“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”

I searched long and hard for a Henry Rollins clip to put on my site, and while many were incredibly funny, often insightful as well, alas there would always be something that would frighten at least half of my readership.

I’m familiar with Rollins from his less than mellow days. I tried for a while to get into punk, more because friends I respected respected the likes of Black Flag and Minor Threat, but try as I might I couldn’t find a hook beyond that for my liking—the aggression, lack of harmony and I’ve got to say it poor musicianship too often proved a stumbling block. I even went to a Fugazi concert once—one example of a more melodic style of punk with a very good message; I remember them growing near disgusted with the audience as they tried to engage us in political debate—they couldn’t get more than drunken yells in response.

Rollins may have some parallels to Whitman, but as a man I suspect he is the persona Whitman always wanted to be, even portrayed himself as in self-penned reviews and in his poetry, than was—confident, dynamic, vigourous, eloquent and outspoken. Whitman, like many poets and writers appears to be a bundle of contradictions—full of love and admiration for his fellow man yet incredibly lonely; eloquent and stirring on paper yet not completely convincing as a public speaker; a confident poet yet insecure and needy in private life. I suspect Whitman probably would have liked to be a musician like Rollins also—as a poet he is often described as a master of musicality, spent some of his formative years as a music critic in New York, and credits opera and classical composers as muse for much of his work.

I thought recently that there was an odd parallel between Whitman and The Civil War when compared to Henry Rollins and Iraq. Rollins, who is very much against the war there, has been hanging out with the troops and they love him. I am not a fan of Henry Rollins as I don’t know much of anything about his work, but I do confess that I was impressed with an interview I saw him in on an Arts show. I really thought he was inspiring: very eloquent with a seriously dynamic and powerful vital. At one point he spoke about how he saw every Wagner opera in full performed live as a teenager with his mum. A little unusual considering his own musical direction of punk - or maybe not?

Gotta love the rhythms of Whitman.