...its been a while...and till I get my thoughts together as its been a long night ...here's some of the people whose words and music have fought for my attention and won over the years...
'The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to
continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too
expensive to maintain they will just take down the scenery, they will pull
back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way,
and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.'
Frank Zappa, quoted by Jim Ladd, 'Zappa on Air', Nuggets, No. 7, April/May 1977, p.17
"With audiences nowadays I see it with these late-night [TV show] people,
Jay Leno, David Letterman and so on the audience applauds the jokes rather
than laughs at them, which is very discouraging.
Laughter is involuntary. If it's funny you laugh. But you can easily clap
just to say [deadpan]: 'A ha, that's funny, I think that's funny.'
Sometimes they cut to the audience and you can see they are applauding
madly. But they're not laughing."
Tom Lehrer, "Stop clapping, this is serious" March 1 2003
"In a way I’m fortunate. All outsiders of any kind do have this fact that
they bring to bear on every situation all they have, instead of merely
taking it or leaving it, not really considering it very deeply. Every
person you meet is a potential antagonist, and you spend your time making
them over, working away at them, winning them over. Your life is one,
long, tentative flirtation with the world."
Quentin Crisp, 1978 KPFK-FM radio interview
"...those wonderful Berlin cabarets which did so much to stop the rise of
Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War..."
Peter Cook on the model for his comedy club the Establishment, via Tom
Lehrer speaking on the value of satire
"Now they sing out his praises on every distant shore
But so few remember what he was fightin' for
Oh why sing the songs and forget about the aim?
He wrote them for a reason, why not sing them for the same? "
Phil Ochs about Woody Guthrie "Bound For Glory" from All the News That's
Fit to Sing (1964)
"We are but the atoms in the incessant human struggle towards the light
that shines in the darkness--the Ideal of economic, political and
spiritual liberation of mankind!"
Emma Goldman's closing remarks in her address to the jury in U.S. v. Emma
Goldman and Alexander Berkman (July 9,1917)
"Now 60, County still takes great delight in wrecking the straights and
the conservative contingent of the gay community. "Walking down the street
with a friend and waiting for the people who are walking towards me to
just get up to where I am and suddenly, throwing my arms up in space and
screaming 'Oh honey, his dick was sooo big, all I could do with it was
throw it over my shoulder and burp it!' That is a good one," she laughs."
Complete and Utter County, First published in SX News, 24 August, 2006
"Now there are seven kinds of Coke
500 kinds of cigarettes
This freedom of choice in the USA drives everybody crazy
But in Acapulco
Well they don't give a damn
About kids selling Chiclets with no shoes on their feet
See how we are
"Hey man, Whats in it for me?"
See how we are
We only sing about it once in every twenty years
See how we are
Oh see how we are"
X, See how we are, (Exene Cervenka and John Doe)
"Oh like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free."
from Bird on the Wire, Leonard Cohen
"...The jukebox wailed. He believed he understood the longing of the
cheap tunes better than anyone there. The Wurlitzer was a great beast,
blinking in pain. It was everybody's neon wound. A suffering
ventriloquist. It was the kind of pet people wanted. An eternal bear for
baiting, with electric blood. Breavman had a quarter to spare. It was
fat, it loved its chains, it gobbled and was ready to fester all night..."
The Favourite Game, Leonard Cohen
"I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I
go into another room and read a good book. " Groucho Marx
"The retreat from a hippie, illogical revolution to solid Marxist Leninist
good sense is possibly another symptom that social change toward a free
human environment on this planet is losing ground."
Mick Farren, Why bother? International Times, February 1972
"have I doubt when I'm alone
love is a ring, the telephone
love is an angel disguised as lust
here in our bed until the morning comes
come on now try and understand
the way I feel under your command
take my hand as the sun descends
they can't touch you now,
can't touch you now, can't touch you now
because the night belongs to lovers ... "
From "Because the night" Patti Smith
"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to
replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It
dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of
tarnishing." Anais Nin
"If I want to take a picture, I take it no matter what" Nan Goldin
"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Johnny Rotten, San Fransisco,
last Sex Pistols gig, 1978
"Their sentimental calling signs
Are calculatingly designed
To rob you of your mind and time
And still you listen to
The lulling drone of reassuring voices
Tunes to take away your choices
Make you slaves to fancy words and phrases
Until you're pushing up the daisies
They steal away your freedom
and your love"
Hawkwind, Coded languages from Sonic Attack, 1981
"Senatorial status means little to the Queen of Pop. I have disrupted the
whole Jimmy & the Boys recording and gigging schedule to make sure my name
is on the ballot, and so that NSW has a real choice between madness and
sanity in the Senate." Joylene Thornbird Hairmouth, Jimmy & the Boys
keyboardist.
Joylene Hairmouth ran for house of representatives in the senate and got
over 4300 votes in the end, New South Wales 1980.
"OK, sweaty snugglebunnies" Opus, Bloom County.
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