Letter #1

http://onefirststeps.blogspot.com/2013/06/an-open-letter-to-chuck-klosterman.html

Dear Chuck,

Tuesday I'll be making a special trip to the library to check out I Wear The Black Hat. So far I've read the Eagles essay as excerpted in Entertainment Weekly. Here's my take on it:

It reminds me a lot of your 2002 piece on why the deaths of Dee Dee Ramone and Ratt's Robbin Crosby got such different responses from the media. The Eagles are the band that people actually like, but can't stand the fact that they like something that doesn't jibe with their pre-engineered notion of what an important band is supposed to be like. My sister learned a good saying in one of her human development groups:

"You spot it, you got it."

That's my take on villians in general. Whatever you hate, it's something you see in yourself. Who calls Don Henley a self-righteous, hypocritical caricature of everything wrong with the Boomer generation? Mostly other Boomers. Gen-Xers just know him as the Eagles guy who also had a few solo hits.

As for me, well, I must admit, most of the hair bands you loved, I disdained. Poison, Warrant, Skid Row, it was mainly a case of clone fatigue. And they represented the cool kids who went to the parties I didn't go to. I never got grunge clone fatigue; not even Candlebox got me sick of it. Feeling like an outsider? That's a place where there was always room for more.

Best,

Dan