08 December 2005

posting from bagism


the dream was over twenty-five years ago today...and so dear friends we have had to carry on since then

i remember that night, i lit candles for someone i never met, but who i knew had been essential in my life. the first record i ever bought was the beatles hey jude, the song revolution became an anthem for my young rebelliousness. i walked the halls of high school with a walkman blaring the beatles red and blue albums; a not so subtle armor against the cruelty of those years

later a magickal mentor would ask, while we interviewed genesis p-orridge of psycic tv, what he thought of john’s murder…john dark had been on the radio that night at kpft in houston. he heard the ticker going off upstairs in the news room…it continued it’s rat-atat-tatting for an inordinate time. when he went upstairs to see what was happening, he discovered the news of john’s death. at that moment the phone rang, it was the station manager, who told him he had just heard the news, and was authorizing him to play any song in the lennon catalog. my friend went down to the turntables, announced the horrible news, and played working class hero. genesis’ answer to his query, "it comes with the territory" – meaning that if you are willing to stand up and speak truth to power, you have to be prepared to be blown down. lennon knew this, "if i ain't dead already, girl you know the reason why." chapman was a patsy as much as oswald, and do we really need a movie about him?

years have gone by and john is still as powerful an inspiration as he was then. his image, for some, carries the same power as images of che. his lyrics are still as vital today as they were when they were written

keep you doped with religion and sex and tv,
and you think you're so clever and classless and free,
but you're still fucking peasents as far as I can see,


the world is still full of fucking peasants – "living is easy with eyes closed”. some of us are still in the streets calling for revolution with the words "power to the people". many of us are still dreaming a world where there are no countries and no religion too, nothing to die for, someday the peasants will join us...imagine.

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