NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 11: Steve Van Zandt attends the New York premiere of “Once Were … [+] Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band” at Walter Reade Theater on February 11, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)
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In the more than 60 years of rock, there may be no more fitting album title than Steven Van Zandt’s Rock N Roll Rebel. Originally released in 2016, the just released 13-disc expanded edition contains all of his solo albums between 1982 and 1999, as well as additional live material, four CDs of rarities and the landmark 1985 Sun City album Van Zandt led in putting together.
Van Zandt is, in every way, a rock ‘n’ roll rebel. Talk to him for an hour as I did and two things are abundantly clear — he believes as deeply in the power of rock and roll as he did when he was a teenager. As he says, “There’s nothing more effective than rock music connecting us together.”
The second thing is that Van Zandt, who is tremendously underrated as a political songwriter, is going to speak his mind. And oh baby does he have a lot to say, especially regarding the current administration.
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” I’m hoping to save the Republican party this year. I’m hoping everybody can come out and vote every single Republican out of office, every single one from the local assemblyman to the mayors and governors and senators and congressmen and up,” he says. “Every single Republican needs to be voted out of office right now to teach them a lesson and say, ‘You guys better get it together. You want to qualify as a real American party then maybe you should start believing in democracy, equality, science, certain basic things . That’s how we define our country and I don’t know how you’re defining the country anymore, Republicans, but it’s got nothing to do with us. It has more to do with making Vladimir Putin happy or some white supremacists happy. But that’s not America.’ So I’m hoping everybody is united and really works very hard to make sure people are registered and can vote every single Republican out of office this year and then start again next year rebuilding a Republican party that makes some sense because right now they don’t make any sense, they might as well be a Russian asset collaborating with treason as far as I’m concerned.”
Unfortunately with the lack of discourse we have in this country at this point, the left is going to agree with Van Zandt and the right will call him names. But Van Zandt speaks from experience with the Republican party.
” My father was an ex-marine, [Barry] Goldwater Republican. So I understand that world very well, what real conservatives are and what they believe,” he says. “I never really agreed with a whole lot of it but I understand what it was. And this Republican party bears no resemblance whatsoever to that Republican party of my father or Barry Goldwater or what is defined as conservative.”
As Van Zandt himself wrote in arguably his finest political song, “I Am A Patriot,”
“And I ain’t no communist
And I ain’t no capitalist
And I ain’t no socialist
And I ain’t no imperalist
And I ain’t’ no democrat
And I ain’t no republican
I only know one party
And it is freedom.”
So when the aptly named rock and roll rebel speaks everyone should listen with an open mind and pay close attention.
Steve Baltin: What was the last show you saw before things shut down?
Steve Van Zandt: I was in L.A. right before things shut down visiting a partner school for our history curriculum, Orangethorpe. One of the most exciting days of my life actually, to see your 15 years of work actually happening before your eyes. Our main thing is arts integration into the entire school system and all of the disciplines. And from kindergarten to sixth grade there they have integrated the arts into every single class. It’s really exciting, man.
Baltin: How have you been handling all of this?
Van Zandt: I got busier than ever. The first two weeks was bliss (laughs). Everybody was in shock. So for two weeks it was like nothing happened. I really kind of enjoyed it I must say, circumstances aside of course. But now everybody’s figured it out. We’re all sitting targets. We’re no longer moving targets. It never would have happened if we weren’t forced to do it. But every once in a while it’s good to reflect and take a look at what you’re doing and what’s going on and just have the world stop for a minute. I wish it could happen more regularly for different reasons, but there are some positive things about it.
Baltin: Well especially since you were so busy before all this and there will presumably be both a Disciples Of Soul and E Street tour in the future when things open back up. So if things hadn’t slowed down would you have had time to put the box set together?
Van Zandt: I am using the time wisely to get out almost everything I’ve ever done, is coming out this year. And everything will be available in all formats — vinyl, CD, digital. Everything except the Summer Of Sorcery live album and DVD, which we pushed until May of next year because it was just getting too crowded. We’re anxious to get everything out and I’m producing a few records on the phone. And we made sure the radio show is continuing to work fine because most of that is done from home. Our music history curriculum was already online so that was cool. But in a way, yeah, we’re looking at E Street, we’re looking at Disciples Of Soul, things are gonna start piling up is the problem. Can only do one thing at a time, which has always been a problem for me. I really need to get back on TV also. I decided to dedicate these last three years to reconnecting with my own work, which I’m glad I did. It was important to do that. I really kind of abandoned it for 20 years, So it was really good for me spiritually to reconnect with my own life’s work and now to get it all out remastered, which I never had done before. So getting all that out is good. But looking ahead I’m not too optimistic, I gotta tell you the truth, about what’s going on here. I’m not sure there’s going to be any activity in ’21. I was hoping there would be. I’m still hoping there will be, but I don’t see it. We’re in a three-stage situation here, the first stage being everything online, which is what we’ve been doing. The second stage has to do with tests and the tests have to be fast and effective. And I’m talking about like four hours, not four days, not 14 days. So the testing that’s going on right now is a joke and it’s pathetic. And that is not really gonna enable anybody to go back to work, although they’re encouraging everybody to go back to work, which is I think a huge mistake. And evidence of complete incompetence on the part of our government. Now they’re telling kids to go back to school, which I think is a huge mistake. So we’re not gonna see audiences, I’m afraid, until the earliest, ’22 the way things are going right now.
Baltin: Where did your interest in music and politics intersect?
Van Zandt: It all began interestingly enough with the first sentence in Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” for me. “Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine,” kind of a fun line you can make of it as you will. Second line: “I’m on the pavement thinking about the government.” “What, thinking about the government?” Whoever thought about the government, that was a radical idea Bob Dylan introduced. From there it became part of the DNA of rock music and the rock era. The rock era became a wonderful way to communicate between us in our country and between countries. Suddenly we could talk to people in different countries without going through our government for the first time. And that was something rock music encouraged.
Baltin: Talk about how the ’60s influenced the ’80s activism and leading that into the rise in music activism today.
Van Zandt: The basic difference is you have a regime right now that is so upfront in their criminality that it almost feels redundant to talk about it, As opposed to the ’80s, for instance, when I was at my most active writing about what was going on. My motivation was to write and explain to people because it was invisible. It was all behind the scenes. You had the front of this happy grandfatherly cowboy in Ronald Reagan making everybody feel good. And all of these crimes are going on behind the scenes. I thought, “We gotta point the light where right now there is only darkness in terms of the international criminal behavior of this administration.” But now you got an administration that brags about putting kids in cages as a way of stopping immigration and they lost a couple of hundred kids. There’s no need to explain what’s going on anymore, it’s so obvious. And now we have troops going into Portland, which is what everybody feared would happen. Now we’re seeing the beginning of literally a civil war. And in between November and January look out because I fear we could literally be in a literal civil war by then. So it’s good people are talking about it and obviously are very united. I think it’s important right now…I’m not a big fan of the party system, but I do believe if we’re gonna have a party system you need at least two functional parties. And we don’t have two functional parties right now. We need to come out in enormous numbers, undeniable numbers physically and try and overcome what is a real fight, not to mention the Russian hacking, which is going on now. Mitch McConnell refuses to stop it. He is an absolute traitor to this country, refusing to stop it.
Baltin: What does rock music mean to you?
Van Zandt: I dedicated the last 20 years or so to making sure this endangered species called rock music survives. I turn on the radio one day and I’m like, “Man, we’re in trouble.” So I started a whole new radio format, two radio formats really: one for rock music and soul, Underground Garage, and Outlaw Country for country-leaning stuff. But that’s why I started my music history curriculum, the radio show, my record company. Everything I’ve been doing the last 20 years is to basically make sure that this endangered species called rock survives. Why? Because it is the best form of communication I think that we’ve ever had. Music is the great common ground to begin with and it’s a wonderful, wonderful way of communicating between people emotionally. Music communicates emotionally first. But we’re finding it to be the most effective way of teaching kids in school, especially kids who have Attention Deficit Disorder. So we use music for teachers as an effective way of communicating with kids right now. That’s why we have 30,000 kids registered and we just went public with it last year. So there is something about rock music and its various hybrids like hip hop; sometimes it wanders in the pop world, country world with people like the Chicks. But there is something about rock music in general that communicates very effectively. Without it I think it’s going to be a lot more difficult for us to reach each other and communicate with each other. Even with social media now, which is wonderful and can be very effective, it also can be very dangerous cause there’s a lot of weird stuff going on there too. But there’s nothing more effective than rock music connecting us together.
Baltin: What can be done to change things globally?
Van Zandt: I’ve been so blessed these last three years, the most productive three years of my whole life artistically. But more than that we toured the whole world, man, and there are problems in Australia, Indonesia, Hungary and Poland. Brexit in England is a disaster. All of these walls being put back up, all this nationalism, isolationism, extreme religious beliefs taking over countries. All of that is bad. It’s all bad. Our goal in life should be global unification. Isn’t that what life’s all about? And that’s the trajectory we kind of had been on since World War II more or less up until now. And now the opposite is happening. Everybody is pulling back, isolating, and the walls are going up. And we gotta stop it right now and get back on track.
OTTAWA – The federal agency that investigates election infractions found insufficient evidence to support suggestions Beijing wielded undue influence against the Conservatives in the Vancouver area during the 2021 general election.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections’ recently completed review of the lingering issue was tabled Tuesday at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.
The review focused on the unsuccessful campaign of Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu in the riding of Steveston-Richmond East and the party’s larger efforts in the Vancouver area.
It says the evidence uncovered did not trigger the threshold to initiate a formal investigation under the Canada Elections Act.
Investigators therefore recommended that the review be concluded.
A summary of the review results was shared with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP. The review says both agencies indicated the election commissioner’s findings were consistent with their own understanding of the situation.
During the exercise, the commissioner’s investigators met with Chinese Canadian residents of Chiu’s riding and surrounding ones.
They were told of an extensive network of Chinese Canadian associations, businesses and media organizations that offers the diaspora a lifestyle that mirrors that of China in many ways.
“Further, this diaspora has continuing and extensive commercial, social and familial relations with China,” the review says.
Some interviewees reported that this “has created aspects of a parallel society involving many Chinese Canadians in the Lower Mainland area, which includes concerted support, direction and control by individuals from or involved with China’s Vancouver consulate and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in China.”
Investigators were also made aware of members of three Chinese Canadian associations, as well as others, who were alleged to have used their positions to influence the choice of Chinese Canadian voters during the 2021 election in a direction favourable to the interests of Beijing, the review says.
These efforts were sparked by elements of the Conservative party’s election platform and by actions and statements by Chiu “that were leveraged to bolster claims that both the platform and Chiu were anti-China and were encouraging anti-Chinese discrimination and racism.”
These messages were amplified through repetition in social media, chat groups and posts, as well as in Chinese in online, print and radio media throughout the Vancouver area.
Upon examination, the messages “were found to not be in contravention” of the Canada Elections Act, says the review, citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s position that the concept of uninhibited speech permeates all truly democratic societies and institutions.
The review says the effectiveness of the anti-Conservative, anti-Chiu campaigns was enhanced by circumstances “unique to the Chinese diaspora and the assertive nature of Chinese government interests.”
It notes the election was prefaced by statements from China’s ambassador to Canada and the Vancouver consul general as well as articles published or broadcast in Beijing-controlled Chinese Canadian media entities.
“According to Chinese Canadian interview subjects, this invoked a widespread fear amongst electors, described as a fear of retributive measures from Chinese authorities should a (Conservative) government be elected.”
This included the possibility that Chinese authorities could interfere with travel to and from China, as well as measures being taken against family members or business interests in China, the review says.
“Several Chinese Canadian interview subjects were of the view that Chinese authorities could exercise such retributive measures, and that this fear was most acute with Chinese Canadian electors from mainland China. One said ‘everybody understands’ the need to only say nice things about China.”
However, no interview subject was willing to name electors who were directly affected by the anti-Tory campaign, nor community leaders who claimed to speak on a voter’s behalf.
Several weeks of public inquiry hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign meddling.
In other testimony Tuesday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told the inquiry that parliamentarians who were targeted by Chinese hackers could have taken immediate protective steps if they had been informed sooner.
It emerged earlier this year that in 2021 some MPs and senators faced cyberattacks from the hackers because of their involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which pushes for accountability from Beijing.
In 2022, U.S. authorities apparently informed the Canadian government of the attacks, and it in turn advised parliamentary IT officials — but not individual MPs.
Genuis, a Canadian co-chair of the inter-parliamentary alliance, told the inquiry Tuesday that it remains mysterious to him why he wasn’t informed about the attacks sooner.
Liberal MP John McKay, also a Canadian co-chair of the alliance, said there should be a clear protocol for advising parliamentarians of cyberthreats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
