.A.”
“You can close your eyes and hear someone read his words, with no music, and you know it’s him talking. . . . He speaks to you as if you were in the same room, and he’s telling you something about life, and people, and what goes on with us, when we’re working side by side.”
—a woman on “Glory Days” and “Tunnel of Love”
“I’ve listened to Springsteen while I’m flying over America. . . . The time whizzes by—I’m in another world. . . . Actually, I guess I am on top of the world, sitting in that airplane, literally—but hearing Springsteen you go further up. Listening to him talk about the people left behind, the ones who are way down when it comes to dollar bills and jobs, you realize how lucky you are, having the life that’s yours.”
—a college student on “My Hometown”
“That’s his great specialty, taking the measure of people and putting them . . . on the card table, giving them a close look-over. . . . He’s out there . . . taking in what’s going on for us folks here in this America.”
—a policeman on “American Skin (41 Shots)” and “Johnny 99”
“He’s up there on the heights of American storytelling with those lyrics.”
—a schoolteacher on “The E Street Shuffle” and “Nebraska”
Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Children of Crisis as well as The Spiritual Life of Children, Women of Crisis, and Lives of Moral Leadership, among many other books. A professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, he is also the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard. He lives in Massachusetts.
Saturday, September 27, 2003
Another good piece on Springsteen, posted over at the Yahoo NoDepression message board:
Unlike Dixie Chicks, Boss Draws No Outrage for Iraq Views
BY DELIA M. RIOS
c.2003 Newhouse News Service
WASHINGTON -- Bruce Springsteen brought the crowd to its feet with the beloved "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and its brash declaration, "I ain't here for business, I'm only here for fun." But this is a political town, and Springsteen did have a bit of business.
It was Sept. 13, on the final leg of the tour he'll end Oct. 4 at New York's Shea Stadium, and he had something to say on "the question of whether we were misled into the war in Iraq."
"Protecting the democracy that we ask our sons and daughters to die for is our responsibility and our trust," Springsteen said.
"It's the American way."
He has made the statement, as precisely worded as his lyrics, on some stops and not others. This time he brought his message to the nation's front door. He was not turned away.
There was no public outcry as there was when the Dixie Chicks spoke out against President Bush in a manner that struck many as unpatriotic at worst, ill-considered and clumsy at best. At the time, Springsteen defended their right to speak.
There are a number of reasons why his own audience is willing to hear him out, whatever their views. Plenty don't see eye to eye with him -- a Pew Research Center poll taken the week after his Washington concert showed 63 percent of Americans saying the United States made the right choice to go to war.
"The times are uneasy, and maybe a few words are in order," said Springsteen's old friend Frank Stefanko, the photographer who shot the album covers for "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River."
"He's an important American," Stefanko said.
The United States has an official poet laureate, but it is Springsteen who is widely recognized as possessing the rare instinct and talent for taking America's voice and making it his own. "The People Listening, A Poet Singing," is how Robert Coles subtitles his upcoming book, "Bruce Springsteen's America."
If the spirit of Springsteen's words on Iraq is quintessentially American -- a call to exercise the rights and duties of citizenship -- so is Springsteen, whom Coles calls "this writing singer."
Coles, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author at Harvard University and a Medal of Freedom recipient, places Springsteen in the tradition of Walt Whitman and John Steinbeck. Peter Guralnick, author of the highly regarded Elvis Presley biography "Last Train to Memphis," adds Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash to the list.
Springsteen is like Cash in his ability to "bring difficult subjects to the fore with audiences that might not always agree with him, but were willing to listen because of their faith in his voice and conviction and the integrity with which he presented his music and ideas," Guralnick said.
Where does this faith in Springsteen come from?
Guralnick was in the same Cambridge, Mass., club on May 22, 1974, when Springsteen's performance inspired music journalist Jon Landau to write, "I saw rock and roll's future -- and its name is Bruce Springsteen."
Guralnick, too, knew he was seeing something extraordinary. "They knew every word to every song," he remembers. "They saw Springsteen as someone not removed from them but very much as someone giving voice to their own feelings and experiences and thoughts."
The first time Stefanko heard Springsteen, he felt as if the music "had been made for me."
That connection is universal for Springsteen fans, and one that Guralnick believes is still his greatest strength.
His listeners see not only themselves, but their country reflected back in his music. The late novelist and philosopher Walker Percy once told Coles that Springsteen could call his country to account because he did it out of a deep love:
"Bruce Springsteen, the American singing raconteur, headed in all directions toward and about us, doing us justice and doing us proud, but letting us know, too, that all is not right or well, for all we've got, for all of our full stride and the far ground we've reached, we Americans who follow the Boss as he keeps following us, his songs a follow-up on our breakthroughs and blind spots."
It's not hard to get a sense of Springsteen's sympathies -- the appeals to support food banks in communities where he performs, the "No Nukes" concert in the '70s, the Amnesty International tour in the '80s, and his compassionate support for Vietnam veterans. But he has never been one for overt, partisan appeals. He lets his music speak for him, along with what Percy called "his public talking" -- the stories he tells during concerts that are part transition, part parable, part illumination, and that are as well known and loved as the songs themselves.
In August 2002, Washington was the second stop of Springsteen's world tour of "The Rising," his plaintive but redemptive response to Sept. 11. He arrived then in a city yearning to have its wounds salved.
He returned this September to a city preoccupied by Iraq. And his answer to that preoccupation was to question, in a manner that he says is not liberal, conservative, Republican or Democratic -- but American.
He opens his Iraq statement by saying, "People come to my shows with many different kinds of political beliefs; I like that. We welcome all."
But in Washington, he flashed a playful grin, adding, "with the possible exception of Dick Cheney."
He had a little fun at the president's expense, too, exhorting the crowd in his best preacher imitation to "Impeach! Impeach! Impeach the president who got us into this mess!" -- then introducing sax player Clarence "The Big Man" Clemons as a possible Oval Office substitute.
On another September night, 18 years ago -- and a decade after the end of America's venture in Vietnam -- Springsteen addressed himself to "all the young people out there," conjuring a time when "you grew up with war on TV every night."
"A lot of my friends were 17 or 18 and didn't have much of a chance to think about how we felt about things," he told a stadium-packed Los Angeles audience, "and the next time they're gonna be looking at you, and you're gonna need a lot of information to know what you're gonna want to do. Because in 1985, blind faith in your leaders or anything will get you killed, cause what I'm talking about here is ...
"WAR!
"What is it good for?
"Absolutely nothing.
"Say it again!"
The opening salvo of Edwin Starr's 1970 anti-war anthem exploded out of Springsteen, as Rolling Stone writer David Fricke would later say, in "his best tonsil-ripping yell."
Taking Springsteen at his word -- about not having blind faith in anything or anyone -- his fans are engaging him in the Iraq debate on his own Web site (www.brucespringsteen.net). All those political views he spoke of make for a vigorous discussion -- assisted by a posting on the site to "keep the level of civility high."
As Springsteen said himself in concluding his remarks at the concert:
"So may the truth will out."
Sept. 25, 2003
Unlike Dixie Chicks, Boss Draws No Outrage for Iraq Views
BY DELIA M. RIOS
c.2003 Newhouse News Service
WASHINGTON -- Bruce Springsteen brought the crowd to its feet with the beloved "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and its brash declaration, "I ain't here for business, I'm only here for fun." But this is a political town, and Springsteen did have a bit of business.
It was Sept. 13, on the final leg of the tour he'll end Oct. 4 at New York's Shea Stadium, and he had something to say on "the question of whether we were misled into the war in Iraq."
"Protecting the democracy that we ask our sons and daughters to die for is our responsibility and our trust," Springsteen said.
"It's the American way."
He has made the statement, as precisely worded as his lyrics, on some stops and not others. This time he brought his message to the nation's front door. He was not turned away.
There was no public outcry as there was when the Dixie Chicks spoke out against President Bush in a manner that struck many as unpatriotic at worst, ill-considered and clumsy at best. At the time, Springsteen defended their right to speak.
There are a number of reasons why his own audience is willing to hear him out, whatever their views. Plenty don't see eye to eye with him -- a Pew Research Center poll taken the week after his Washington concert showed 63 percent of Americans saying the United States made the right choice to go to war.
"The times are uneasy, and maybe a few words are in order," said Springsteen's old friend Frank Stefanko, the photographer who shot the album covers for "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River."
"He's an important American," Stefanko said.
The United States has an official poet laureate, but it is Springsteen who is widely recognized as possessing the rare instinct and talent for taking America's voice and making it his own. "The People Listening, A Poet Singing," is how Robert Coles subtitles his upcoming book, "Bruce Springsteen's America."
If the spirit of Springsteen's words on Iraq is quintessentially American -- a call to exercise the rights and duties of citizenship -- so is Springsteen, whom Coles calls "this writing singer."
Coles, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author at Harvard University and a Medal of Freedom recipient, places Springsteen in the tradition of Walt Whitman and John Steinbeck. Peter Guralnick, author of the highly regarded Elvis Presley biography "Last Train to Memphis," adds Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash to the list.
Springsteen is like Cash in his ability to "bring difficult subjects to the fore with audiences that might not always agree with him, but were willing to listen because of their faith in his voice and conviction and the integrity with which he presented his music and ideas," Guralnick said.
Where does this faith in Springsteen come from?
Guralnick was in the same Cambridge, Mass., club on May 22, 1974, when Springsteen's performance inspired music journalist Jon Landau to write, "I saw rock and roll's future -- and its name is Bruce Springsteen."
Guralnick, too, knew he was seeing something extraordinary. "They knew every word to every song," he remembers. "They saw Springsteen as someone not removed from them but very much as someone giving voice to their own feelings and experiences and thoughts."
The first time Stefanko heard Springsteen, he felt as if the music "had been made for me."
That connection is universal for Springsteen fans, and one that Guralnick believes is still his greatest strength.
His listeners see not only themselves, but their country reflected back in his music. The late novelist and philosopher Walker Percy once told Coles that Springsteen could call his country to account because he did it out of a deep love:
"Bruce Springsteen, the American singing raconteur, headed in all directions toward and about us, doing us justice and doing us proud, but letting us know, too, that all is not right or well, for all we've got, for all of our full stride and the far ground we've reached, we Americans who follow the Boss as he keeps following us, his songs a follow-up on our breakthroughs and blind spots."
It's not hard to get a sense of Springsteen's sympathies -- the appeals to support food banks in communities where he performs, the "No Nukes" concert in the '70s, the Amnesty International tour in the '80s, and his compassionate support for Vietnam veterans. But he has never been one for overt, partisan appeals. He lets his music speak for him, along with what Percy called "his public talking" -- the stories he tells during concerts that are part transition, part parable, part illumination, and that are as well known and loved as the songs themselves.
In August 2002, Washington was the second stop of Springsteen's world tour of "The Rising," his plaintive but redemptive response to Sept. 11. He arrived then in a city yearning to have its wounds salved.
He returned this September to a city preoccupied by Iraq. And his answer to that preoccupation was to question, in a manner that he says is not liberal, conservative, Republican or Democratic -- but American.
He opens his Iraq statement by saying, "People come to my shows with many different kinds of political beliefs; I like that. We welcome all."
But in Washington, he flashed a playful grin, adding, "with the possible exception of Dick Cheney."
He had a little fun at the president's expense, too, exhorting the crowd in his best preacher imitation to "Impeach! Impeach! Impeach the president who got us into this mess!" -- then introducing sax player Clarence "The Big Man" Clemons as a possible Oval Office substitute.
On another September night, 18 years ago -- and a decade after the end of America's venture in Vietnam -- Springsteen addressed himself to "all the young people out there," conjuring a time when "you grew up with war on TV every night."
"A lot of my friends were 17 or 18 and didn't have much of a chance to think about how we felt about things," he told a stadium-packed Los Angeles audience, "and the next time they're gonna be looking at you, and you're gonna need a lot of information to know what you're gonna want to do. Because in 1985, blind faith in your leaders or anything will get you killed, cause what I'm talking about here is ...
"WAR!
"What is it good for?
"Absolutely nothing.
"Say it again!"
The opening salvo of Edwin Starr's 1970 anti-war anthem exploded out of Springsteen, as Rolling Stone writer David Fricke would later say, in "his best tonsil-ripping yell."
Taking Springsteen at his word -- about not having blind faith in anything or anyone -- his fans are engaging him in the Iraq debate on his own Web site (www.brucespringsteen.net). All those political views he spoke of make for a vigorous discussion -- assisted by a posting on the site to "keep the level of civility high."
As Springsteen said himself in concluding his remarks at the concert:
"So may the truth will out."
Sept. 25, 2003
Great quote here from an Ann Coulter column about David Limbaugh's book, Persecution.
"Between issuing laws prohibiting discrimination against transgendered individuals and running up a $38 billion deficit, the California Legislature mandated a three-week immersion course in Islam for all seventh-graders. A "crash course" in Islam, you might call it, if that weren't so ironic. Students are required to adopt Muslim names, plan a trip to Mecca, play a jihad game, pray to "Allah, the Compassionate" and to chant "Praise to Allah! Lord of Creation!" They are encouraged to dress in Muslim garb. Students are discouraged, however, from stoning girls at the school dances, abusing their "Jew" math teachers or blowing up their classmates."
"Between issuing laws prohibiting discrimination against transgendered individuals and running up a $38 billion deficit, the California Legislature mandated a three-week immersion course in Islam for all seventh-graders. A "crash course" in Islam, you might call it, if that weren't so ironic. Students are required to adopt Muslim names, plan a trip to Mecca, play a jihad game, pray to "Allah, the Compassionate" and to chant "Praise to Allah! Lord of Creation!" They are encouraged to dress in Muslim garb. Students are discouraged, however, from stoning girls at the school dances, abusing their "Jew" math teachers or blowing up their classmates."
Friday, September 26, 2003
Nice thoughts here from one of my favorite lefties, Larry Kirwan of Black 47.
Larry Kirwan on Favorite Albums
I was asked in an interview recently, "what's your favorite cd of all
time?" This was quite a common question back in the day, as they say.
Although, it was more likely phrased, "what are your top five albums?"
Perhaps, there were more choices back then, or were the times more
expansive? Whatever! I was, at first, stumped by the recent question. Not
as badly as the whole band though, when, on the air in Columbus, Ohio, last
summer, we were asked "what modern music have you been listening to?" After
a long dead silence that must have burned holes in the airwaves, Andrew
tentatively replied, "Bob Dylan?"
What is my favorite CD, album, record, file, or whatever it goes by
nowadays? What's yours? I mean I could say that, as regards sheer
consistency and output, it would be hard to top The Beatles. But that's
different, isn't it? What single work have I listened to most often? Is
that a good yardstick? Then again, there are albums (and I'll stick to that
wording because I think it encompasses the work better than mere "CD") that
are just right for a mood or a moment. Lou Reed, The Who, Bob Dylan, Public
Enemy, Leonard Cohen, Talking Heads, Mozart, Miles, Astor Piazzolla, Sean
O'Riada - the list is almost infinite, as are the moods and moments. There
are, of course, albums that remind you of a person or an event when you
were happiest, or more likely a time when you had less cares and lots more
time for listening to music.
But oh, those albums that remind you of a particular person...everyone has
them, to be taken out and dusted off in those moments when we're alone and
unlikely to be interrupted. We always keep them close at hand, like an old
quilt or blanket for security and the warmth of memory. When was the last
time you played one? Then again, there are the albums that people love to
share. I once lived in an apartment with a woman who played Exile on Main
Street and shed copious tears for a lost love whenever she was vacuuming. I
suppose she was sending me a message. I'm not sure I totally got it, but it
was quite a sight and I never hear Sweet Virginia without thinking of her
and her sorrowful cleaning skills.
There are also albums that shoot you back through the years and give you a
prickly, uneasy feeling. Nashville Skyline is one such for me. It's a
laconic, easygoing collection, and yet it puts me on edge and I rarely
remember why. But when Bobby hits the first note of I Threw it All Away,
I'm back there in a cold water flat in Dublin with a young woman telling me
that everytime I hear that song from then on, I'll think of her and regret
my actions. Well, she got the first part right. I do think of her...
But I digress. My favorite album of all time? It was almost a disloyalty to
so many treasured works to break it down to just two. And I chose those
because they are the ones that I've played most over the years. Astral
Weeks by Van Morrison and Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis. I'm sorry,
Miles, you've moved me on so many different levels but there is still
something about Astral Weeks that floors me. I would have to say that it's
main characteristic is its timelessness. It sounds as unique now as it did
in that damp and lonely flat on Belgrave Square in Dublin, all those years
ago. I've had many copies of the album and many CDs too, but I can still
hear the small defective skip on my original when Van sings "then you know
you gotta go on a train from Dublin up to Sandy Row throwing pennies at the
bridges down below..."
I suppose one's favorite album must have a totality about it. Of course, it
has to have great songs, great players, great instrumentation. But it must
possess something else - something that's beyond the music or, perhaps,
something that the music evinces. Astral Weeks has mystery. I know every
comma, breath and quiver of that work and yet it still sets me wondering.
There's a depth of feeling, loneliness and hurt to it, and yet there's the
underlying thought that somehow or other the singer/writer will come
through all this and be, perhaps, not a better person but a more complete
one.
Madam George and Like a Rolling Stone, to me, are two of the greatest
"rock" recordings. That doesn't mean that they're the greatest songs. Far
from it. But the mood they create is beyond sublime. In much the same way,
I would say that Bobby Sands MP is the best recording that Black 47 has
ever done. I never hear that track without being instantly transported back
to the streets of Belfast in those awful days of the early 80's. Madam
George is much more ephemeral; but it's also about Belfast and rain and
pain and mystery. I suppose some towns just bring out a particular feeling.
Because of circumstances, I can't listen to Astral Weeks right now. And yet
I only have to think of it and I'm caught up in its mood and transported to
a different level. To say it takes my breath away is an understatement. I
rarely use the word "art" in relation to rock & roll. I dislike the casual
way that the term "artist" is bandied about and heedlessly conferred
nowadays. Where I came from, "artist" was a title that was bestowed on you,
after you had produced a solid body of work that somehow or other stood the
test of time. But I have no hesitation in saying that Astral Weeks is art
incarnated. It's also my favorite album. What's yours?
I fully realize that I'm mentioning music that has been around for some
time. Perhaps, that's for a reason. Many of these albums were made in the
golden age of radio when disc jockeys actually picked the songs they wanted
to play. These people became arbiters of taste and many of them championed
bands and singers who would never have made it without that personal push.
I can't bring myself to listen to 99% of radio today. Because of this, I
buy many albums unheard, and throw most away after a first listen. But I
just know in my bones that there are people out there making great music
that cannot get played on the murder machine that passes for radio today.
I'd love to hear about what I'm missing. If there's something from the
present that you think I should be aware of, please let me know. That being
said, let me know your favorite CD - past or present - or drop a line with
your choice to the discussion forum at www.black47.com
Larry Kirwan
Larry Kirwan on Favorite Albums
I was asked in an interview recently, "what's your favorite cd of all
time?" This was quite a common question back in the day, as they say.
Although, it was more likely phrased, "what are your top five albums?"
Perhaps, there were more choices back then, or were the times more
expansive? Whatever! I was, at first, stumped by the recent question. Not
as badly as the whole band though, when, on the air in Columbus, Ohio, last
summer, we were asked "what modern music have you been listening to?" After
a long dead silence that must have burned holes in the airwaves, Andrew
tentatively replied, "Bob Dylan?"
What is my favorite CD, album, record, file, or whatever it goes by
nowadays? What's yours? I mean I could say that, as regards sheer
consistency and output, it would be hard to top The Beatles. But that's
different, isn't it? What single work have I listened to most often? Is
that a good yardstick? Then again, there are albums (and I'll stick to that
wording because I think it encompasses the work better than mere "CD") that
are just right for a mood or a moment. Lou Reed, The Who, Bob Dylan, Public
Enemy, Leonard Cohen, Talking Heads, Mozart, Miles, Astor Piazzolla, Sean
O'Riada - the list is almost infinite, as are the moods and moments. There
are, of course, albums that remind you of a person or an event when you
were happiest, or more likely a time when you had less cares and lots more
time for listening to music.
But oh, those albums that remind you of a particular person...everyone has
them, to be taken out and dusted off in those moments when we're alone and
unlikely to be interrupted. We always keep them close at hand, like an old
quilt or blanket for security and the warmth of memory. When was the last
time you played one? Then again, there are the albums that people love to
share. I once lived in an apartment with a woman who played Exile on Main
Street and shed copious tears for a lost love whenever she was vacuuming. I
suppose she was sending me a message. I'm not sure I totally got it, but it
was quite a sight and I never hear Sweet Virginia without thinking of her
and her sorrowful cleaning skills.
There are also albums that shoot you back through the years and give you a
prickly, uneasy feeling. Nashville Skyline is one such for me. It's a
laconic, easygoing collection, and yet it puts me on edge and I rarely
remember why. But when Bobby hits the first note of I Threw it All Away,
I'm back there in a cold water flat in Dublin with a young woman telling me
that everytime I hear that song from then on, I'll think of her and regret
my actions. Well, she got the first part right. I do think of her...
But I digress. My favorite album of all time? It was almost a disloyalty to
so many treasured works to break it down to just two. And I chose those
because they are the ones that I've played most over the years. Astral
Weeks by Van Morrison and Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis. I'm sorry,
Miles, you've moved me on so many different levels but there is still
something about Astral Weeks that floors me. I would have to say that it's
main characteristic is its timelessness. It sounds as unique now as it did
in that damp and lonely flat on Belgrave Square in Dublin, all those years
ago. I've had many copies of the album and many CDs too, but I can still
hear the small defective skip on my original when Van sings "then you know
you gotta go on a train from Dublin up to Sandy Row throwing pennies at the
bridges down below..."
I suppose one's favorite album must have a totality about it. Of course, it
has to have great songs, great players, great instrumentation. But it must
possess something else - something that's beyond the music or, perhaps,
something that the music evinces. Astral Weeks has mystery. I know every
comma, breath and quiver of that work and yet it still sets me wondering.
There's a depth of feeling, loneliness and hurt to it, and yet there's the
underlying thought that somehow or other the singer/writer will come
through all this and be, perhaps, not a better person but a more complete
one.
Madam George and Like a Rolling Stone, to me, are two of the greatest
"rock" recordings. That doesn't mean that they're the greatest songs. Far
from it. But the mood they create is beyond sublime. In much the same way,
I would say that Bobby Sands MP is the best recording that Black 47 has
ever done. I never hear that track without being instantly transported back
to the streets of Belfast in those awful days of the early 80's. Madam
George is much more ephemeral; but it's also about Belfast and rain and
pain and mystery. I suppose some towns just bring out a particular feeling.
Because of circumstances, I can't listen to Astral Weeks right now. And yet
I only have to think of it and I'm caught up in its mood and transported to
a different level. To say it takes my breath away is an understatement. I
rarely use the word "art" in relation to rock & roll. I dislike the casual
way that the term "artist" is bandied about and heedlessly conferred
nowadays. Where I came from, "artist" was a title that was bestowed on you,
after you had produced a solid body of work that somehow or other stood the
test of time. But I have no hesitation in saying that Astral Weeks is art
incarnated. It's also my favorite album. What's yours?
I fully realize that I'm mentioning music that has been around for some
time. Perhaps, that's for a reason. Many of these albums were made in the
golden age of radio when disc jockeys actually picked the songs they wanted
to play. These people became arbiters of taste and many of them championed
bands and singers who would never have made it without that personal push.
I can't bring myself to listen to 99% of radio today. Because of this, I
buy many albums unheard, and throw most away after a first listen. But I
just know in my bones that there are people out there making great music
that cannot get played on the murder machine that passes for radio today.
I'd love to hear about what I'm missing. If there's something from the
present that you think I should be aware of, please let me know. That being
said, let me know your favorite CD - past or present - or drop a line with
your choice to the discussion forum at www.black47.com
Larry Kirwan
Thursday, September 25, 2003
We seem to be on a roll of Springsteen posts lately. Below is a nice appreciation of Bruce from Adam Duritz's website:
Adam Duritz on Bruce Bootlegs
9/04/03 - 11:50pm Miami, Florida
So it’s raining outside my window and the lightning keeps strobing the beach and the ocean. It’s like a huge nightclub out there. All the lights are off in my room. Only the computer’s glow breaks the dark-flash-dark-flash pattern of the lightning. I’ve got my headphones on and I’m listening to Springsteen bootlegs real loud.
I just listened to the Main Point at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania from 1973 and now I’m listening to a gig at Union College in Schenectady, New York from November 11, 1974. It’s a wild bootleg. He’s touring on “The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle” but he’s working on writing “Born To Run” so he’s playing some stuff from that as well. He tells them about how Bo Diddley found the “beat of the universe” and then he plays “She’s The One”. When it’s over, he says, “Yeah, that might be on the next album (sparse applause)…this is, uh...somethin’ new...might be somethin’ called “Jungleland”(one guy screams). Then they play an incredible ten and a half minute version.
It’s my favorite period for Bruce bootlegs, that time between 1973 and ’74 when he is still out touring on the fading feeling of the boardwalk carnival of his childhood, before it began to feel like decay and a prison he needed to escape from. As exhilarating as “Born To Run” is, it’s still the album where something that once seemed magical begins to seem tragic. Every album that follows deals with the disillusionment more than the magic. “The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle” is his “Astral Weeks”. It also contains all my favorite songs: “Incident on 57th Street”, “New York City Serenade”, “Wild Billy’s Circus Story”, and my all-time fave, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”. The uninterrupted side 2 suite is every bit as good as the one on “Abbey Road”.
Adam Duritz on Bruce Bootlegs
9/04/03 - 11:50pm Miami, Florida
So it’s raining outside my window and the lightning keeps strobing the beach and the ocean. It’s like a huge nightclub out there. All the lights are off in my room. Only the computer’s glow breaks the dark-flash-dark-flash pattern of the lightning. I’ve got my headphones on and I’m listening to Springsteen bootlegs real loud.
I just listened to the Main Point at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania from 1973 and now I’m listening to a gig at Union College in Schenectady, New York from November 11, 1974. It’s a wild bootleg. He’s touring on “The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle” but he’s working on writing “Born To Run” so he’s playing some stuff from that as well. He tells them about how Bo Diddley found the “beat of the universe” and then he plays “She’s The One”. When it’s over, he says, “Yeah, that might be on the next album (sparse applause)…this is, uh...somethin’ new...might be somethin’ called “Jungleland”(one guy screams). Then they play an incredible ten and a half minute version.
It’s my favorite period for Bruce bootlegs, that time between 1973 and ’74 when he is still out touring on the fading feeling of the boardwalk carnival of his childhood, before it began to feel like decay and a prison he needed to escape from. As exhilarating as “Born To Run” is, it’s still the album where something that once seemed magical begins to seem tragic. Every album that follows deals with the disillusionment more than the magic. “The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle” is his “Astral Weeks”. It also contains all my favorite songs: “Incident on 57th Street”, “New York City Serenade”, “Wild Billy’s Circus Story”, and my all-time fave, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”. The uninterrupted side 2 suite is every bit as good as the one on “Abbey Road”.
Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Some lists from the new Zagat Music guide:
Here is a summary of the overall winners:
Most Popular Albums:
1. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
2. The Beatles, Abbey Road
3. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper
4. U2, The Joshua Tree
5. The Beatles, The White Album
6. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
7. Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
8. The Beatles, Revolver
9. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
10. U2, Achtung Baby
Top 10 for Overall Quality:
1. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
2. John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
3. Aretha Franklin, Lady Soul
4. Patty Griffin, Living with Ghosts
5. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
6. Howlin'Wolf, Moanin' in the Moonlight
7. Ella Fitzgerald, Best of the Songbooks
8. The Beatles, Abbey Road
9. The Who, Who's Next
10. Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours
Most Influential Musical Artists:
1. The Beatles
2. Elvis Presley
3. Bob Dylan
4. The Rolling Stones
5. Madonna
6. Led Zeppelin
7. U2
8. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
9. Frank Sinatra
10. Michael Jackson
Top-Rated Songwriters:
1. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
2. Patti Griffin, Living with Ghosts
3. Mozart, Don Giovanni*
4. Mozart, Piano Concertos 19-23
5. Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
*Tied with album above it.
Among Top Work-Out Albums, with Surveyor's Favorite Tracks:
Hairspray, "You Can't Stop the Beat"
Vangelis, Chariots of Fire, "Titles"
ABBA, Gold/Greatest Hits, "Dancing Queen"
Rocky, "Gonna Fly Now"
Gloria Estefan, Greatest Hits, "Conga"
Among Top Breakup Albums, with Surveyor's Favorite Tracks:
Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, "Tangled Up in Blue"
Joni Mitchell, Blue, "A Case of You"
Patsy Cline, Greatest Hits, "Crazy"
George Jones, Essential, "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, "Go Your Own Way"
The Rolling Stones, Some Girls, "Miss You"
Joy Division, Substance, "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Roseanne Cash, Interiors, "On the Surface"
k.d. Lang, Ingenue, "Constant Craving"
Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, "You Oughta Know"
Among Top Make-Out Albums:
Marvin Gaye, Anthology
Prince, Purple Rain
Massive Attack, Blue Lines
Roxy Music, Avalon
U2, Achtung Baby
Hip-Hop Artists, Albums, Favorite Tracks
Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation, "Bring the Noise"
Run-D.M.C, Raising Hell, "Peter Piper"
Dr. Dre, The Chronic, "Nuthin' But a G-Thang"
Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory, "Scenario"
Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang Clan, "C.R.E.A.M."
Top By Genre:
Blues - Howlin' Wolf, Moanin' in the Moonlight
Classical - Vladimir Horowitz, Horowitz in Moscow
Country & Western - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Dance - Donna Summer, Dance Collection
Electronica - Massive Attack, Protection
Folk - John Prine, John Prine
Funk - The Meters, Funkify Your Life
Hip-Hop - Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Jazz - Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
Kids - Muppet Movie
Musicals - My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe)
New Age - Ottmar Liebert, Nouveau Flamenco
Pop Vocal (Contemporary) - Michael Jackson, Thriller
Pop Vocal (Traditional) - Ella Fitzgerald, Best of the Songbooks
R&B - Luther Vandross, The Best
Rock (Overall) - Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
Rock (Alternative) - U2, The Joshua Tree
Rock (Art/Experimental) - Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
Rock (Classic) - Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
Rock (Garage/Underground) - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts
Rock (Hard/Heavy Metal) - Metallica, Master of Puppets
Rock (New Wave) - Elvis Costello, This Year's Model
Rock (Oldies) - Elvis Presley, Elvis (TV Special)
Here is a summary of the overall winners:
Most Popular Albums:
1. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
2. The Beatles, Abbey Road
3. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper
4. U2, The Joshua Tree
5. The Beatles, The White Album
6. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
7. Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
8. The Beatles, Revolver
9. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
10. U2, Achtung Baby
Top 10 for Overall Quality:
1. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
2. John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
3. Aretha Franklin, Lady Soul
4. Patty Griffin, Living with Ghosts
5. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
6. Howlin'Wolf, Moanin' in the Moonlight
7. Ella Fitzgerald, Best of the Songbooks
8. The Beatles, Abbey Road
9. The Who, Who's Next
10. Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours
Most Influential Musical Artists:
1. The Beatles
2. Elvis Presley
3. Bob Dylan
4. The Rolling Stones
5. Madonna
6. Led Zeppelin
7. U2
8. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
9. Frank Sinatra
10. Michael Jackson
Top-Rated Songwriters:
1. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
2. Patti Griffin, Living with Ghosts
3. Mozart, Don Giovanni*
4. Mozart, Piano Concertos 19-23
5. Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
*Tied with album above it.
Among Top Work-Out Albums, with Surveyor's Favorite Tracks:
Hairspray, "You Can't Stop the Beat"
Vangelis, Chariots of Fire, "Titles"
ABBA, Gold/Greatest Hits, "Dancing Queen"
Rocky, "Gonna Fly Now"
Gloria Estefan, Greatest Hits, "Conga"
Among Top Breakup Albums, with Surveyor's Favorite Tracks:
Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, "Tangled Up in Blue"
Joni Mitchell, Blue, "A Case of You"
Patsy Cline, Greatest Hits, "Crazy"
George Jones, Essential, "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, "Go Your Own Way"
The Rolling Stones, Some Girls, "Miss You"
Joy Division, Substance, "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Roseanne Cash, Interiors, "On the Surface"
k.d. Lang, Ingenue, "Constant Craving"
Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, "You Oughta Know"
Among Top Make-Out Albums:
Marvin Gaye, Anthology
Prince, Purple Rain
Massive Attack, Blue Lines
Roxy Music, Avalon
U2, Achtung Baby
Hip-Hop Artists, Albums, Favorite Tracks
Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation, "Bring the Noise"
Run-D.M.C, Raising Hell, "Peter Piper"
Dr. Dre, The Chronic, "Nuthin' But a G-Thang"
Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory, "Scenario"
Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang Clan, "C.R.E.A.M."
Top By Genre:
Blues - Howlin' Wolf, Moanin' in the Moonlight
Classical - Vladimir Horowitz, Horowitz in Moscow
Country & Western - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Dance - Donna Summer, Dance Collection
Electronica - Massive Attack, Protection
Folk - John Prine, John Prine
Funk - The Meters, Funkify Your Life
Hip-Hop - Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Jazz - Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
Kids - Muppet Movie
Musicals - My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe)
New Age - Ottmar Liebert, Nouveau Flamenco
Pop Vocal (Contemporary) - Michael Jackson, Thriller
Pop Vocal (Traditional) - Ella Fitzgerald, Best of the Songbooks
R&B - Luther Vandross, The Best
Rock (Overall) - Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
Rock (Alternative) - U2, The Joshua Tree
Rock (Art/Experimental) - Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
Rock (Classic) - Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
Rock (Garage/Underground) - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts
Rock (Hard/Heavy Metal) - Metallica, Master of Puppets
Rock (New Wave) - Elvis Costello, This Year's Model
Rock (Oldies) - Elvis Presley, Elvis (TV Special)
A nice honor for Bruce Springsteen on his 54th birthday:
Zagat: Springsteen Tops Beatles for Most Popular Album
Tues. September 23, 2003 04:47 PM ET
by Nichola Groom
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bruce Springsteen is indeed the boss, beating the Beatles and all others for making the most popular album of all time, according to Zagat Survey's "Music Guide," which hit stores on Tuesday.
Zagat's new 332-page guide lists the top 1,000 albums of all time, according to ratings from more than 10,500 music aficionados. Topping the guide's most popular list is Springsteen's "Born to Run," with the Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" taking second and third places, respectively.
An original list of 2,500 albums, compiled for guidebook publisher Zagat by music industry specialists, was whittled down to the final 1,000 by respondents, who listed their five favorite albums and then rated other albums they were familiar with on a 30-point scale.
Survey participants applauded Springsteen's 1975 breakthrough album for its "cinematic vision of American teen-age romanticism" and its "promise of the endless Saturday night."
"Abbey Road," on the other hand, was praised by one participant as "the Sistine Chapel of rock 'n' roll."
Rounding out the "most popular" top 10 list are U2's "The Joshua Tree," the Beatles' "The White Album," Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town," The Beatles' "Revolver," Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and U2's "Achtung Baby."
The survey's publisher, Tim Zagat, said he hopes the rankings will spark a lively debate among readers.
"I hope there is some controversy," Zagat said in an interview. "People can argue until the cows come home over whether Mozart was a better songwriter than Bob Dylan, but just that you are juxtaposing Dylan and Mozart catches you by surprise and makes you think."
Zagat, best known for restaurant guides based on customer surveys, also publishes books on travel, shopping and most recently, wireless Internet hotspots.
The music guide, which sells for $14.95, also ranks the top 12 albums in 22 genres ranging from blues to classical to hip-hop. It also lists music recommended for specific occasions.
The "make-out" list includes Marvin Gaye's "Anthology" and Prince's "Purple Rain," while the soundtrack to "Flashdance" and ABBA's "Gold/Greatest Hits" top the "work-out" list.
Zagat: Springsteen Tops Beatles for Most Popular Album
Tues. September 23, 2003 04:47 PM ET
by Nichola Groom
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bruce Springsteen is indeed the boss, beating the Beatles and all others for making the most popular album of all time, according to Zagat Survey's "Music Guide," which hit stores on Tuesday.
Zagat's new 332-page guide lists the top 1,000 albums of all time, according to ratings from more than 10,500 music aficionados. Topping the guide's most popular list is Springsteen's "Born to Run," with the Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" taking second and third places, respectively.
An original list of 2,500 albums, compiled for guidebook publisher Zagat by music industry specialists, was whittled down to the final 1,000 by respondents, who listed their five favorite albums and then rated other albums they were familiar with on a 30-point scale.
Survey participants applauded Springsteen's 1975 breakthrough album for its "cinematic vision of American teen-age romanticism" and its "promise of the endless Saturday night."
"Abbey Road," on the other hand, was praised by one participant as "the Sistine Chapel of rock 'n' roll."
Rounding out the "most popular" top 10 list are U2's "The Joshua Tree," the Beatles' "The White Album," Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town," The Beatles' "Revolver," Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and U2's "Achtung Baby."
The survey's publisher, Tim Zagat, said he hopes the rankings will spark a lively debate among readers.
"I hope there is some controversy," Zagat said in an interview. "People can argue until the cows come home over whether Mozart was a better songwriter than Bob Dylan, but just that you are juxtaposing Dylan and Mozart catches you by surprise and makes you think."
Zagat, best known for restaurant guides based on customer surveys, also publishes books on travel, shopping and most recently, wireless Internet hotspots.
The music guide, which sells for $14.95, also ranks the top 12 albums in 22 genres ranging from blues to classical to hip-hop. It also lists music recommended for specific occasions.
The "make-out" list includes Marvin Gaye's "Anthology" and Prince's "Purple Rain," while the soundtrack to "Flashdance" and ABBA's "Gold/Greatest Hits" top the "work-out" list.
Monday, September 22, 2003
Mark Steyn weighs in on Wesley Clark in the Observer U.K. and as usual, is dead on the mark:
Here comes General Clark, his policies will follow shortly
By Mark Steyn
(Filed: 21/09/2003)
For the last year, General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Commander of Nato, has been on CNN thrice nightly on one show or another.
He is a handsome man in an unnerving kind of way. He never blinks, presumably because long ago some adviser told him that not blinking projects strength or some such. So instead he just stares intensely directly into the camera. If you've ever sat opposite the serial killer on the last Tube to Morden, you'll know the look.
Anyway, night after night, Bill Clinton's old Arkansas pal and the Kollossus of Kosovo has been telling interviewers that he has not yet made up his mind whether to run for President or, indeed, whether he's even a Democrat.
Most of us figured this was the usual apple sauce and that the famously arrogant Clark was just waiting for the right moment. Last week was definitely the right moment. Howard Dean, the insurgent Leftie from Vermont whose metaphorical battle cry of "Give me ideological purity or give me death" has so roused the party faithful, has successfully killed off all the other viable candidates, mainly by driving them nuts and dragging them far farther to the Left than any sane man would want to be.
Last week, though, Hurricane Howard appeared to have temporarily run out of puff.
So in jumped Gen Clark. Brilliant timing. As if to underline that it is now Dean vs Clark, Senator John Edwards, the pretty-boy trial lawyer from North Carolina, officially launched his campaign the day before the General, and nobody noticed.
The media trampled him into the asphalt as they stampeded on to Arkansas to coo over the Democrats' new "white knight". And here's the thing: Clark was terrible. I assumed all the time that he was on CNN claiming to be wrestling with his decision that he had a campaign platform in the freezer all ready to warm up once he gave the signal. But it seems he genuinely hadn't made up his mind.
Judging from his initial appearances, he still hasn't. He is running for President because he thinks he is the best man for the job. Why? Well, no tricky follow-up questions, please: he'll get back to you later on that.
At his first campaign stop at a Florida restaurant, The Washington Post reported that "Clark said he has few specific policy ideas to offer voters right now . . . Voters need to give him time to think things through."
I sympathise, up to a point. Political candidates are supposed to have plans for things most of us never give a thought to, like a prescription drug plan for the elderly.
I don't have a prescription drug plan for the elderly, and I wouldn't want to improvise one in a Florida diner. But surely there's a couple of issues the White Knight's had time to think through. For example, I don't know whether you heard about it but there was a war in Iraq a couple of months back. It was in all the papers. So what's General Clark's position on that?
Here he is on Thursday: "General Wesley K Clark said today that he would have supported the Congressional resolution that authorised the United States to invade Iraq." Here he is on Friday: " 'Let's make one thing real clear, I would never have voted for this war,' Clark said before a speech at the University of Iowa." Got that? Everybody else on the planet knows what his or her position on Iraq is except General Clark.
A Democratic strategist told me that, well, Clark's got into the race late, so it is hardly surprising he is not quite, as the phrase has it, ready for primetime. Au contraire, primetime seems to be the only thing he is ready for: he spent the run-up to it, the war itself and the aftermath in television studios across the continent pointing out everything that Bush was doing wrong without ever acquiring a coherent position of his own.
What Clark's media-boosters like is that he's sophisticated, he's nuanced, he doesn't see everything as "yes" or "no". As he told The New York Times when asked whether he'd have voted to authorise war or not: "I think that's too simple a question." Unfortunately, most questions are: you have to vote yea or nay; and the general seems to feel that sort of thing's beneath him.
What we do know, though, is that, if he had been President these last three years, the Taliban and Saddam would still be in power.
His response to September 11, as argued in a weirdly narcissistic essay, would have been to have "helped the United Nations create an International Criminal Tribunal on International Terrorism" - no doubt chaired by a distinguished former chief justice of Libya or Syria. A team of Hague lawyers would be in Kabul today making solid progress with Mullah Omar on a plea-bargain from Osama. That's the stuff.
Why did General Clark on Friday stage the world's fastest retreat from his position on Thursday? Because his "supporters" were outraged to hear he would have backed the war. On 99 per cent of domestic issues, Clark is in bland unthinking compliance with party orthodoxy, with not an idea in his pretty little head.
The only rationale for his candidacy is that he is the soldier for the party that doesn't like soldiering. He supposedly neutralises the Democrats' national security problem: they can say, hey, sure, we're anti-war, but that's because our guy is a four-star general who knows a thing or two about it . . . That's all they need him for: cover.
It is not going to work. All General Jello (as New York media man Jeff Jarvis has already dubbed him) does is remind voters of what they dislike about the Dems on this war: their weaselly evasive oppositionism. All his military background does is keep military matters at the forefront of the campaign.
He will be asked why he got fired from the Nato job, why his buddy Bill Clinton declined to save him, why neither his civilian nor uniformed bosses - Bill Cohen, the Defence Secretary, and General Shelton, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs - attended his retirement ceremony, a huge public snub for a four-star general.
It is hard to argue that Iraq was a disaster when, in the crappy little war you, General Clark, presided over, the most powerful military on the planet took 78 days of aerial bombardment to destroy just over a dozen tanks; hard to argue that our boys shouldn't be getting picked off on the ground in Iraq when in your war they stayed up at 15,000 feet, nights only, bombing hospitals, commuter trains, refugee convoys, the Chinese embassy, etc; hard to argue that Iraq wasn't worth it when, by most accounts, there's more ethnic cleansing (Muslims against Christians) going on in "liberated" Kosovo than there was in Slobo's day.
If General Clark's the candidate, he'll be the embodiment of ineffectual Clintonian warmongering.
If I were a Democrat, I would go with Howard Dean, the loopy peacenik who doesn't know a thing about war and doesn't care who knows it. On Iraq, he sounds passionate and angry, not shifty and equivocal. And on health, schools and the stuff Democrats and media really care about, Dean can yak away for hours so glibly there'll be no time left to talk about peripheral trivia like terrorism and national security.
If the objective is to squash Bush's war advantage, vote Dean and move on to domestic policy. Vote for the general and you're stuck talking war till next November with a candidate who is not up to it.
Unless, of course, there's a third scenario, which, given last week's lamentable performance, makes a strange kind of sense. General Clark is merely an unwitting "stalking horse", designed to weaken both Dean and Bush just enough to enable the Democrats' real white knight to jump in: waiting in the wings, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Here comes General Clark, his policies will follow shortly
By Mark Steyn
(Filed: 21/09/2003)
For the last year, General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Commander of Nato, has been on CNN thrice nightly on one show or another.
He is a handsome man in an unnerving kind of way. He never blinks, presumably because long ago some adviser told him that not blinking projects strength or some such. So instead he just stares intensely directly into the camera. If you've ever sat opposite the serial killer on the last Tube to Morden, you'll know the look.
Anyway, night after night, Bill Clinton's old Arkansas pal and the Kollossus of Kosovo has been telling interviewers that he has not yet made up his mind whether to run for President or, indeed, whether he's even a Democrat.
Most of us figured this was the usual apple sauce and that the famously arrogant Clark was just waiting for the right moment. Last week was definitely the right moment. Howard Dean, the insurgent Leftie from Vermont whose metaphorical battle cry of "Give me ideological purity or give me death" has so roused the party faithful, has successfully killed off all the other viable candidates, mainly by driving them nuts and dragging them far farther to the Left than any sane man would want to be.
Last week, though, Hurricane Howard appeared to have temporarily run out of puff.
So in jumped Gen Clark. Brilliant timing. As if to underline that it is now Dean vs Clark, Senator John Edwards, the pretty-boy trial lawyer from North Carolina, officially launched his campaign the day before the General, and nobody noticed.
The media trampled him into the asphalt as they stampeded on to Arkansas to coo over the Democrats' new "white knight". And here's the thing: Clark was terrible. I assumed all the time that he was on CNN claiming to be wrestling with his decision that he had a campaign platform in the freezer all ready to warm up once he gave the signal. But it seems he genuinely hadn't made up his mind.
Judging from his initial appearances, he still hasn't. He is running for President because he thinks he is the best man for the job. Why? Well, no tricky follow-up questions, please: he'll get back to you later on that.
At his first campaign stop at a Florida restaurant, The Washington Post reported that "Clark said he has few specific policy ideas to offer voters right now . . . Voters need to give him time to think things through."
I sympathise, up to a point. Political candidates are supposed to have plans for things most of us never give a thought to, like a prescription drug plan for the elderly.
I don't have a prescription drug plan for the elderly, and I wouldn't want to improvise one in a Florida diner. But surely there's a couple of issues the White Knight's had time to think through. For example, I don't know whether you heard about it but there was a war in Iraq a couple of months back. It was in all the papers. So what's General Clark's position on that?
Here he is on Thursday: "General Wesley K Clark said today that he would have supported the Congressional resolution that authorised the United States to invade Iraq." Here he is on Friday: " 'Let's make one thing real clear, I would never have voted for this war,' Clark said before a speech at the University of Iowa." Got that? Everybody else on the planet knows what his or her position on Iraq is except General Clark.
A Democratic strategist told me that, well, Clark's got into the race late, so it is hardly surprising he is not quite, as the phrase has it, ready for primetime. Au contraire, primetime seems to be the only thing he is ready for: he spent the run-up to it, the war itself and the aftermath in television studios across the continent pointing out everything that Bush was doing wrong without ever acquiring a coherent position of his own.
What Clark's media-boosters like is that he's sophisticated, he's nuanced, he doesn't see everything as "yes" or "no". As he told The New York Times when asked whether he'd have voted to authorise war or not: "I think that's too simple a question." Unfortunately, most questions are: you have to vote yea or nay; and the general seems to feel that sort of thing's beneath him.
What we do know, though, is that, if he had been President these last three years, the Taliban and Saddam would still be in power.
His response to September 11, as argued in a weirdly narcissistic essay, would have been to have "helped the United Nations create an International Criminal Tribunal on International Terrorism" - no doubt chaired by a distinguished former chief justice of Libya or Syria. A team of Hague lawyers would be in Kabul today making solid progress with Mullah Omar on a plea-bargain from Osama. That's the stuff.
Why did General Clark on Friday stage the world's fastest retreat from his position on Thursday? Because his "supporters" were outraged to hear he would have backed the war. On 99 per cent of domestic issues, Clark is in bland unthinking compliance with party orthodoxy, with not an idea in his pretty little head.
The only rationale for his candidacy is that he is the soldier for the party that doesn't like soldiering. He supposedly neutralises the Democrats' national security problem: they can say, hey, sure, we're anti-war, but that's because our guy is a four-star general who knows a thing or two about it . . . That's all they need him for: cover.
It is not going to work. All General Jello (as New York media man Jeff Jarvis has already dubbed him) does is remind voters of what they dislike about the Dems on this war: their weaselly evasive oppositionism. All his military background does is keep military matters at the forefront of the campaign.
He will be asked why he got fired from the Nato job, why his buddy Bill Clinton declined to save him, why neither his civilian nor uniformed bosses - Bill Cohen, the Defence Secretary, and General Shelton, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs - attended his retirement ceremony, a huge public snub for a four-star general.
It is hard to argue that Iraq was a disaster when, in the crappy little war you, General Clark, presided over, the most powerful military on the planet took 78 days of aerial bombardment to destroy just over a dozen tanks; hard to argue that our boys shouldn't be getting picked off on the ground in Iraq when in your war they stayed up at 15,000 feet, nights only, bombing hospitals, commuter trains, refugee convoys, the Chinese embassy, etc; hard to argue that Iraq wasn't worth it when, by most accounts, there's more ethnic cleansing (Muslims against Christians) going on in "liberated" Kosovo than there was in Slobo's day.
If General Clark's the candidate, he'll be the embodiment of ineffectual Clintonian warmongering.
If I were a Democrat, I would go with Howard Dean, the loopy peacenik who doesn't know a thing about war and doesn't care who knows it. On Iraq, he sounds passionate and angry, not shifty and equivocal. And on health, schools and the stuff Democrats and media really care about, Dean can yak away for hours so glibly there'll be no time left to talk about peripheral trivia like terrorism and national security.
If the objective is to squash Bush's war advantage, vote Dean and move on to domestic policy. Vote for the general and you're stuck talking war till next November with a candidate who is not up to it.
Unless, of course, there's a third scenario, which, given last week's lamentable performance, makes a strange kind of sense. General Clark is merely an unwitting "stalking horse", designed to weaken both Dean and Bush just enough to enable the Democrats' real white knight to jump in: waiting in the wings, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There's a lot of stuff that has appeared over the last few days about "The Perfumed Prince," Wesley Clark. It's interesting that the majority of "progressives" who are getting all hot over the prospect of Clark as President don't seem to be doing so because of any issue specifics. It's a disguised version of a schoolgirl crush. Here's a good take on Clark today from Andrew Sullivan:
THE CYNICISM BEHIND CLARK
I bumped into a few of my many lefty friends this weekend, who were almost all enthusiastic about Wesley Clark. I was particularly amused by the far-left counter-cultural National Gay Lesbian Task Force getting solidly behind a general who almost started World War III with the Russians. None of them cared much about Clark's actual positions, however. All they cared about is his perceived ability to win. One explained that the white-hot rage at Bush had now tippled over into a cold determination to beat him, by whatever means necessary.
I have to say I respect this kind of political argument. But it also strikes me that the left really cannot criticize Bush as a cipher for other forces aligned behind him, when they are doing exactly the same with a general they view as a purely Potemkin figure. "Look, if it means we get Gene Sperling and Robert Rubin running the country again, I don't much care who they put up as a front-man," one partisan gleefully explained. All of this reminds me of Bill Kristol's flirtation with Colin Powell as a Republican candidate a few years back. Why the Powell boomlet? He was black and could win. Er, that was it. Powell was a cipher to innoculate the Republicans from seeming too white-bread.
Similarly, Clark is a perceived winner and a cipher to innoculate the Democrats from seeming ... what, exactly? Unpatriotic? Weak on defense? Out of the cultural mainstream? Who knows? It all smacks of phoniness and opportunism to me. And it's a clear sign that those who control big Democratic money are worried (I'm with Safire on that). If I were a Dem, it would make me want to vote for Dean even more. After all, what would be healthiest for the future of the Democrats - a party still run by principle-free sleazeballs like McAuliffe and the Clintons or one built up from the grass roots by people with passion and ideas?
THE CYNICISM BEHIND CLARK
I bumped into a few of my many lefty friends this weekend, who were almost all enthusiastic about Wesley Clark. I was particularly amused by the far-left counter-cultural National Gay Lesbian Task Force getting solidly behind a general who almost started World War III with the Russians. None of them cared much about Clark's actual positions, however. All they cared about is his perceived ability to win. One explained that the white-hot rage at Bush had now tippled over into a cold determination to beat him, by whatever means necessary.
I have to say I respect this kind of political argument. But it also strikes me that the left really cannot criticize Bush as a cipher for other forces aligned behind him, when they are doing exactly the same with a general they view as a purely Potemkin figure. "Look, if it means we get Gene Sperling and Robert Rubin running the country again, I don't much care who they put up as a front-man," one partisan gleefully explained. All of this reminds me of Bill Kristol's flirtation with Colin Powell as a Republican candidate a few years back. Why the Powell boomlet? He was black and could win. Er, that was it. Powell was a cipher to innoculate the Republicans from seeming too white-bread.
Similarly, Clark is a perceived winner and a cipher to innoculate the Democrats from seeming ... what, exactly? Unpatriotic? Weak on defense? Out of the cultural mainstream? Who knows? It all smacks of phoniness and opportunism to me. And it's a clear sign that those who control big Democratic money are worried (I'm with Safire on that). If I were a Dem, it would make me want to vote for Dean even more. After all, what would be healthiest for the future of the Democrats - a party still run by principle-free sleazeballs like McAuliffe and the Clintons or one built up from the grass roots by people with passion and ideas?
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