Joe Strummer’s letter about Bruce Springsteen

When asked for his opinion on the subject/the man/the musician Bruce Springsteen in 1997, Joe Strummer sent the following letter to “rocumentary” filmmaker Mark Hagen. The film in question, ‘Bruce Springsteen: A Secret History’, was broadcast in 1998 on British television:

Joe Strummer’s all-caps handwriting:

ATTN: MARK HAGEN

Dear Mark – here’s my contribution

BRUCE IS GREAT… IF YOU DONT AGREE WITH THAT YOU’RE A PRETENTIOUS MARTIAN FROM VENUS. BRUCE LOOKS GREAT… LIKE HE’S ABOUT TO CRAWL UNDERNEATH THE CHORDS WITH A SPANNER AND SOCK THE STARTER MOTOR ONE TIME SO THAT A ENGINE STARTS UP – HUMMING AND READY TO TAKE US ON A GOLDEN RIDE WAY OUT SOMEWHERE IN THE YONDER…

BRUCE IS GREAT… BECAUSE HE’LL NEVER LAY DOWN AND BE CONQUERED BY HIS PROBLEMS HE’S ALLWAYS READY TO BUST OUT the SHACK AND HIT THE TRACK… HIS MUSIC IS GREAT ON A DARK and RAINY MORNING IN ENGLAND, JUST WHEN YOU NEED SOME SPIRIT AND SOME PROOF THAT THE BIG WIDE WORLD EXISTS, THE D.J. PUTS ON “RACING IN THE STREETS” AND LIFE SEEMS WORTH LIVING AGAIN… LIFE SEEMS TO BE IN CINEMASCOPE AGAIN.

BRUCE IS NOT ON AN EGO TRIP… BRUCE IS ACTUALLY INTO THE MUSIC… WE NEED PEOPLE LIKE THIS… A LOT OF RECORDS TODAY ARE MADE BY PEOPLE JUST TO FEED THEIR FAME. BRUCE IS GREAT… THERE AINT NO WHINGING WHINING OR COMPLAINING.. THERE’S ONLY GREAT MUSIC, LYRICS AND AN OCEAN OF TALENT.

ME? I LOVE SPRINGSTEEN!!!

(Signed, ‘Joe Strummer’)

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November 13: Ray Wylie Hubbard was born in 1946

“We’re in the mud and scum of things, moaning, crying and lying
At least we ain’t Lazurus and had to think twice about dying.”
– Lazurus, Ray Wylie Hubbard

“I’m very grateful. I’m an old cat, but I feel very fortunate to have seen Lightnin’ Hopkins and Freddie King. I saw Ernest Tubb play and Gary Stewart, so it’s kind of a combination of not just the different forms of music that’s influenced me, but the great musicians in that form of music. I guess it’s the ‘character’ in their songwriting that’s influenced me.”
– Ray Wylie Hubbard (to The Current)

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Steve Earle live in the KEXP studio 2015

Steve Earle performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded February 20, 2015.

I saw Steve Earle with The Mastersons/Dukes last week, it is the best concert I’ve seen all year (I’ve seen 56 shows this year, Steve Earle’s concert was number 55).  I have experienced Steve Earle several times on stage, but I’ve never seen him better.

We have dug up a performance from KEPX aired in February right after his lates album was released.

He’s talking about life, music and the blues in particular.

Here’s a wonderful performance:

Songs:

Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now
You’re The Best Lover That I’ve Ever Had
King Of The Blues
Copperhead Road

-hallgeir

photo: Born To Listen, Oslo, Norway 2015
photo: Born To Listen, Oslo, Norway 2015

November 12: Happy 70th birthday Neil Young

 

“I have so many opinions about everything it just comes out during my music. It’s a battle for me. I try not to be preachy. That’s a real danger.”
-Neil Young

“It’s bettet to burn out than to fade away”
― Neil Young

“If you follow every dream, you might get lost.”
― Neil Young

Eddie Vedder inducts Neil Young into R’nR Hall of Fame:

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November 11: Dave Alvin is 60 – Happy Birthday

I started writing poetry before I started writing songs. In my checkered college past I was a creative writing major at Long Beach State University, which had a great writing program, and that’s where I learned all the nuts and bolts that helped me out in songwriting. They forced us to write in traditional forms — sonnets, iambic pentameter — just so we could understand that writing wasn’t just splaying free verse all over the page. But then the more songs I wrote using all those poetic forms, the more my poetry become like prose, almost to the point of journalism…
~Dave Alvin (Interview by Jim Catalano)

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