May 20, 3 p.m.: Musical musings

Some thoughts on Reckless Kelly, Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones.

By: Hank Kalet
   Some housekeeping:
   Here are some recent CD reviews from Pop Matters, by yours truly:
   • Reckless Kelly, "Wicked Twisted Road" — an accomplished, complete and fully realized collection of roots music. One of the better discs to emerge from the ether this year.
   • Bruce Springsteen, "Devils & Dust" — a country folk record that comments on faith, the Bush administration and life in the new century. Best disc of the year so far, and by far. (Here is a shorter version of the review that ran as a Dispatches column (sorry, but there is a fee for archived material these days).
   The Dispatches column, by the way, elicited this response, which I offer in its manic — and unedited — entirety (I’m withholding the writer’s name, for what I think are obvious reasons):
   "I rarely read the Cranbury Press, but happened to thumb through the Aprill 22nd edition and was seriously reminded of why I canceled a subscription years ago when I read your typical left wing rhetoric in the review of devils and dust. PUUUUUULEEESE spare me. It is really scary that you get to ‘bloviate’ about President Bush in the public square on a weekly basis, but then again it reinforces the notion of a liberal media. Springsteen is just p’d off because he got the smack down put on him at election time—he honestly thought that he would single handedly win the election for Kerry—it was great! Do you know the difference between a lie and bad information??? Your boys Bill and John-John and Ted and Al all spoke of the same danger, just as they all paid lip service to the ‘terror problem’ and did nothing about it—not after the 1993 trade center bombing, not after the embassy bombings in Africa, not after the tower bombing in Saudi Arabia, not after the USS Cole bombing. And do you know why Clinton did nothing because he knew that a large block of his supporters would react exactly like you all are acting now—and he didn’t have the guts to stand up to it. As far as the ‘meaness of a presidental….most vulnerable of our citizens’ give me a break! He put more money into education then any president before him. He got a prescription drug plan through for the elderly. You guys can spin things anyway you want but here’s my question—Clinton was in office for 8 years so why wasn’t poverty eradicated and health care given to all. If you say it was because the Republicans were in the majority most of the time then explain to me what the democratic controlled congress did for the 40 years before that while they were in power. If the dems are so great why didn’t they solve societies problems during those four decades. I submit to you that they grew most of today’s problems with there misplaced socialist agenda. You liberals would be doing yourselves a big favor if you got some counseling for your inability to get over the 2000 election. Maybe then you all would really be able to see the big picture on what the President is doing."
   My friend Steve Feitl said I should have responded by asking, "So, did you like the album?" A good question. I have a question, as well. When did opposition to a politician’s policies become read as automatic support of his opponents? Just asking.
   Another music-related item: The Stones are touring, which might elicit some old-age humor from some, but not from me. They are the Stones, after all. Read last week’s Dispatches (with the responses from readers that follow).