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Music and the JFK Assassination


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Incredible photo of Lansdale and Ollie. I need a copy of that photo you posted earlier this week with the tents and nine or ten gentlemen in it. I can't remember or find which thead it's on. I'm kicking myself that I didn't save it at the time. Please. (Tim Carroll)

Tim,

If we are talking about the same image, it is about halfway down this page.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...opic=1925&st=45

I know we have had some email troubles in the past, but can you resend your email address? If you have any specific photo requests then we won't have to take up any of John's bandwidth.

James

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"Jackie's Strength" by Tori Amos references it, as well as "Jackie O" by Strung Out, "The Motorcade Sped On" by Steinski & Mass Media contains several original news clips. "Jackie O" by The McCarthys references JFK's assassination.

"Bobby Kennedy" by Black 47 references the JFK & RFK assassinations.

Marilyn Manson's albums seem to reference the Kennedys quite often, as well - in the most bizzarre ways. "She's got eyes like Zapruder" was one lyric, I think.

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Hi John,

In Billy Joel's 'We didn't start the fire' there are references to JFK, Roy Cohn and the U2:

 

We Didn’t Start The Fire

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen

Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev

Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron

Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team

Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev

Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac

Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball

Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia

Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy

Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land

Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania

Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex

J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again

Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline

Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide

Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law

Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

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The Stones were recording Beggars Banquet in LA when Bobby was assassinated, the line in “Sympathy for the Devil” originally was “I shouted out who killed John Kennedy” but they changed due to what happened in the Ambassador hotel.

There is the Misfits song “Bullet” http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/misfits/94118.html whose lyrics would probably offend many members of this forum and “November 22, 1963” by the Detroit band Destroy All Monsters (not to be confused with other bands with the same name, this is the one Ron Ashton of the Stooges was in).

Someone compiled a list of songs about JFK http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/getcon...?strMixID=89943

Hasil Adkins, the one man band Rockabilly legend, wrote and recorded a song about Kennedy which he played for me when I visited him. I don’t know if it was ever released. I’ll take a look at the video I shot and give you more info, just can’t say when. http://www.roctober.com/roctober/hasiladkins.html

Also there was a musical called “Assassins”, I think LHO and Sirhan were characters.

You could try searching the “All Music Guide” http://www.allmusic.com/ and similar databases or better yet the various lyrics sites out there on the Net.

Len

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I have been accused of having un-conventional tastes in music, which is kind of a badge of honor with me, although they don't mention the Kennedy Assassination by name, there are two songs that are very noteworthy, and are very esoteric musically, as these Brits are very good. One, someone on the Forum will surely recognize, is 'Family Snapshot' by Peter Gabriel.

The other is equally eclectic and is by Godley & Creme (Lol Creme and Kevin Godley) entitled 'Lonnie.'

Both songs are reproduced here.

Family Snapshot - Peter Gabriel

The streets are lined with camera crews

Everywhere he goes is news

Today is different

Today is not the same

Today I make the action

Take snapshot into the light, snapshot into the light

I'm shooting into the light

Four miles down the cavalcade moves on

Driving into the sun

If I worked it out right

They won't see me or the gun

Two miles to go, they're clearing the road

The cheering has really begun

I've got my radio

I can hear what's going on

I've been waiting for this

I have been waiting for this

All you people in TV land

I will wake up your empty shells

Peak-time viewing blown in a flash

As I burn into your memory cells

'Cos I'm alive

They're coming 'round the corner with the bikers at the front

I'm wiping the sweat from my eyes

-It's a matter of time

-It's a matter of will

And the governor's car is not far behind

He's not the one I've got in mind

'Cos there he is-the man of the hour, standing in the limousine

"I don't really hate you

-I don't care what you do

We were made for each other

-Me and you

I want to be somebody

-You were like that too

If you don't get given you learn to take

And I will take you."

Holding my breath

Release the catch

And I let the bullet fly

All turned quiet-I have been here before

Lonely boy hiding behind the front door

Friends have all gone home

There's my toy gun on the floor

Come back Mum and Dad

You're growing apart

You know that I'm growing up sad

I need some attention

I shoot into the light

Lonnie - Godley and Creme

Lonnie Garamond was disturbed by the face

that looked back at him from the bathroom mirror

He looked older than he remembered

it was as if all forty-two years of his life

had suddenly leap frogged over each other

and crash landed in his face

He was middle-aged and the truth hit him

like a man with no parachute

the eyes were golfballs

the skin hung on his face like a cheap suit

and the trapdoor of greasy black frizz

that he combed from one side of his head to the other

to hide his baldness

in reality emphasized it

It was 2:30 in the morning Nov. 22nd 1963

and Lonnie couldn't sleep

Lonnie took a last look at the face

and popped another sleeping tablet

under his sandpaper tongue

and slipped into a cold, dark sleep

The last thing Lonnie saw

before his eyes finally closed

was his camera watching him

from the other side of the Motel room

but the camera wasn't loaded yet

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

and he really hated being that

Lonnie's body clock woke him at 8:30 sharp

He stabbed a button by his bed

and the TV crackled into life

showing the crowds already gathering

in Dealy Plaza

He showered, shaved, and slipped into an Ivy League jacket

and brown slacks and loaded the camera

The Stetson put the icing on the southern cake

and he headed for the parking lot

leaving the key behind in his room

he knew he wouldn't be coming back

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

and he really hated being that

Lonnie parked the Buick and ran down Pacific St.

It was 12.15 and he wanted to be outside

the Texas School Book Depository

before the motorcade came down Elm St.

12.20

He elbowed his way through a group of good ol' boys

and stood next to a kid in a wheelchair

waving a Confederate flag

12.25

He took off the lens cap

and lit his first cigarette for two years

He checked the focus one last time

and blew a smoke ring

into the blue Dallas heat haze

12.30

He ground the Lucky Strike under the heel of his boot

and calmly squeezed off three shots

Lonnie put the camera back into its case

and melted into the panic

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

Lonnie Garamond was a loser

and he really hated being that

PS If you think the lyrics are good to these songs, the instrumentation in my opinion sets a ethereal mood as well. Also Peter Gabriel also wrote the song 'Biko' about political activist Stephen Biko who died shortly after the Soweto Riots during the era of South African apartheid.

September '77

Port Elizabeth weather fine

It was business as usual

In police room 619

Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko

Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko

Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja

-The man is dead

When I try to sleep at night

I can only dream in red

The outside world is black and white

With only one colour dead

Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko

Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko

Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja

-The man is dead

You can blow out a candle

But you can't blow out a fire

Once the flames begin to catch

The wind will blow it higher

Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko

Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja

-The man is dead

And the eyes of the world are

watching now

watching now

End

Final Thought

Now the eyes of the world are watching America.....

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"Early morning April 4th

Shots ring out in the Memphis sky

Free at last they took your life

But they could not take your pride

In the name of love

What more in the name of love?"

U-2

Dawn

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"Early morning April 4th

Shots ring out in the Memphis sky

Free at last they took your life

But they could not take your pride

In the name of love

What more in the name of love?"

U-2

Dawn

Only one verse and Bono couldn't get his facts straight. MLK was shot in the late afternoon/early evening at 6:01 PM.

Edited by Pat Speer
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Guest Stephen Turner

Strange to say Guns and Roses check the assassination in the song , Civil War.

" And in my first memories THEY Shot Kennedy."

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I Recall an excellent song by a band called Tim Buc 3 from Austin Texas around 1990. It was called Waves of Grain, and it was very well written.

Nat, I totally agree, great song and great lyrics. For those who haven't heart it.

Waves of Grain by Timbuk3

It was a nice clean assassination

The gunman slipped through immigration

Like the gentle wind that swept the plain

And ruffled over waves of grain

Sailing safely out of sight

On board the next connecting flight

The gunman smiled, he felt no pain

So high above the waves of grain

Then someone snatched the video-8

From the hands of a tourist at the gate

And soon a blast on board the plane

Sent it crashing into the waves of grain

The blown up stills told the story

Large as life in all its glory

A man's face in the 29th frame

Appeared within the waves of grain

Now the pictures have been confiscated

The tourist was incarcerated

The drugs they gave him numbed his brain

Now all he sees are waves of grain

Now rummaging through the ravaged rubble

I wonder is it worth the trouble?

Does the slightest trace of truth remain

Running through the waves of grain...

Edited by George Bollschweiler
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My favourites would be sympathy for the devil and the day the music died, also, I wonder if the mamas and the papas song about a clock that always says 12.30 might do too?

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My favourites would be sympathy for the devil and the day the music died, also, I wonder if the mamas and the papas song about a clock that always says 12.30 might do too?

"The Day the Music Died" was about bthe plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the "Big Bopper^ and had nothing to do with the assassination nor does "Waves of Grain"

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Guest John Gillespie
Good one, Len.

Lansdale below (2nd from left) with that thug Oliver North far right (literally). B)

James

Coy Dept: Who is North purporting to be in the pic - Mr. Carlito, William P. Goode or John Cathey??

Edited by John Gillespie
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