William Gibson, Sonic Youth and Bruce Springsteen

The connections may seem tenuous, but in my poem “the sprawl” [published in 2001 in Divan along with “space age riot”], all of these and more come together, mostly because of the two quotes that start off the piece, namely:

To bring it back to rock ‘n roll influences, when I was writing Neuromancer, I’m pretty sure I was listening to Springsteen’s Nebraska and thinking: OK, it’s not hotrods, it’s computers.
William GibsonI grew up in a shotgun row/ sliding down the hill /out front were the big machines /steel and rusty now, I guess
Kim Gordon

“the sprawl” was also recorded for a CD put out by Meanjin in 2001.

Some people think it’s sad, others think it’s hilarious. My sister Francesca liked it so much she used it as a soundtrack for a film she made called, ironically, “last night betty” (which is another poem in this series).

In fact, Fran’s film is going to be screened at this year’s Mardi Gras in Sydney! Wow! Good work, Fran!