Canterbury (Scene) Tales?

 

Can't say I do ... or have read any.

 

This is about the early days only ... not later, btw!

 

Robert Wyatt has a book, and I think there are a couple and you probably can check out a couple of the other articles on this in the books section.

 

In my book, there is a lot missing, and some folks don't want to say a lot, and I think that many of them are just trying to let it go, because of drugs and other improprieties and such ... but needless to say, I have always found it fascinating that Allen Ginsberg, Mr. Nekkid Lunch, Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, Robert Wyatt ... were all in the same house ... and I find it hard to believe that they didn't say hello to each other or did not know who they were, or what they did, or that they did not have coffee together (Daevid Allen says they did!) ... and did not play together in the same place (they did -- the same event that is known as "Tonite We All Love In London") ... and such ... the only connection missing is the rest of the English court ... Michael Caine, Julie Christie and others, who obviously were around that same event ...

 

Yoko, probably can tell us a lot about all these folks, but I think she is too busy with her John to worry about anything else, and probably does not feel/think that she owes those people anything and when they moved around and to NY, they were no longer bothering with that scene and John never got to play with them, which might suggest that John was a very limited player himself, although one could easily say that when it came to ideas and lyrics he had plenty.

 

If Kevin Ayers ever puts down the Majorca beers, maybe he will tell us something, but there are stories that many people won't give him the time of the day, based on his own ... experiences with other ... we'll leave that to Kevin! But it was another time and place, and the freedoms were around everyone, so someone taking offense on that account, means that they were in the wrong place with the wrong people, and I simply do not think that Kevin is to blame or that he was just being another Californian in the beach who couldn't careless -- which is possible, but I don't think so.

 

Daevid Allen has not been totally open about that time, either, and there is a possibility that they were all too ripped to know the difference, but even so, I find it strange that they would not remember these things ... more like "selective thinking" ... and I can understand some people not being exactly proud of having done this or that ... but ... you did it ... it's over ... next! Learn and move on ... and that tells me that there are a lot of people that are not being forthright and truthfull and that just shows you what I consider the bad part of that generation ... the honesty and the truth is lacking!

 

We have to get better and stronger ... not weaker because we're not truthfull about our pasts and our histories.

 

It is also weird to me that many of these folks, the literary ones specially, also are ignoring the music scene. Allen Ginsburg's information pretty much ignores "Tonite We All Love In London" and the time that he was in London ... and the massive anti-VietNam poem he read during the event/show ... which I understand was one of 3 or 4 he read. The poem itself, when read, does not come off very well, but when you hear him read it ... it explodes magnificently. Likewise, Burroughs fooling around with the NY music scene is also not listed in a lot of the stuff about him. Another one, is Tim Leary, whose family has apparently prevented any information in regards to the "krautrock" folks that he lived with, and inspired with his words ... when they took him seriously ... and the one time he was with it, instead of stupid.

 

The NY scene is probably even more involved, when you notice that ... wait a minute ... Patti was with Maplethorpe, and Pollack was next door, and Reed next door, and Anderson was quoting Burroughs ... and ... Andy was filming some folks next door while they were asleep, and Morrisey was making some crazy films ... and you're telling me that nothing happened? ... and that these were not connected?

 

The only concern I have, is that, I have come to believe that too many of these people were just way too ripped to give a damn (a claim that Oliver Stone blurted out loud in his Doors film without saying it), and in the end, the whole thing just died apart ... meaningless since the folks involved were too ripped to care. So it wasn't art ... it was just me getting stoned, and I couldn't careless because I was having fun in bed with Nico and ... I don't remember anything else ... and she didn't remember me either ... is there something wrong with that equation?

 

I do not wish to denigrade one's learning and abilities and the fact that we got stoned way back when ... but th elack of honesty since then is scary ... and in my book, horrific, and only shows that our generation is a bunch of liars that can not face the truth and are afraid to come out of the closet and admit that ... I'm not exactly proud of this or that, but it happened. But the music and the art made it ... we didn't!

 

It's scary ... I don't think that we need some kind of a VietNam war expose on the telly to show people all the rights and wrongs and all the sex, drugs and rocknroll, and then flick the finger at you or me, or themselves!

 

Our music scene came up at the same time as all this ... in a way we were revolting to the excesses that the Beatles and Rolling Stones were letting us all know about ... but in the end, we also succumbed to a lot of it, and hid just as much as everyone else ... because their family would deny that you spent time with them, kind of thing, and you are trying to milk Patti's fame, or Nico's.

 

Even one of the best books I have ever read about the time or place, has magnificent things ... but even she is not honest ... Pamela Des Barres ... trying to come off as a good girl of some sort ... and Pam, I don't care if you slept with one of them or 1700 of them ... but hiding the honesty behind it, is hurtful to everyone ... and sooner or later they all have to face their skeletons, but it doesn't mean you have to keep yours! The books, (both of them) are also the best primer on Frank Zappa you will ever read ... and I think some folks will appreciate Gaile a lot more ... but in the end, Pam is playing miss2goodshoes these days, and the whole thing just looks pathetic, scary ... and not good. ... or in the end, it didn't mean anything ... except we got laid ... !!! wow !!! screw the music !!! who gives a sh*t about art? ...

 

 

If I can get PA to recognize NY, and SF and everywhere else before I die ... I'll be happy.

 

But not sure that most of them give a dang () about history ... I have this stupid feeling that most here think that Revolution and Revolution #9 are just some stupid rock songs about nothing or someone's personal opinions! ... specially one person that paid for it with bullets!