M ([email protected])
Tue, 26 Jan 1999 00:35:24 -0500
Salman Rushdie: Rock
Star
by Daniel Frankel
January 25, 1999, 5:25 p.m. PT
U2 will have nothing to say if conservative
parents accuse them of publishing songs with
satanic verses on their next album.
That's because Bono and the boys are getting
lyrics from Mr. Satanic Verses himself,
controversial author Salman Rushdie.
Rushdie--a friend (and sometime houseguest) of
Bono--is contributing lyrics to a romantic ballad
called "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" on the
forthcoming U2 album, according to The Guardian
newspaper in London. The song is apparently
adapted from Rushdie's new novel, which has the
same name.
The report says the band wants to release the
single--which tells the Greek myth of Orpheus and
Eurydice--when Rushdie's book comes out April 13.
(U2's New York publicity firm was not immediately
available for comment. Meanwhile, Rushdie's
literary agency has declined to talk about the
matter.)
Rushdie tells the newspaper he simply showed his
musical pal his new book, and a song was born.
"Bono and I have been friends for several years,
and I sent him the novel when I'd finished it, and
he responded by coming up with this beautiful
melody. Simple as that, but of course, very
pleasurable."
Rushdie has been hiding out from
Islamic extremists ever since he
offended them with his 1989
novel, The Satanic Verses. He
spent part of that time hiding
out at Bono's palatial Irish
beach house. (We're guessing
"Bullet the Blue Sky" was banned
from the house playlist, lest
Rushdie get jumpy.) The writer
also appeared on stage with U2
in 1993 at Britain's Wembley
Stadium--a remarkable feat at
the time, considering how bleak things looked for
Rushdie just four years earlier.
In 1989, then-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini issued a fatwa--the Islamic equivalent of
a death sentence--against the writer, for what he
believed to be a blasphemous novel. A bounty of
several million dollars was put on Rushdie's head,
and the writer went underground with the help of
British officials.
Last September, Rushdie--who's managed to sustain
his literary career through almost 10 years of
this madness--received good news from Iran's
current, much-more-moderate government. Desiring a
better relationship with Western countries,
Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi told
British foreign secretary Robin Cook that his
country was "disassociating" itself from the death
sentence.
Still, that didn't get Rushdie off the hook
entirely. To many Islamic fundamentalists, a fatwa
can only be rescinded by its issuer--and he's
dead.
M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M
Michael P. DeWese You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
AOL IM: MDeWese Scream without raising your voice . . .
ICQ: 15999133
E-mail: mailto:[email protected]
Resume: http://home.earthlink.net/~mdewese/resume.htm
PGP Key: http://home.earthlink.net/~mdewese/publickey.txt
M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Mon Jan 25 1999 - 21:38:43 PST