My Musical Portrait by J-Ro at the Seminal
Pete Townshend, the enigmatic guitarist from legendary rock band The Who, has come out with a new online music making project that has been years in the making. He calls it The Lifehouse Method. The idea is to allow users to “sit” for three musical portraits and create music from their uploaded “profiles,” essentially an online version of the idea he has been developing since 1969.
Lifehouse was originally conceived as a collaborative concert project. Using data derived from the personalities of those in the audience, Townshend would program his synthesizers accordingly, ultimately merging all of an audience’s biographical data into one “universal chord.” If everything went correctly, the vibration would be so pure that people would reach enlightenment on the spot.
The devil, of course, was in the details. Townshend nearly drove himself crazy trying to accomplish his mystic goal. The Lifehouse project was to be a movie created from concert footage interwoven with plot. The Who were to play for a regular audience every night and the band would develop the music as the concerts evolved, with the help of the audience. Eventually, when things began to take shape, the concerts would be filmed and a storyline created around them. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts made nightly concerts impossible and Pete had a lot of trouble communicating the ideas behind the project to his fellow band members. The project was ultimately discarded, though Townshend has been trying to complete the movie/album ever since.
The new Lifehouse Method seems to be an outgrowth of this original idea. Users sign up and sit for a musical portrait. To do so, they upload or record short audio files of their voice, a sound they like, a rhythm that appeals to them, and a picture that represents them. Sitting for a musical portrait is relatively painless, it’s free, and at the end “your music” appears, ready to play.
So how does it sound? Well, I sat for a musical portrait and…it sound interesting actually!
For the first step I recorded myself saying, “My name is Jason, and I am very interested in making music using the Lifehouse Method.” Then, for the second step I uploaded this picture of myself, taken a couple years ago.
To read more and
hear the results Link to the Seminal
Hip Hop Isn’t Dying, It Just Sucks by J-Ro at the Seminal
Hip hop sales are down. According to Nielsen SoundScan, sales in the Rap category dropped 20.7% compared with sales in 2005. That is the second largest drop behind the New Age category, which fell 22.7%. Right behind in this dismal race is R&B with a drop of 18.4%. Of course record sales are down across the industry, but the average change is only -2.4% with some genres, such as Classical, gaining as many percentage points as Rap lost. Clearly hip hop, which has been the darling of the record industry these last few years, is in trouble.But why are sales down? Countless articles, including a recent high profile story from the AP, have said the problems with hip hop stem solely from its content. The above article among others argues that hip hop lyrics too degrading towards women and the thug life image is played out. From the article:
“I’m not removed from it, but I can’t really tell the difference between Young Jeezy and Yung Joc. It’s the same dumb stuff to me,” says [Nicole] Duncan-Smith, 33 [who is married to a hip hop producer]. “I can’t listen to that nonsense … I can’t listen to another black man talk about you don’t come to the ‘hood anymore and ghetto revivals … I’m from the ‘hood. How can you tell me you want to revive it? How about you want to change it? Rejuvenate it?” READ MORE
OK. Point taken. The music doesn’t speak to you. But here’s the real deal: If you go out there and just replace all the negatives in rap lyrics with positives, replace every Young Jeezy-type MC with a Common and every call to murder with an exhortation to love your fellow man, hip hop sales would still be down. Why? Because people fail to realize that hip hop first and foremost is a musical art-form. Right now, hip hop just isn’t living up to musical standards. It’s just plain bad.
On one hand you’ve got what I would call “artistically interesting” hip hop, hip hop that has musical value and makes an artistic statement. One example would be the legendary song “CREAM” by The Wu-Tang Clan off of 1993’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).
On the surface, the lyrical content of this cut is pretty similar to what’s popular today. It’s about growing up in the ghetto and living the thug life, the same exact themes hit on in about every song on the hip hop charts today. Here’s the rundown:
Do we have violence? Sure!
And running
up in gates, and doing hits for high stakes
Drugs? Yep.
No question I would speed, for cracks and weed
The combination made my eyes bleed
Money? That’s easy…just look at the title (CREAM = Cash Rules Everything Around Me).
It’s all there. So what’s the difference? Well to start, lyrically “CREAM” is about more than just drugs and guns. This particular song is also about survival, big dreams, and the mysteries of life:
It’s been twenty-two long hard years of still strugglin
Survival got me buggin, but I’m alive on arrival
I peep at the shape of the streets
And stay awake to the ways of the world cause shit is deep
A man with a dream with plans to make C.R.E.A.M.
Which failed; I went to jail at the age of 15
A young buck sellin drugs and such who never had much
Trying to get a clutch at what I could not… could not…
The court played me short, now I face incarceration
Pacin — going up state’s my destination
Handcuffed in back of a bus, forty of us
Life as a shorty shouldn’t be so ruff
But as the world turns I learned life is hell
Living in the world no different from a cell
The complexity in the lyrics helps push this song into the artistic realm. Of course, it has musical credentials too, but we’ll get to that later.
Let’s contrast the above with Pretty Ricky’s “Push It Baby”, which was as high as #5 on the Billboard hip hop/r&b charts.
Pretty Ricky…ugh
Again, on the surface this song references familiar themes. You’ve got sex of course. Here’s the hook:
I Wanna See You Push It Baby Oh Just Push That Thang On Me
Push It Baby I Wanna See You
You’ve got money:
Buying Out The Bar Like It Ain’t No Thang
Hot Boy Like Wayne
Diamonds In My Chain Blang Blang Blang
And the ghetto life:
Urban Legend In The Hood Like T.I.
But let’s face it, these lyrics can’t even begin to touch Raekwon and the rest of The Clan! Here’s a bit more if you aren’t convinced:
When I Step Up In He Club-I’m So Hot Hot Hot
Tossing Dollars At These Hoes Like Ah Ah Ah
Pretty Woman Up In Here Like Bah Bah Bah
Spitting Game In Their Ear Like - Lalalalalalaa
Baby Blue I Don’t Play No Games
Head To My Feet So Fresh So Clean
Buying Out The Bar Like It Ain’t No Thang
Hot Boy Like Wayne
Diamonds In My Chain Blang Blang Blang
I got canary diamond Bustas
Got the matching Lamborghini same color mustard
Baying drinks for these chicks and now they owe me
More gin if u wine I’m the same ol G
As far as I can tell, there isn’t another side to this song. There is no complexity to be found. There’s nothing about the world beyond “the club”, nothing about growing up poor, or even much about the classic rags to riches story. I get no indication that the rappers in this song are thinking beyond the next drink or the next diamond or the next girl. It’s all bitches and booty and bling (and bullshit if you ask me).
Now, “CREAM” may already be winning this comparison, but I would argue that if you put “CREAM’s” excellent lyrics under “Push It Baby’s” beat, you’d still have a dud. Here’s why:
Musically these songs are in different leagues. “CREAM” employs (by my count anyway) at least 10 different musical samples to create texture and to demarcate different internal sections. “Push It Baby” uses maybe 5. Sure the songs have the same basic structure of verse/chorus pairs, but “CREAM” adds musical drops, reversed samples, delays and echos to the mix. It all adds up to create an atmospheric track that feels empty, spacious and melancholic, and just like the lyrics.
On the other hand, “Push It Baby” will cut the beat occasionally, but the instrumentation is pretty static throughout the song with samples coming in and out in extremely predictable ways. To me it feels claustrophobic. Where “CREAM” is repetitive in a minimalist way, “Push It Baby” repeats like a bad advertising slogan; it’s determined to drive that hook into your head whether you like it or not. To me, “CREAM” comes off as well structured and layered where “Push It Baby” with its played out instrumentation and attention-getting riffs, feels cookie-cutter and monotonous. To put it another way, I can listen to “CREAM” over and over again and hear something new each time. With “Push It Baby” all I have to hear is the first verse and the hook and I’ve pretty much got the idea. Here’s what it comes down to: “CREAM” is art and “Push It Baby” is not.
Even if you take a step back, Wu-Tang’s entire album and image are way more interesting than Pretty Ricky’s. 36 Chambers is an album in the style of Pink Floyd or The Beatles. It is a coherent piece of work. Each of its songs have something to say and it holds together as a complete artistic statement. No wonder it is widely considered one of the greatest hip hop albums ever produced. On top of that, the Wu-Tang clan projects a multifaceted image. Part thug, pimp, philosopher and poet, the Clan isn’t just a one-note wonder.
Pretty Ricky’s album Late Night Special isn’t cohesive. It may be just about sex, but there is no artistic statement to be found. Here’s what one reviewer had to say:
If sex sells, then Pretty Ricky’s second album will likely be a big hit on the music charts, because songs about sex is about all that this four-man vocal group has to offer.
Certainly this album won’t stand the test of time like 36 Chambers, and neither will the group. Pretty Ricky’s image is the slick, blinged-out sex addict and that’s where it ends. How can I be expected to stay interested?
But Pop Ain’t Art
“OK!” you say, “You’ve made your point. Pretty Ricky isn’t art. But popular music isn’t about art anyway. Since when do the pop charts reflect artistic value?” Well, that’s not entirely true. I say the pop charts do reflect art, albeit in a roundabout way.
Good music, music with artistic value, does not necessarily rise to the top of the charts. However, the pop charts aren’t always the cultural wasteland they have been these past few years. Elvis Presley had #1 hits, so did Stevie Wonder, Santana, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, and Janis Joplin, all artists with significant artistic merit. In the hip hop world, real artists like Kanye West, OutKast, Lauryn Hill, and Biggy Smalls all spent at least a week at #1. Though the pop charts measure sales and not artistic merit, some of the good stuff does hit occasionally.
The real problem with hip hop though, to me anyway, is the lack of an artistically interesting underground from which these hits are spawned. Without a solid underground scene its hard to create hit after hit worth listening to. For example, in 1969 Marvin Gaye, Sly & the Family Stone, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Diana Ross & The Supremes all held a #1 song, and each one of these musical entities had something artistic to say. Why were there so many artistically valid #1 songs in 1969? Because the rock, folk and soul underground scenes were booming! With so many bands making so much music at the same time, smart artists had the opportunity to synthesize each genre down to its essential elements and craft songs that were both artistically valid and broadly appealing. I think hip hop right now lacks that critical mass that a vibrant artistic underground scene brings and which is needed to achieve the same effect. Without this kind of foundation the hip hop music that hits on the charts is fated to be nothing more than a fad, a quick flash in the pan with no real thought behind it.
Sure there are a lot of interesting artists in the underground hip hop scene. Immortal Technique, OneBeLo, and Thaione Davis are just a few of the hundreds out there trying to do something good with the music. But for every true artist trying to make it there are two MC’s just trying to ride the fad and cash in. As each hip hop “genre” comes and goes (Crunk, Screwed, Reggaeton, and Dancehall to name a sad few), more and more untalented people come out with their own version of the latest sound. This only serves to add more noise to the system and those putting out real music get drowned out. The scene right now is chaotic, without any unity or artistic purpose; it’s just people trying to get rich.
Without this cohesive scene there is no foundation. More one-hit wonders get thrown up the charts, each making pure pop music with no artistic backing behind it. Without a functioning underground artistic music will make it to the top only rarely because so little artistic music is being made in the first place. It is hard for an artist to synthesize, create, and collaborate if there is no one around worth working with. Honestly, it’s a wonder we’ve seen the likes of Kanye and Biggy on the charts at all!
Create Art People!
So what’s the answer? Well, I’d argue that it’s deceptively simple. Really, all you have to do is make good music. You can write your lyrics about whatever you want as long as you put some thought into it. And you can derive your musical influences and samples from whatever corner of the world you choose as long as they all come together in a cohesive and interesting way. Now, making art is by no means easy, but it is the only way to ensure hip hop will continue to be relevant in the future.
It takes a lot to “kill” a genre of music. People have been writing about the end of rock and rap since the day they were created. I’m not saying hip hop is dying or dead. But I am saying that if hip hop wants to be more than top 40 fluff, if it wants to mean something to people like it did in the 80’s and early 90’s, if it wants to speak for a generation, then it needs to get out of the money game and start getting back into making real music for real people. It is the only way.
If you think that I’m right then don’t buy the crap out there! Vote with your wallet and do your part to keep bad hip hop out of everyone’s ears. We will thank you later. On the flip side, support the artists out there who are making something you care about. When America gets over its current obsession with hip hop inspired money and violence, these worthy underground artists will still be there ready to give people something worth enjoying.
3/5/07: Last weekend Britney Spears decided that she was the anti-Christ. The pop star, who is staying at the Promises rehab facility in Malibu, reportedly wrote the number 666 across her head, terrorized staff members by screaming “I am the anti-Christ,” then attempted to hang herself with a bedsheet.Link to Rolling Stone article
James Cameron and the Tomb of Jesus
For our younger readers: The reference here is The Life of Brian…a very funny movie, and as a bonus, it will probably annoy your parents.
This is your hair on drugs
Britney
Phil Spector
CELEBRETARDS as Saints and gods? American Idols? When did my beloved country become so dumb? Is SHOPPING our new religion and WALMART our temple where we gather each Sunday to marvel at the wonderous (cheap) products created in sweatshops around the world? America once had a soul.
ART DISCOUNT! Regular size Virgin Mary oils by the Masters usually fetch tens of millions but for a limited time this extra large economy size mural is on sale for only $50,000!
Link to article
The Eagles went down to the Crossroads and made a deal. For the next year you can only buy their new album at Walmart. If you do so, please don’t return to this site.
Mamas, teach your girls to grow up to be Dixie Chicks
These brave ladies risked their career (and their lives) to stand up for what they knew was right.
The Dixie Chicks are Nashville refugees for reasons of politics and personality — after stinging comments about President Bush, country radio banned them and country fans shunned them — but on Sunday the trio found blue-state redemption at the 49th annual Grammy Awards with five awards, including song, record and album of the year. The Chicks, became the first act in 13 years to sweep all three prestigious categories (Best song, Best artists and Best album).Link to LA Times article
We will miss you, Jane Wyatt…
You were the glue that held this perfect American, WASP suburban family (played by a highly disfunctional cast) together. 
Kilgore Trout
Kurt Vonnegut recently reported that Kilgore Trout committed suicide by drinking Drāno in an article for In These Times magazine. Trout “died” at midnight on October 15, 2004 in Cohoes, New York, following his consultation with a psychic, who informed him that George W. Bush would win the U. S. Presidential election by a vote of 5-to-4 in the Supreme Court. The epitaph on his tombstone reads, “Life is no way to treat an animal.”
OTTAWA (Oct. 13) - Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of 10-feet-high marijuana plants.Sgt Lou Penney, Canadian Forces / Reuters
Canadian soldiers in an armored vehicle patrol near fields of corn and marijuana near the village of Kolk, Afghanistan. Taliban fighters have been using pot forests as cover.
General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said on Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana. “The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It’s very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices … and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don’t dodge in and out of those marijuana forests,” he said in a speech in Ottawa.
“We tried burning them with white phosphorous — it didn’t work. We tried burning them with diesel — it didn’t work. The plants are so full of water right now … that we simply couldn’t burn them,” he said.
Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.
“A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hillier said dryly.
One soldier told him later: “Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I’d say ‘That damn marijuana’.”
Weird Baby Boomer Stats:
Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, and millions of America’s heroes returned home to end World War II. Exactly nine months later (May 15, 1946) the Baby Boom began. The birth rate shot up 20% from the previous year, passing the three million mark for the first time in our history, and then exploded to nearly four million new babies in 1947. The United States passed that high-water mark in 1948 and remained above that dangerous level for nearly two decades. This insane pace finally slowed down abruptly to a normal level in 1964… exactly nine months after the assassination of JFK.The first Baby Boomer senior class, by far the largest in history, graduated from high school in 1964. The adult world was neither prepared nor pleased with this new arrival. How could society absorb such a large number of teens into mainstream America? There weren’t enough jobs or housing for all these kids. Many scheduled June weddings with their high school sweethearts, and planned to pop out a few kids of their own. The senior class of 1965 would be even bigger, and the class of ‘66 larger yet.
Teens couldn’t find permanent and/or summer jobs, especially in the inner city where the unemployment rate was already staggering. Black Boomers were “Dancing in the Streets” amid a “Heat Wave” in 1964. Might as well. Ain’t no work around.
Many teens from the pioneer Boomer class headed for college in the fall. Their group was 20% larger than the previous year’s, and they found themselves waiting in long lines, trying to get into overcrowded classes. The vast freshman army forced many colleges to install computers to handle the registration load. Boomer students wore T-shirts that read, “Do not fold, spindle or mutilate… I am a human being.” Read more
In 1964 as the first Baby Boomers turned 18, LBJ invaded Vietnam to give these idlers something to do. The occupation was scheduled to last until 1982 (when the last Boomer attacked the job market). Unfortunately, pesky patriots figured out Nixon’s/ Kissinger’s scheme and took to the streets to end the occupation. Plese note on the two graphs how the number of Baby Boomer Births (1946 to 1955) exactly matches Boomer Draftees (1964 to 1973).
ID Monster and Tailgunner Joe
What was the classic film from the Golden Age of Monsters? Don’t ever claim to be a Baby Boomer if you don’t know. Time is up. The answer is Forbidden Planet (1956). Loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Walter Pidegon as Morbius/ Prospero, discovers the ancient records of the advanced Krell civilization on this brave new world. Morbius uses this technology to multiply his brainpower many times over, but in doing so, increases and releases the suppressed evils in his subconscious. His Id Monster takes on a huge, hideous physical form and then begins a rampage of death and destruction. Morbius, a good scientist with a noble quest, fights desperately to control his id because the human race can benefited greatly from this method of increasing intelligence…but only if one can first come to grips with, and then conquer the basic animal instincts deep within each subconscious. The message was clear… to ignore and/or suppress the id can only make it grow to gigantic proportions on the verge of an explodion of uncontrolled fury.
The oldest Boomers were only ten years old when this complex film premiered. Kids were accustomed to lightweight eye-candy with conventional monsters, the bomb and world destruction, and before the end credits rolled youngsters knew that good guys always win… before Forbidden Planet. That evil film raised a lot of disturbing questions the usual sources (school, church, TV and parents) were unwilling or unable to answer. Did George Washington have evils in his id? How about Jimmy Dodd? Gene Autry? Ike? The Pope?
How about us Boomers… did we have evils in our ids? After all, little girls and boys began playing doctor about this time. Some of the oldest Boomers felt strange, new urges. Talking about such feelings was absolutely taboo in 50’s society, so many kids began to think they were misfits, freaks and definitely sicko. That opinion changed when they found out that Morbius, too, had monsters in his id.
As did Nixon and Tailgunner Joe McCarthy…
READ MORE
1964: The Beatles invade America, America invades Vietnam. The world blows up in Fail Safe, and again in Dr. Strangelove.
Television embarked on the greatest sales campaign of all time, in an effort to sell patriotism. As usual, Boomers were the targets of the pitch. The networks pushed the “glory of war” concept with “12 O’Clock High”, “Combat”, “World War I” and “The Lieutenant”, and tried to sell “War is fun” with “Gomer Pyle, USMC”, “Broadside”, “No Time for Sergeants” and “McHale’s Navy”.
Bob Hope entertained happy troops in Vietnam on his Christmas Special, and Santa left an amazing new toy for younger Boomer boys under the tree… GI Joe and all his Friendly Fire Accessories. Joe (like Barbie) appeared as a realistic, grown-up doll, except for the absence of reproductive gear. But, Joe’s huge guns dwarfed Wyatt Earp’s, so he, unlike Babs, found a release for his sexual frustrations. With Barbie as a role model for little girls, and GI Joe for little boys, it’s amazing that the Baby Boomer Generation turned out as well as it did.
Kennedy’s New Frontier faded away. Fess Parker returned to the old frontier, this time as Daniel Boone. Ronald Reagan also returned to the tube, as a replacement for the Old Ranger on “Death Valley Days”. Welcome back to the Great (“Gee, I really wish that it could be once again”) Society of LBJ.
Puzzling Evidence Index -click on any underlined pop culture topic (ie GI Joe) and the index will take you to the page.
Mattel introduced Barbie in 1959, and Boomer females have never been satisfied with their bodies ever since. Babs transcended dollhood…she became a lifestyle…a role model to help adolescent girls make the painful transition to adulthood. Barbie possessed everything an All-American girl could possibly desire: a perfect face, figure, hair, a fabulous wardrobe and an ideal boyfriend (Ken). Babs was the first doll with boobs, which seemed natural, since the sale of training bras increased by 50% in 1959, and millions of little Boomer girls began to notice serious changes in their anatomy for the first time. But, how could they compete with Barbie? At full scale, Babs’ measurements would have read: 40C- 18- 26. Her breasts defied gravity and stuck out, high and well formed (and nippleless), and her exaggerated, hourglass waist could only have been achieved in the real world by the removal of a few ribs and vital organs. Barbie’s long, slender legs must have been achieved in a month on the stretch rack in a dungeon, or as the result of some terrible disease (perhaps the same one that caused her nipples to fall off). Indeed, if any real woman owned a full-scale figure exactly like Barbie’s, she would be the most popular photographic subject in medical journals since the Elephant Man.
Nonetheless, every little Boomer girl in America simply had to own a Barbie and as many accessories as her parents would tolerate. Mattel’s production line could barely keep up with demand. They started the Barbie Fan Club, and soon membership exceeded that of the Girl Scouts of America. Each subscriber received regular fan club letters with tips on how to become an all-American Dream Girl, and a complete shopping guide of the latest additions to Barbie’s wardrobe. Teenieboppers dropped all other dolls and concentrated on helping Barbie get ready for her next big date with Ken. In fact, Barbie’s entire schedule consisted of getting ready for dates, shopping, trying on new clothes and experimenting with new hairstyles and makeup (It is interesting to note that 1959 was also the year that Visa and Mastercharge cards were introduced).
Barbie’s life was not cluttered with any visible signs of education, marriage or career (until 1985, with Barbie’s “Home Office Center”), but no one seemed to wondered where she got all the money for her beautiful house, swimming pool, spa, horse, snazzy sports car, and more than a thousand expensive outfits. Perhaps Barbie was the mistress of a very wealthy man? What other job could she possibly qualify for that could earn her enough to maintain her luxurious lifestyle? Closer examination will dispel the mistress theory, however… Mattel neglected to provide Barbie with the physical equipment necessary to perform the duties of such an occupation. Perhaps that is why Ken has been the only guy to ask Barbie out during the last half century. He, too, has nothing going on below the waist or above the neck.
This vain, self-centered, materialistic, hollow-headed, sexless, cold, plastic princess served as the adult role model for little girls throughout the entire history of our generation. By her twenty-first birthday in 1980, 112 million Barbies had been sold… or, one for every American female.
Anyone who was lucky enough to be a teen in Arizona in the mid to late 1960s (like Steven Spielberg, Alice Cooper and Magic Sam) knows that the bet R&R group of that era wasn’t the Beach Boys, Beatles, Stones or Hendrix.
HUB KAPP AND THE WHEELS ruled! Alice (Vince) claims that Hub Kapp was his Muse…his raison d’ etre to enter show biz. Here are a couple tunes from the greatest rock band you’ve never heard:
Work, Work -a dirty word MP3 link
Little Volks MP3 link
Awake- 1:10 My TV-3:05 Oh, Tipper, Tipper- 1:28
Halitosis- 2:17- Dr. Demento Top Ten Hit-1978
Fresh Herring Love- 3:44
When Them Blues Come Over You- 5:35
Otto’s Autos- :58 Old Billy- 4:32 Cross-eyed in Love Over You
The War Is Over- Phil Ochs
Silent Soldiers on a silver screen/ Framed in fantasies and dragged in dream/ Unpaid actors of the mystery/ The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free/ And what’s this got to do with me?/ I declare the war is over/ It’s over, it’s over/ Drums are drizzling on a grain of sand/ Fading rhythms of a fading land / Prove your courage in the proud parade/ Trust your leaders where mistakes are almost never made/And they’re afraid that I’m afraid/ I’m afraid the war is over/ It’s over, it’s over/ Angry artists painting angry signs/ Use their vision just to blind the blind/ Poisoned players of a grizzly game/ One is guilty and the other gets the point to blame/ Pardon me if I refrain/ I declare the war is over/ It’s over, it’s over/ So do your duty, boys, and join with pride/ Serve your country in her suicide/ Find the flags so you can wave goodbye/ But just before the end even treason might be worth a try/ This country is to young to die/ I declare the war is over/ It’s over, it’s over/ One-legged veterans will greet the dawn/ And they’re whistling marches as they mow the lawn/ And the gargoyles only sit and grieve
The gypsy fortune teller told me that we’d been deceived/ You only are what you believe/ I believe the war is over/ It’s over, it’s over
Phil came up with the idea during Vietnam (1969) and John spread the message around the world:
THE WAR IS OVER!
An occupation based on lies is a crime against humanity…not a war.
The most important R&R Group in history?
In Chicago in 1968 every major group (Beatles, Stones, Big Brother, the Doors, etc) promised to be there, but when the scene turned ugly, only three R&R heroes walked the walk:
These artists are great American patriots and the spirit of rock: defiance of authority, teen angst, a sense of humor, drive-your-parents-up-a-wall lyrics with a jungle beat. Who was best?
Puzzling Evidence
Elvis, Dylan, John, Paul, Mick, Jimi, Janis wimped out.
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Published by Greg at 10:03 PM on May 10, 2007