I'm a little bit later than usual with this month's
editorial but that's just how it goes sometimes. I'm going to start
by once again thanking everyone who has downloaded our latest compilation so far, and give double thanks to those who have donated
some money for it. If you have already downloaded it please recommend
it to your friends. If you haven't got round to downloading it yet
(and if you haven't where have you been so far?) and can just spare a
£1 donation, it will all go towards kicking blood cancer's ass! If
you can't donate, that's fine too, but please do make sure you check
out more from the awesome band's that made this possible!
So
what am I going to rabbit on about this month? Well this month I'd
like to talk about Bill Hicks, as it is close to the anniversary of his untimely passing...
On the 26th of February 1994, aged just 32 years
old, William Melvin Hicks died from Pancreatic cancer. Bill Hicks, as
he was commonly known, was a stand-up comedian whose satirical,
visceral and philosophical humour generated controversy and acclaim
in equal measures. But Hicks was much more than a simple comedian. He
was a musician, a philosopher, a satirist, and to some, a prophet.
Hicks never resorted to “Blue” humour, even his infamous
“Goatboy” routine was based on a very real tradition of Greek
myths about the half-goat God Pan. Instead he presented the world as
he saw it to his audience complete with all of its hypocrisy, hate,
apathy and mediocrity, and tried to show the world for what it really
was… Just a ride.
Hicks was born to a typical Southern Baptist
family in Georgia USA, and lived in different states within the
American “Bible Belt” in his formative years. As a young teen he
discovered the comedy of Woody Allen and Richard Pryor and began to
perform routines with friends, first at school and then at local
clubs. As Hick’s style began to evolve he would often be compared
to the likes of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin for his offbeat
tangents and politically charged rants. But there was always more
that could be done. Hicks would experiment with drugs and alcohol,
and chain smoke on stage. This gave his work a fevered energy akin to
a punk rock show. Hicks style was intimate and confrontational. He
would viciously shout-down hecklers and never sugar-coated a single
thought. But as Hicks’ personal philosophy sharpened, so did the
messages in his act. After he gave up doing drugs, he would take an
unpopular pro-drug stance because, unlike a lot of people with an
anti-drug stance, he had experienced first hand the beneficial
effects of drugs like LSD Marijuana and Magic Mushrooms, as well as
the bad effects. One of his most famous riffs was on the lack of
these positive effects in news reports which only ever focus
on morons that throw themselves off buildings while on acid.
“Today, a young man on acid realized
that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration —
that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There is no such thing as death; life is only a dream, and we are the
imagination of ourselves... Here's Tom with the weather!” - Bill
Hicks, ‘Revelations’ (1993)
Consumerism, society, religion, politics,
philosophy, popular culture and (perhaps most importantly) Bill Hicks
were all subjects ruthlessly deconstructed in front of his live
audiences. A relentless pursuit of “The Truth” featured
throughout his material which often meant cutting through the
pre-conceived notions of his audience in order to lead them, not to
his point of view, but to their own. In an episode of the BBC series
‘A Question Of Taste’, in response to the line of questioning
regarding his act, Hicks repeated a comment he once heard from an
audience member who stated “We don't come to comedy to think!”,
to which he retorted “Gee! Where do you go to think? I'll meet you
there!”. He questioned the alleged guilt of Lee Harvey Oswald in
the JFK assassination as well as David Koresh in the conclusion of
the Waco siege and other conspiracy theories to make the point that
the “truth” that the media presents is just one version and that
it isn’t, by any stretch, gospel.
In the seventeen years since Bill Hicks death
little has changed. Though there are many comedians around today who
are inspired by, and pay tribute to Hicks, few take the bold and
lonely stance he once did. In the age of surveillance, instant
information, the war against terrorism and international fraud
dressed up as capitalism a man like Bill Hicks is perhaps needed more
than ever. Even senior Labour Party MP Stephen Pound paid tribute to
Hicks on the tenth anniversary of his death in the following early
day amendment.
“That this House notes with sadness the
10th anniversary of the death of Bill Hicks, on 26th February 1994,
at the age of 33; recalls his assertion that his words would be a
bullet in the heart of consumerism, capitalism and the American
Dream; and mourns the passing of one of the few people who may be
mentioned as being worth [sic] of inclusion with Lenny Bruce in any
list of unflinching and painfully honest political philosophers.” -
Stephen Pound, MP: ‘Anniversary of the Death of Bill Hicks’ (EDM
678 of the 2003-04 session)’
It is easy to think that we lost Bill Hicks too
soon and wonder at what might have been if he’d lived to see the
Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, George W. Bush, 9/11, The Second Gulf War,
and the elections of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But he did leave
us with words to help us look for our own truth in the world. Perhaps
Hicks’ most resonating pearls of wisdom came at the end of his 1992
show ‘Revelations’, that was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK,
the words of which sums up the truth of life as he saw it.
“The world is like a ride in an
amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real
because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and
down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very
brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while.
Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to
wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other
people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey,
don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever. Because this is just a ride.”
And we…kill those people. “Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested
in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my
big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.” It’s just
a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that,
you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok? But it doesn’t
matter, because it’s just a ride. And we can change it any time we
want. It’s only a choice. No effort, not work, no job, no savings
of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The
eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns,
close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.
Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better
ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defence each year
and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of
the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human
being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and
outer, forever, in peace.”
In other news, we're on
the hunt for a few new regular contributors to add to our staff. If
you're interested in doing some reviews or even just a monthly
column, please contact us at intravenousmagazine@gmail.com and
we'll take it from there. What kind of person are we looking for?
Well we're after people who are motivated, committed and eager to
take the time to build up a list of PR and label contacts.
For
more information on writing for IVM please visit HERE.
Finally
in other news, I'd like to again extend the invitation to established
scene DJs, artists, and bands to contribute guest DJ mixes that we
will host on Mixcloud. What we're thinking is a series of
hour-long mixes showing off new and classic acts which we will
feature on Mixcloud as well as the Intravenous Magazine website. If
anyone is interested, please contact us at the above email
address.
Also I'm thinking of a redesign of our logo to
coincide with the artwork for the next compilation in a few months
time... watch this space.
And as
always make sure you have these links in your favourites:
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