Music:
- Here are the lyrics to “John Walker’s Blues”, the song I talked about in my previous post…
- John Walker’s Blues
I’m just an American boy raised on MTV
And I’ve seen all those kids in the soda pop ads
But none of ’em looked like me
So I started lookin’ around for a light out of the dim
And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word
Of Mohammed, peace be upon him
Chorus
A shadu la ilaha illa Allah
There is no God but God
If my daddy could see me now – chains around my feet
He don’t understand that sometimes a man
Has to fight for what he believes
And I believe God is great, all praise to him
And if I should die, I’ll rise up in the sky
Just like Jesus, peace be upon him
Chorus
We came to fight the jihad and our hearts were pure and strong
And when death filled the air, we all offered up prayers
And prepared for our martyrdom
But Allah has some other plan, some secret not revealed
Now they’re dragging me back with my head in a sack
To the land of the infidel
Chorus
© Steve Earle (Artemis Records)
Notice the song does not condone or condemn his actions. It simply tells a story.
Also to those who think the song is comparing Walker to Jesus, it is not. The character of Walker in the song does say that if he dies he’ll rise up like Jesus, but he is speaking of the Muslim view of Jesus as the greatest prophet next to Mohammed. (This is made clear by Earle who said in the interview on the NBC morning show that Muslims always say “Peace be upon him” after saying Jesus’ name.)