Eddie Vedder’s <i> Angst</i>

Regarding “He Didn’t Ask for All This,” by Robert Hilburn (May 1):

Hilburn persists in comparing Eddie Vedder to people like Dylan and Lennon; with all of their incredible success and adulation, did they ever really express Angst , anger or alienation in such a negative way? Did they attend award shows and then frown at the audience and say, “Well, I guess I have to say thanks”? If they had wanted to make a statement, then they would have stayed home, instead of attending the MTV awards show and dumping on it at the same time.

Does he honestly think he’s the only poor kid who ever had to get a job in high school? “I resented everybody around me who drove up in a car that someone provided for them,” he says. Well, Eddie, it sounds like you had a real bad case of self-pity. Just because Hilburn insists on putting you in the same company with Lennon and Townshend, don’t worry so much about it. The fact is, there aren’t that many people out here who agree with him.

NORM MATEW

Sherman Oaks

Unfortunately, Hilburn’s interview with Vedder was simply another chance for our rock “expert” to blame the terrible specter of fame for the death of his current god Kurt Cobain, and to recite for us heathens his litany of saints (Dylan--Lennon--Springsteen--Bono).

In 15 years of playing my own music and trying to make it, I have never met any musician (whether their music mattered or not) who didn’t want to be noticed and who didn’t get excited at the idea of playing their music Big Time. True, not everybody is comfortable with media attention, but you don’t get your message out there without it, and every band that works hard for that big break is doing it on purpose.

Cobain’s fragile emotional state couldn’t handle the inevitable pressures of the real world around him, and that was his problem. Fortunately, Vedder is made of sterner stuff, because he did ask for all this.

BOB LOZA

Burbank

Poor Eddie Vedder. It must be so hard coping with the success and popularity of fronting one of the most popular bands in the entire world.

What is wrong with this picture?

Where the rebellious Alice Cooper, Sex Pistols and Metallica spoke for an entire generation of teen Angst and aggression, these so-called grunge rockers can only piss and moan about how miserable everything is. And then, when their message is finally reached by millions, they complain even more!

What happened to rock ‘n’ roll? Wasn’t it supposed to be fun? About having a good time?

Why don’t these poor, wretched, so-hard-done-by rock stars just throw on an old Ted Nugent album and cheer up!

MICHAEL KUBAT

Costa Mesa

In the same paper I’m reading about children being slaughtered by machetes in Rwanda, and children being killed and getting limbs blown off in Bosnia, I have to buy as something of extraordinary pain Vedder’s story of parents who weren’t there for him (welcome to the club), and high school envy of rich kids with nice cars and the pretty prom date on their arm (welcome, welcome, and it sounds like a John Hughes movie), a group any kids Vedder might have will qualify for, now that he’s probably richer than the parents of most of those kids he disdained? Boohoo.

J. MAX ELWOOD

Santa Ana

I am 29 years old, and I too feel the anger and alienation at being shortchanged by the American Dream. Please don’t alienate me and those of my “age group” any further simply because we are not “aged 15 to 25.”

LISA NEWMAN

Los Angeles

As a member of the so-called Generation X, I only have one thing to say about Hilburn’s article pertaining to Eddie Vedder--thank you. Now please leave Mr. Vedder alone.

JULIE DUNLAP

Glendale