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BOOK REVIEW | "THE WALRUS & THE ELEPHANTS: JOHN LENNON'S YEARS OF REVOLUTION" BY JAMES A. MITCHELL1/27/2020 
photo by nacrowe
JAMES A. MITCHELL's book THE WALRUS & THE ELEPHANTS (SEVEN STORIES PRESS, 2013) highlights JOHN LENNON's foray into AMERICAN POLITICS after relocating to the UNITED STATES in the early 1970s. for him it was a transitional era that saw him reconsider his role as a musician and the responsibility that came with being a "spokesman" for a generation. i put that in quotes, because like BOB DYLAN, LENNON saw himself as an artist who communicated his own truths and never had aspirations to be anything but.
during this period he was keen to shed his BEATLES' image, which he considered of a bygone era in which he was bridled by handlers from showing too strong support for the counterculture movement his band helped inspire. he viewed his past work as platitudinal and sought to create work that was more immediate, almost journalistic in its specificity. his first foray was at a benefit concert in DETROIT for the incarcerated artist provocateur JOHN SINCLAIR (and onetime manager of the MC5) who was given ten years for holding two marijuana joints. he was released within the week of the show. this power to sway public opinion as well as his association with the YIPPIES, who put on the show, caught the federal authorities by surprise and thus began a tale of intimidation and abuse of power by J. EDGAR HOOVER (FBI), the INS and the NIXON administration that basically lasted for another half decade. the title of this book is a reference to both the REPUBLICAN officials that sought to curb his influence by denying his first amendment rights (originally at the suggestion of STROM THURMOND of all people) as well as the obscure, lower manhattan art-jazz-rock band ELEPHANT'S MEMORY that he took on as his collaborating backing band (a la THE BAND and BOB DYLAN). despite the fact that this period was a low point in terms of his artistic output, marital woes and residential status, it could be argued that this battle with the NIXON administration is a key part of his post-BEATLES legacy and one that endures him to this day. what struck me as interesting in this book were the lengths to which LENNON stuck out his neck during a volatile period in an adopted country. he knew the power of his voice and gave voice to the opposition with a nonviolent, peaceful message at great personal cost. almost needless on his end. he could have made records with ERIC CLAPTION and taken the safe road talking in platitudes. instead he attempted to push change. this is in direct opposition to ELVIS PRESLEY, who is mentioned in the book to have gone out of his way to act as a spy for NIXON among the counterculture, even stating the BEATLES by name in a letter as subversives. how lame is that? what a sad legacy for ELVIS. oh well. its tempting to think about what LENNON could have done now if he was still around. it feels like the BOOMERS are gonna be defined by TRUMP for eternity and sadly there is nobody of that era with the clout or media presence to cut through and drown out this sad ass face clown of a leader. imagine. it isn't hard to do.
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photo by nacrowe
check out this latest episode HERE of TOM's free-form live streaming NOWHERE FAST show on MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC where he explores SPACE MUSIC with return special guest JOE BARTONE!
remember that past episodes of THE NOWHERE FAST SHOW as well as other MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC shows like DEER GOD RADIO, MAKE HER SPACE, THE SYNTHESIZER SHOW and CLASSICAL-ISH WITH NUTMEG are available here at the DEER GOD website. and if you haven't done so already get the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
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check out HERE this recent streaming video episode of DEER GOD RADIO dedicated to the enigmatic, wide-ranging career of the singular musical talent of MIKE PATTON, easily one of my all-time favorite musicians for his work in FAITH NO MORE, MR. BUNGLE, TOMAHAWK, FANTOMAS, PEEPING TOM and his various other collaborations over the years. this playlist really only scratches the surface of his impact and legacy.
​past episodes of DEER GOD RADIO as well as other MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC shows like MAKE HER SPACE, NOWHERE FAST, THE SYNTHESIZER SHOW and CLASSICAL-ISH WITH NUTMEG are available here at the DEER GOD website. and if you haven't done so already get the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! 
photo manipulation by nacrowe
MARK LANEGAN is a national treasure. i feel bad comparing artists sometimes when they are both great, but for my tastes (as i explained in a recent DEER GOD RADIO episode dedicated to 4AD RECORDS) LANEGAN is the equal if not superior singer to his celebrated SEATTLE contemporary CHRIS CORNELL of SOUNDGARDEN.
first off, i love them both. in fact i have a whole DGR episode dedicated to SOUNDGARDEN. what separates them to me is the depth of feeling that LANEGAN seems to drive from. there is something primordial, immediate and just dark that comes off in his singing, like he is channeling some deep inner pain in the best tradition of BILLIE HOLIDAY. when i listen to CORNELL i admire his abilities as a lyricist foremost and his range second, but its like comparing ELLA FITZGERALD with BILLIE HOLIDAY. one has better range and diction and the other has the voice that is suffering incarnate. if you are unfamiliar with LANEGAN or his work in SCREAMING TREES, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE or his solo work and collaborative albums, i highly suggest you check the dude out. definitely worth the effort. 
photos by nacrowe
back in october 2014 i was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit RIO DE JANEIRO during a school break while i was teaching in VENEZUELA. seeing BRASIL was always a goal going back to my days growing in NIGERIA. right before i moved to AFRICA, american schoolmates of mine took VARIG AIRLINES through BRASIL (as opposed to LUFTHANSA through GERMANY) as their connection point to flying out to AFRICA. everyone that had been to SAO PAULO or RIO DE JANEIRO spoke of how similar it was to WEST AFRICA, so i was always curious moving forward.
my time in VENEZUELA found me arriving during the beginning of a historic financial collapse that saw their currency go from 1 USD/6 BOLIVARES to 1 USD/20 BOLIVARES in my first year. the second year i believe it went up to 80. this mean tickets flying in an out of VENEZUELA were cheap. roundtrip tickets to BRASIL costed somewhere around $300 if i remember correctly. just insane. i remember that because i took a 20-minute sightseeing helicopter ride in RIO DE JANEIRO (see bottom photo) that cost more than the flight there and back from CARACAS. again, just ridiculous. and beyond tragic for VENEZUELA. because of this, i ended up going with a colleague from school that was fluent in PORTUGUESE and had visited RIO DE JANEIRO the previous year. much like CARACAS, this was not a place i wanted to be found inadvertently wandering in the wrong neighborhood. 
upon arriving we went to the MARACANA, which is the world-famous football stadium where PELE once played. it is basically the MECCA of world football, period. we went on a tour and then learned a game was that afternoon, so we stayed to see FLAMINGO play their SAO PAULO rival. people in the UNITED STATES talk about fans going crazy, but they really have no clue. BRAZILIAN football fans are on another level. the game is just a prologue for whose fans can out passionate the other. drums blaring and people dancing was going on long before the game ever started. next to me stood a grandmother holding her infant granddaughter sawing to the beat. once the game was underway this passion turned to venom as i learned sooooo many PORTUGUESE swear words in a short order, all directed at the referees. "BOHA" was constantly being screamed by this grandmother as she muffled her newborn grandchild's ears. just insanity.
i could go on about all the touristy stuff i did there, but in essence my big takeaway from my time in RIO DE JANEIRO was how much of a microcosm that place is for much of what i saw in LATIN AMERICA in general. there is a real "live in the moment" feel to that place that is certainly palpable. violence always seemed to be around the corner, we even witnessed an armed assailant rob a bus two blocks ahead of us while walking in the financial district one day. we stayed in an air bnb located in-between both of the iconic beaches, but to our back was a notorious favela that had one street access point that was heavily monitored by BRAZILIAN TROOPS, complete with a tank. there was also a sense of people chasing physical beauty everywhere, which again carried a desperate "live in the moment" feel to it, not unlike what i witnessed in VENEZUELA, COLOMBIA or whole swathes of EASTERN EUROPE. it was intimidated yet sad at the same time to see that. and that was my take on BRASIL. impossibly beautiful with a kinetic, contagious energy that seems as much about nerves and fear of the future as it is about living life at a phrenetic, unyielding clip. if interested, more pictures from this trip are available to be viewed HERE. 
photo manipulation by nacrowe
i came across the works of COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY literature professor EDWARD SAID while still in high school, which made since given that he also attended NORTHFIELD MOUNT HERMON. he is primarily celebrated for his post-colonial book ORIENTALISM (PANTHEON, 1979) which discusses the ways in which the west misperceives and distorts their perceptions of near-eastern cultures based on various remnants of outdated colonial thinking.
i believe i read it as part of a history or comparative religions class my sophomore year, but what it did embed in me, much like the work of HOWARD ZINN which i read years later, was the idea that my perception of the world was based on narratives with agendas. within a year of being exposed to ORIENTALISM i was living in KUWAIT and unfortunately i was there on 9/11. my family lived in a PALESTINIAN enclave (most people don't know that KUWAIT has a large PALESTINIAN population, YASSER ARAFAT being one before returning to run the PLO) and on that fateful day people around me were celebrating. it twas my understanding of SAID that made me not go ballistic, especially at school the next day. the world is complicated and there are competing narratives, one of which was the UNICEF figure of 500,000 IRAQI children dead as a direct result of AMERICAN sanctions on SADAM HUSSEIN. i don't remember that being spoken about much in the aftermath of 9/11. i'm not promoting any conspiracy theories here, i am an AMERICAN who knew someone that passed on that terrible and was worried about the safety of my family, as we were physically in the MIDDLE EAST during that period. what i am saying is that just like in GESTALT PYSCHOLOGY and POST-STRUCTURALISM, the same event/sign can have different interpretations and both can be true. being abroad most of my life i was always searching for these native understandings and narratives, not that i agreed with them but i certainly made an effort to acknowledge and understand them. to me that is the legacy of SAID. 
photo manipulation by nacrowe
for me, SOFIA COPPOLA's acclaimed film LOST IN TRANSLATION (FOCUS FEATURES, 2003) is one of the few films that vividly evokes the displacement that occurs to one's psyche and sense of identity when being abroad. being a THIRD CULTURE KID growing up overseas i am acutely aware of that heightened sense of awareness, especially regarding mannerisms, patterns and thought processes given that happen when you are aware of your own foreignness to your immediate surroundings. it takes some getting used to and some people lose the plot along the way.
speaking of which, for me this film is much less about the plot as it is about that need for connection and sense of home when you are far from anything familiar. i've seen it play tricks on people, especially in PEACE CORPS were relationships happened out of seeming necessity, both partners connected by this unique experience with all the excitement and fear of their new predicament mirrored in a newfound affection. but once the situation normalized and became routine, these same people regretted these trysts as they were initiated during a moment of weakness and insecurity. in the film, the two main characters find each other despite outside considerations like marital status or age difference. being in TOKYO somehow alleviates them of their past identity. in my mind the film raises the question of the extent to which our individual identity is fluid and contextualized based on external cues. choices you would never make back home are presented anew in a foreign context. having been home for 2+ years now since living abroad for 8, i have the opposite problem. its beyond reverse culture shock at this point, my normal is being in an unfamiliar surrounding. maybe that is why i gravitate to this film. if you haven't seen it, definitely seek it out. 
cover by nacrowe
click HERE for the most recent episode of THE SYNTHESIZER SHOW on MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC where hosts Vince and Reed talk via the magic of the internet an ocean apart from each other and celebrate Vince's recent news that he has been inducted into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME.
as always, you can access all past episodes of THE SYNTHESIZER SHOW via the DEER GOD website as well as those of MAKE HER SPACE, NOWHERE FAST, DEER GOD RADIO and CLASSICAL-ISH WITH NUTMEG. ​and if you haven't done so already get the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! ​ 
much like his other release ACCESS ALL AREAS: STORIES FROM A HARD ROCK LIFE (DA CAPO PRESS, 2017), which i covered in a previous review, legendary THRASH METAL guitarist SCOTT IAN of ANTHRAX is a more than capable narrator of his own life story in his debut book I'M THE MAN: THE STORY OF THAT GUY FROM ANTHRAX (DA CAPO PRESS, 2014), which sees him overcome a troubled childhood with a neurotic mother, two failed marriages and surviving the music industry over 30 years with his mind and band intact.
it may be due to his long-term sobriety (minus a few PANTERA and OZZY tours) that the detail of his recollections seem to be precise and noteworthy. i made the point before in the other review that his writing style is very utilitarian, much like his guitar playing and this is holds true with this book as well. he tends not to embellish and hold himself to account for past misjudgments and moral lapses, which only further gains his voice credence in the reader's mind. of interest to me with this book, which is very much a traditional chronological affair (unlike ACCESS ALL AREAS which is more a series of interesting stories), is the beginnings of THRASH METAL and MEGAFORCE RECORDS. specifically the stories IAN chooses to tell about his friend and legendary bassist/composer CLIFF BURTON (R.I.P.) and the formative years of METALLICA and ANTRAX. sharing the same indie label and manager provided him a front row seat to their early development which is compelling in historical terms. you really get a sense of the brotherhood of that early scene that carried on throughout their entire career, most famously in the BIG 4 concerts that happened this past decade. i have to say that i also enjoyed his humor. too many times METAL bands take themselves and their image way too seriously (i'm looking right at you SLAYER) and even though ANTHRAX come off juvenile and goofy from time to time, in the end they come across as themselves: a bunch of METAL dudes from NYC. and i can't fault them for that. if you're interested in THRASH METAL, this book is worth your time and is a painless read, which is not always the case (cough, cough COREY TAYLOR). 
parodies by nacrowe
tonight starting at 8PM on MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC there will be a double-bill of two separate DEER GOD RADIO episodes showcasing both the virtuosic, psychedelic bliss that is 1970s PROG ROCK and the lyricism, grit and legacy of SHAOLIN NYC HIP HOP legends WU-TANG CLAN. past episodes of DEER GOD RADIO as well as other MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC shows like MAKE HER SPACE, NOWHERE FAST, THE SYNTHESIZER SHOW and CLASSICAL-ISH WITH NUTMEG are available here at the DEER GOD website. and if you haven't done so already get the FREE PHONE APP for IOS/ANDROID and enjoy listening to MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC 24/7 at your convenience! PROG ROCK
WU-TANG CLAN
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