While it makes good copy (and sells books) to blame the deaths of
popular musicians on some government conspiracy, anyone close to the
music scene of the 60s and early 70s would be aware of the overabundance
of drugs and the overindulgence in those drugs as well as alcohol that
permeated that culture. It was a culture and a period in which the
adulation of fans, combined with the ability of the more successful
musicians to buy whatever they wanted, and do whatever they wanted to
do, and the more outrageous the better, that totally distorted their
perception of reality. And it was not only musicians who died from over
indulgence, thousands of folks, following Tim Leary's injunction, tuned
out permanently.
Take for example the mystery surrounding the death of Jim Morrison, a
brilliant poet who was unable to handle the reality he created. He was
not murdered. The only person who knows how he died is an old friend of
mine and Jim's who was with him when he died and whose name is mentioned
in Morrison's first biographies as being exactly that.
I have never asked my friend what happened and he has never told me.
What none of these theorists seem to have learned is that my friend was
French, and through him, Jim had made some good friends in the French
film industry. Thanks to that, he is one of the few foreigners buried in
France's most famous cemetery, Pere La Chaise.
And "the 70s did not give us the Doors." Morrison and the Doors made
their Fillmore debut in 1968, and the group and Morrison became an
instant success. So much for the knowledge of that writer.
Jeff Blankfort
> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 12:06:07 -0700
> From: radman <resist@best.com>
> Subject: [sixties-l] The Covert War Against Rock (book review)
>
> The Covert War Against Rock Alex Constantine
> Feral House 2554 Lincoln Blvd. #1059 Venice, CA 90291
> 200 pages - $14.95
>
SNIP
> Its hard to put a finger on when it all went astray and became evident that
> something very wrong was going on. Maybe it was the plane crash that claimed
> the lives of the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. Maybe it was the
> 1966 death of Bobby Fuller, apparently from ingesting gasoline. Its hard to
> say if these deaths were the beginning of something very evil or just
> accidents or suicide. And while Constantine does not investigate the distant
> past, he does show that this phenomenon of suspicious death in the music
> industry has not stopped or slowed since the 1960s; in fact it has
> increased.
>
> Rock musicians are famous for singing about the type of things that make the
> powers that be nervous. From the blatant lyrics about sex of the 40s and 50s
> R & B bands to Elvis gyrating hips, to the Stones drug use (and abuse) in
> the 60s. The 70s gave us the Doors, more Stones, and John Lennon before punk
> took it over the top. The 80s saw the birth of gangsta rap and grunge and
> the movements continue to this day. And while some may say that all the
> lyrics, political statements and political movements are all about image and
> posturing, someone obviously thinks otherwise.
>
> This book takes a look at the someone else involved in the deaths of many of
> yesterdays and todays musicians. Instead of just jumping in with conspiracy
> theory, Constantine gives a good amount of well-footnoted background
> information and history before the death toll begins to mount. History is
> given on the Mafia and government involvement in the music industry. The
> author then takes great pains to show how the government was involved in the
> supply and use of LSD as a mind weakening and personality molding drug and
> not the alleged mind expander it was being hyped as. Constantine also points
> out how many of the underground heroes and their cronies had government
> ties.
>
> And then the killings start and the truth gets stretched in the mainstream
> press. Mama Cass chokes on a ham sandwich. Brian Jones drowns in his pool.
> Hendrix chokes on his vomit. Jim Morrison remains alive. An obsessed fan
> killed John Lennon. Bob Marley dies of cancer. Peter Tosh dies by gunshot.
> Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were gang hits and most recently Michael
> Hutchence was a victim of autoerotic hanging. That is what "they" want you
> to believe, but Constantine has made it his job to show you the places where
> these stories and reality don't agree. Constantine writes of the nervousness
> inspired by Cass's political aspirations. How the murderer of Brian Jones
> confessed on his deathbed. How the development of the 'Jim Morrison lives'
> theory was put into place to throw people of the scent of a possible murder.
> How Bob Marley suspiciously developed cancer and his more suspicious
> "treatment. Why Peter Tosh's killers went uninvestigated. SNIP
>
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