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12:20:2002 Entry: "Ann : She helped build my Wall"

She helped build my Wall

Ever have someone in your life at a vulnerable time that dictates your taste and what music (or whatever in your case) you should and shouldn't like and like a stupid Sheep you follow them because you don't want to lose their 'friendship'? You give up so much in exchange for their approval that by the end you've lost certain core, defining parts of yourself. With any luck, you'll recover them, but sometimes it takes years...decades, even. She even tried to tell me Stan was a worthless direction. Fortunately, I knew better. In the end, the better woman won.

Pig (The Fourth Kind)

Punk rock fascist, ha ha charade you are
You Pistol-whipped anarchist, ha ha charade you are
You say you hate the hippies but you're always stoned
Throwing 'round your fat weight
No bands you don't hate
And what is it that you've made?
Just wallowing in the cold shade
And do nothing but complain
About how art is so lame
Jessica you're nearly a laugh
Jessica you're nearly a laugh
But you're really a cry

@-->---

With apologies and gratitude to Roger Waters, muse.
Based on the Pink Floyd song 'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' by Roger Waters.

@-->---

Well, now that that's off my chest...maybe I shouldn't be so hard on poor old Jessica. After all, her pruning my garden did make things take off in quite unexpected directions. And granted, there were some weeds there, I'll gladly admit. And maybe by stunting my budding musical interest in Pink Floyd via her Gospel According to Rotten's T-Shirt, was actually good because I can appreciate them in ways I probably wouldn't be able to back then. But then again, she was nothing more than an insecure hypercritical morbidly obese drug casualty, (who has absolutely no digital trail--has she completely vanished? What about her goal of being in a band? What HAS she done with her life?) I doubt my best future interests ever crossed her mind.

Last but not least, here's a funny Jessica story. One night in late 1980 she and her two roommates were all tripping on something in preparation to go to the midnight movie in Denver (gag, spit) Led Zeppelin's (spit) 'The Song Remains The Same.' (TSRTS) Another friend at the time, Dianne, was driving (obviously not tripping). I went, but was not tripping on anything either. In fact, I didn't even want to see the stupid movie...I'd seen it before and since then was definitely turning anti-Zeppelin. Dianne was a big Zeppelin fan in the way a girl would be...fantasy-like, she fancied herself some Lady Guinnevere from that King Arthur's rot or what have you. I was a BIG Kinks fan (something that fortunately Jessica didn't/couldn't squelch) and just found it anathema to be both a Kink's fan and a Zeppelin fan (and if you don't understand that, read your old rock and roll history) so I chose my camp. But I went along with them because they were my friends. And it was Friday night. Playing in the same movie plex was The Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' and I wish I could've seen that instead, but I was greatly outnumbered. Dianne wanted to see TSRTS because she was nuts over Robert Plant, and I'm not sure why the other two women wanted to see it, probably because it was all Jessica's idea. And why, why, this Johnny Rotten Disciple would want to see TSRTS, after making no bones about her dislike of older 'Classic Rock' bands was beyond me initially. And as an aside, come on, Mr. Rotten, choosing Pink Floyd to be your whipping boys of that era? Surely, you jest. What perplexes me, Johnny, is if you didn't like Rawk Starz, why did you pick on a band that was very much not Rawk Starz themselves? See, Zeppelin would've been my personal target. In fact, in about 1980/81, I could've easily worn my own Led Zeppelin t-shirt with 'I hate' painted across the top. And see, I think Jessica hated them too, sort of. But she also thought Jimmy Page was God (she said so). (Wait a minute...I thought Eno was God!) And after we had finished watching the movie, (me feeling like I needed a good strong mouthwash and Dianne in heaven), Jessica said, 'It was like f*@%&*# Jimmy Page!' She was in the throes of ecstasy about how wonderful it was to get inside the mind of and f*#* Jimmy Page while tripping! Ewwwwwwwww! Ewwwww! I'm sorry. My own personal taste. Ewwwwww! Typical Psycho, hates them and wants to screw them all at the same time. And doesn't that go counter to punk too? I mean, WTF? Can we say 'messed up?' Can we say 'crossed priorities?'

She was nearly a cry
But she's really a laugh.

8 Comments

Ann,

This is really wonderful!

It's a good thing you got up in the night to write down your inspired lyrics, so they didn't fade away with the coming of the morning pipper.

I really like the line 'Pistol-whipped anarchist' becaues I remember the fundamentalist punk religion of the 80s, and I think not to many people are aware of the rigid punk view. Of course the punk ideal is to not be tied down to doctrine, and any fundamentalist punker would pay lipservice to that ideal, and ironicaly contridict this ideal with their own narrow and inflexible views. Life is full of crazy fundies.

I'm sure Johnny Rotten picked on Pink Floyd because they were easy targets to represent the album rock that dominated the music business at the time. You knoe more about histories than I do, but I wouldn't be too hard on Mr. Rotten. Anyway when anyone critizes someone else they also give a certain opposit validity to the thing or view point their attacking. Think of it this way - if there were no Pink Floyd perhaps the Sex Pistols would have, for cosmic reasons, turned out to be a pointless joke. Every worthwhile thing in the cosmose needs a worthwhile opposite, or it would just be lame and pointless. For that matter maybe every lame and pointless thing needs a lame and pointless opposite, but now the very nature of opposits comes into question. After all isn't something lame the opposite of someting worthwhile? Does my concern for oposits eventually become lame and pointless itself? Why don't you e-mail Johnny Rotten and ask him if he couldn't have picked a better example to make his point with? I think he should have had a 'I hate Boston' shirt - that would have really been right on target. How about an 'I hate the Frampton Comes Alive album' shirt?

Posted by Stan @ 12:05:2002:10:08 PM CST

ROTFLMAO on the Boston and Frampton! (yeah, I'll have to explain that acronym to you Stan) but I'll get to that later.

The morning pipper? Um...like our dog's nickname? You mean when he barks in the morning? Did you mean Piper? What a wonderful accident of misspelling and I'm not being facetious. It's brilliant. But I guess only you and I would understand...maybe Tim because he knows Plato's nicknames, but then he wouldn't get the Floyd angle.

Now Re: the two above mentioned lame acts: I don't think many people would've known who they were in 1976 (especially Boston) when the punk scene was happening, so it wouldn't have worked. But I like the thought. So was it the "album rock" thing that irritated the Pistols rather than the rawk star thing (because like I said, there were a zillion better targets of rawk stardom to pick on before Floyd)? And they were behaving like spoiled little rawkstarz themselves too. Even so, there were still a plethora of more deserving targets from that standpoint as well (eesh...I sounded like Dietemann...standpoints). I still think an "I hate Led Zeppelin" t-shirt would've been as effective, plus they would've been a good target for excessive rawkstardom too.

I like the problematic concern of opposites you bring up. Is the opposite of something that is awful yet strong something that is good and strong, or is the opposite of something good and strong bad and weak? I mean if you take a color on the computer and invert it, if it was light it becomes dark. So if you have light green and invert it it becomes dark red, so it's not just the hues, red and green, that are opposite, but the values, light and dark are opposite as well.

I don't have Rotten's email, and even so, why email him (hypothetically/metaphorically speaking only)? I'd rather email...Roger Waters. Or Brian Eno. Or Lou Reed. Bowie. Or we could get out the ouija board and contact John and Kurt, but I'm sure they get tired of that. Did I ever tell you that back in 1978 Barb and I tried to hold a seance for Brian Jones but didn't get anywhere? Except I got this feeling (like a very strong feeling inside) that he wanted to be left alone. I never told that to Barb. Not that it would matter now, you know. Yet, I digress. Speaking of which, The Rolling Stones in 1976 were certainly becoming target-worthy IMHO. And I wonder what Rotten thought of Eno, for that matter, I mean we're really talking opposites when you compare his ambient works he was starting to experiment with back then, or was that just so totally off the charts that it didn't even register on the Rotten Radar?

Posted by Ann @ 12:06:2002:09:48 AM CST

Right! I don't think Eno would have been realivant on a Rotten T-shirt. Eno wasn't colosal album rock. I think the punk critique (a word that any self respecting punk wouldn't use, because it implies a kind of establishment view point to be taken into consideration when there is a 'critique') Qritiques are for pigs to worship! The point was the music industry was rigid in its non suport of new bands and going overboard on established bands like the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Compaired to what the record industry promotes now Johny Rotten should be ashamed for criticizing the industry in those days. Everything promoted now looks like teen music to have sex to, and it's all to grose to mention names. I would think top 40 music from the 70's makes everything now look like a pair of dirty underpants lieing in the gutters of a mall parking lot. If there was ever a need for a Mr. Rotten to attack the music industry, the time is riper now than it could have ever been in the 70's. Where's a Rotten Punker when the world really needs one?

Posted by Stan @ 12:06:2002:09:15 PM CST

Yeah, don't want to mention names, don't need to have this journal come up on google searches for those, if you know what I mean.

Top 40 music from the 70s was awful too...remember? We were there. But you know, Rotten wasn't exactly picking on Top 40, in fact, as you say, he was picking on the opposite, album rock, which had no top 40 presence. The Pistols released singles themselves.

Unless I'm missing your point, which you know I've been known to do.

And as to your question where's a Rotten Punker when you need one? I don't know, I think he's trying to become a media darling himself, what with his attempt at Rotten TV and attending Sundance Festivals and schmoozing with Roger Ebert (pork chops).

Don't get me wrong, I love the Pistols MUSIC, it's just Rotten's Musical Politics (I mean was there *anyone* he could appreciate?) that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, always has. This is what it's like, it's like getting pissed off at the smart kids in class who get the good grades because the teacher praises them, whereas they should be getting pissed at the teacher because they are the ones glorifying their "star" students while not giving any help to the kids who don't do well, know what I mean? They should've gotten pissed at the industry, the biz, not the artists. Does that make any sense?

And what was PiL except its own warped version of album rock of the 80s for the terminally snotty hipster?

Posted by Ann @ 12:06:2002:09:47 PM CST

I love PiL! So what if it's intelectual trash - that's what makes PiL so much fun. Also, I really like Roger Ebert, even if he is coming form pigland. Alright maybe top 40 was a bad example, but I'm a little clueless with specific points on history. I think I'll let my meanings stand as they are for any pig who wants to pick it apart for a meal. I don't really care that Johny Rotten had an I hate Pink Floyd shirt - the whole thing is rather pointless except that it's sort of humorous. Come on, surely you can admit that Johnny Rotten wearing an I Hate Pink Floyde shirt is actutually funny. It fits into the whole bad taste kind of thing that the Sex Pistols were doing. Johnny Rotten is a spotlight grabber - he has always been one and will always be one - even in he claims to stand for higher principles. That whole routine of his about being genuine and pure, or how he might say - having a sense of honesty - is just his way. If anyone is listening to PiL because they think Johnny Rotten is a great man of Will they've been fooled by a flake. Don't get me wrong I don't hold being a flake or faker aginst any artist, but I like the Sex Pistols and Love PiL for the music, not for anything Mr. Rotten has ever said or written. Mr Rotten might not be a faker but he is definately a flake who's philosophy seems to fit his moods. Say have you heard if Mr. Rotten has ever recieved an answer from Mr. Young about the whole rock and role and rust never sleeps thing? Do you imagine if Mr. Rotten would ever realize that Mr. Young is just as flakey as he is? I don't think Mr. Young is ever going to tell Mr. Rotten what "This is the story of Johnny Rotten" means. So why doesn't Mr. Rotten get a T-shirt that says 'I hate Neil Young?

Posted by Stan @ 12:06:2002:10:24 PM CST

I'd like to see (what are they called?) one of those Claymation things on MTV with Johnny Rotten vs. Courtney Love in the fighting ring where they knock the heads off eachother and stuff.

And why are you such a devil's advocate?

Posted by Ann @ 12:06:2002:10:32 PM CST

OK, Stan will not write this himself so being the mean wifey I'm writing it FOR him:

He said re: the claymation Love/Rotten celebrity deathmatch: "The bitch would blow his head off with a shotgun and leave a suicide note."

Posted by Ann @ 12:06:2002:10:35 PM CST

And no, I don't find wearing an "I hate Pink Floyd" t-shirt funny. I find it misdirected, which is the point of this whole post.

Aaaargh....I feel like I'm going in circles with this.

Posted by Ann @ 12:06:2002:10:42 PM CST

By Ann @ 20:26 AM CST:12:20:02 ..::Link::..