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Xavier T Home | Cycling Stuff | FAQ | JSP Archives | Rubdown Archives | EmailXAVIER T : JSP ARCHIVE ---------------------------------------------- Begin Printed Page ----------------------------------------------
Jimmy (Woodriver) Granström
Stockholm, Sweden
eMail: k98_jgm@k.kth.se
Web: http://www.zetterstrom.net/woodriver
Hi Jim,
My page in the yearbook is dedicated to excerpts from my story "Whistling in London", which I wrote after I met you in London two years ago. No matter how hard I'd try, I could never write anything as personal and profound about my dedication to your works as this story did, the testimony of how much you've meant to me on many levels.
Here you go, all dated July 1998:
"I never thought I’d ever be a fan of somebody. I used to walk around thinking about how people could be so occupied in someone who sings, acts or writes some music. I mean, what’s the big deal anyway, they’re just people like the rest of us. I was never that interested in music, thought a song or two by some artist was pretty good and worth listening to. I almost found those who loved some artist so much that they have to follow every step, listen to every tone, and absolutely know everything about that person or group must be totally out of their mind. I never thought it could happen to me.....
At one point in my life, in the fall of 1993, my interest had sunk to the lowest of levels. I didn’t know a shit about the new music that was coming and I definitely didn’t care either. I mainly only listened to music from the 80’s and the early 90’s, because I’ve gotten tired of the eurotechno that was around at the time.
All this changed one stormy Saturday night in November of 1993. I’m not going to tell you the whole story because I know many of you have read about it already, but you all know what I’m getting at. The song was of course "I’d do anything for love", and even though it had been played constantly on the radio for over a month, this was the first time that I heard the song. Nevertheless, it’s the one thing, in a musical, artistic and estethic sense, that has had the biggest impact on me EVER. At the time, it had a bigger impact on me than the entire "Dance of the Vampires"-show scene live. Now I’m not saying that IDAFL is better than the DotV-show, I’m just saying that I’ve never been so amazed and absolutely baffled like I was when I heard that song and saw that wonderful video for the first time, and I probably won’t be again"
"When Steen, Sandra and I were out of the theater, we went back to the main entrance of the theater. During this short walk I reflected over something Steen told me during the "weekend of the British experience". He told me that ALW had said that "Tim Rice is good, Jim Steinman is world-class". I don’t agree with that. Tim Rice isn’t good. Tim Rice is WORLD-CLASS. I think "world-class" is a highly misused word. It’s like in the world cup, when someone every now and then get the highest grade "world-class". Oh, so you’re not my "world-class" if you play in the world cup? If you ask me, all the players in the world cup are "world-class", because they are the greatest players in their countries that has qualified to the world cup. Yeah, sure, the substitutes of the Brazil team could easily beat a lot of the first teams of the other countries, BUT SO WHAT??!?? Saying that Ronaldo isn’t world-class when he makes a less good game is ridiculous, I thought at least someone who’d been chosen "the best player in the world" two years in a row should be constantly called "world-class"….
It’s the same thing with Tim Rice. He’s written the lyrics to Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and some other of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals, which are some of the biggest in the world. Shouldn’t you be considered "world-class" if you do that? Jim Steinman isn’t world-class. Jim Steinman is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! The lyrics that Jim writes to one single song is what another lyricist needs an entire musical to write and get the same thing out of it. There’s no one else in the world who can write anything like the lyrics Jim write, with all their wit, passion and beauty. Therefor Jim Steinman isn’t world-class like Tim Rice and all the others, he’s in a league of his own, and that’s out of this world….."---------------------------------------------- Begin Second Page ----------------------------------------------
Hand of God
The hand of God is given to us all
To lift us to the skies, to help us not to fall
Some deny they’ve got it, some say no one does
But what else could bring out, all the magic found in us?
The hand of God can be used in many ways
It’s been a sign of the times, ever since the ancient days
Some use its powers, to hate and to destroy
While others only use it, to love and to enjoy
The hand of God was given to a man
Who felt how it touched him, and made him take a stand
He found himself all stranded, lost somewhere in between
The world that’s there around him, and the world of make believe
And from that place of nowhere, new worlds started to rise
Made up of joy and passion, made up of fears and cries
A cry out for this world, a cry out for a change
Though sometimes it might seem, it’s so far out of range
And in our world of coldness, in him there’s still a fire
Burning for our misery, and our lustful desires
It’s burning with such flames, that you don’t know what to feel
Could it be a fantasy, or is it really real?
The hand of God he uses to reach out
To heat up our souls, to show what life’s about
Some they drown so deeply, in his storming steaming sea
That they don’t want to get up, it’s the greatest place to be
The hand of God inspires and plant seeds
In the bottom of the sea, in the souls where it can breed
So maybe one day those seeds become flowers
That’s been born and still lives, from his hot springs of power
The hand of God burns in his heart
That’s beating so fast, that his body tears apart
It’s facing the surges of time’s endless rain
But when the ashes have burnt down, the light will still remain
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