SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This song helped a band from Scotland make a name for itself.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE WHOLE OF THE MOON")
THE WATERBOYS: (Singing) I saw the crescent. You saw the whole of the moon, the whole of the moon.
SIMON: The Waterboys have been making music since the 1980s, and their latest album was sparked by a moment of serendipity. Lead singer Mike Scott stumbled on an exhibition of photographs from the late actor Dennis Hopper.
MIKE SCOTT: His eye was so spot on, and there was something about the people he took pictures of. He captured their inner spirit. So when I had experienced his photography like that, that made me interested in Dennis Hopper, the man.
SIMON: Dennis Hopper, the man, starred in iconic films - "Easy Rider," "Apocalypse Now," "Blue Velvet." But his life away from the camera was often equally dramatic. It is a life that Mike Scott and The Waterboys try to capture in their concept album "Life, Death And Dennis Hopper."
SCOTT: He's such an amazing character. He had such a fabulous life. I mean, not fabulous in the sense of everything went great for him. He had his ups and downs. But fabulous because he was in so many incredible places in our culture, from the big bang of youth culture with James Dean and "Rebel Without A Cause" in 1955, and right through pop art, and then all the changes of the '60s. He was always there, and he was kind of a repository of all those cultural changes.
SIMON: You've got several collaborators on the album - Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple.
SCOTT: Yeah.
SIMON: First song we hear is actually from the great Steve Earle.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KANSAS (FEAT. STEVE EARLE)")
THE WATERBOYS: (Singing) Someday I'm gonna blow, Kansas, someday I'm gonna blow. Don't say I didn't tell ya so, Kansas, don't say I didn't tell ya so. Will I remember you, Kansas? Hell, I don't even know.
SCOTT: The song, "Kansas," is about Dennis' boyhood 'cause he used to watch the trains going west, and he knew they were going where the movies were made. And that was where he wanted to go. Like so many people, he wanted to escape and transcend the surroundings of his childhood. His family, in fact, moved to San Diego after that when he was a teenager, and that's where he started to act.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOLLYWOOD '55")
THE WATERBOYS: (Singing) There's a new cat in town, 5-foot-8 tall. Wrote Ms. Hedda Hopper, no relation at all. Cute face, cheekbones, knows how to act - just signed a long-term movie contract.
SIMON: How do you tell a story in a song? And in this case, almost a kind of album-length biography.
SCOTT: I looked at it from different perspectives, Scott. Some of the songs are sung in Dennis' voice. But then other songs are written - one song's written from the point of view of a girlfriend, another song's written from the point of view of a news reporter. I like looking at his life from all these different angles. I think it builds a broader picture.
SIMON: Dennis Hopper had a dark side, didn't he?
SCOTT: He did, yeah.
SIMON: He had addictions, multiple marriages.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN GIRLFRIEND (FEAT. FIONA APPLE)")
THE WATERBOYS: (Singing) Yeah, you had the charm, charm enough to sweep me. Took me in your arms, so you'd satisfy and keep me. Too late, I knew that it was all and only about you. All about you.
SIMON: That's the great Fiona Apple, and that's a heart-wrenching song.
SCOTT: Yes, indeed. I wanted to represent Dennis in all the facets of his life on the record. So I went into those dark spaces. And some of the dark spaces are quite funny, like his hubris was quite funny. When he had his success with "Easy Rider," it kind of went to his head, and he was kind of lovable in his big-headedness after that. But then, when he got bogged down and he went through about 10 or 12 years of being an alcoholic, and really a lost soul in many ways, it wasn't so much fun.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN GIRLFRIEND (FEAT. FIONA APPLE)")
THE WATERBOYS: (Singing) I used to say no man would ever cage me, and no man ever has.
SCOTT: The wonderful thing, though, about Dennis is that when he came back to prominence, when he got himself straight and clean, and he became a successful actor again, he drew on those dark years to play the characters, and that was the right thing to do with that kind of experience.
SIMON: Do you think the fact that you grew up in Scotland gives you a special insight into America?
SCOTT: No, not particularly.
SIMON: Oh, gee, and I was counting on that (laughter).
SCOTT: Ah. But no, but I'm a child of rock and roll. I'm a child of rock and roll, and that's American music. And so I've always loved the music that comes out of America. And when I was a kid, the cool people for me were the people who were doing stuff in New York. You know, you hear about Americans being Anglophiles. Well, over here, we're all Americophiles.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE WATERBOYS SONG, "I DON'T KNOW HOW I MADE IT (FEAT. TAYLOR GOLDSMITH)")
SIMON: I want to ask you about a song called "I Don't Know How I Made It."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I DON'T KNOW HOW I MADE IT (FEAT. TAYLOR GOLDSMITH)")
THE WATERBOYS: (Singing) I don't know how I made it, but I made it. I don't know how I held on, but I'll be here.
SCOTT: That line - I don't know how I made it - is a direct quote from one of Dennis' interviews. I think in the late '80s, when he was straight again, I think he was almost surprised that he hadn't died. And in one interview, he said, I don't know how I made it. And I was very moved by him saying that.
SIMON: You know what he means?
SCOTT: I do, yeah, he doesn't know how he stayed alive.
SIMON: Well, I mean, do you know that from your own life?
SCOTT: Oh, you mean have I experienced that?
SIMON: Well, astonishment sometimes that you've had such a long-lasting career being with The Waterboys since the '80s.
SCOTT: Well, certainly not in the sense of, oh, my God, I don't know how I made it. That really is specifically for someone who's been through trauma or addictions and near-death experiences. But for me, my life hasn't been quite as dramatic as that. I suppose I'm glad to say that. And I don't know how I made it kind of feeling about my career. I'm glad I'm still here. I'm glad I'm still making music, and I'm glad that the music still drives me.
SIMON: Mike Scott of The Waterboys and the band's new album is "Life, Death And Dennis Hopper." Thanks so much for being with us.
SCOTT: You're very welcome, Scott. My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOPPER'S ON TOP (GENIUS)")
THE WATERBOYS: (Singing) Genius. Hurrah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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