Description
Warner Bros. Records will release remastered versions of six classic Steve Earle albums in September 2017. Earles 2002 release Jerusalem contains the controversial John Walkers Blues. The albums backbone is the anger and confusion felt by Earle after the destruction of Sept. 11, 2001 but instead of an appeal to patriotism or a tribute to the fallen, Earle has crafted a vision of America thrown into chaos, where the falling of the World Trade Center towers is just another symbol of a larger malaise which surrounds us.
Before its release, Jerusalem already generated no small controversy over the song John Walkers Blues, which tells the tale of American Taliban John Walker Lindh as seen through his own eyes. John Walkers Blues is no more an endorsement of Lindhs actions than Bruce Springsteens Nebraska was a tribute to mass-murderer Charles Starkweather, even though its one of the albums strongest songs, if anything, it doesnt go quite far enough.
Earle asks a lot of questions on Jerusalem for which no one has the answers, but for all the rage, puzzlement, and remorse of these songs, the title track closes the album with a message of fervent hope that the answers cant be found in hate or violence, but peace and forgiveness. Jerusalem is the work of a thinking troublemaker with a loving heart, and while more than a few people will be angered by some of his views, Earle asks too many important questions to ignore, and the album is a brave and thought-provoking work of political art. AllMusic
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