The John Lennon Wall!
One of the classes I'm taking, which I dont have enough is Alternative Lifestyles and Culture taught by Pavla Jonssonova. She is this ex underground punk rock singergoddess nymph! . She is beautfiful, spiritual, free, into alchemy (wtf) and my new role model. She ruled the 80s and now she teaches, sings writes poetry, writes articles on cultural analysis of anything so called alternative. She was on the panel at Forum 2000 for gender and peacekeeping, sitting with dignataries and ambassadors from South Africa, Sri Lanka, etc. The reason for this description is simple, I like to write about her. Pavla knows individuals from this amazing band from back in the day and many of our assignments are related to this Musical Era. So the 1980s in czechoslovakia is said to mirror the US in the 60s, all new bands were emerging, things were stirring, bands were passionate, things truly were underground in the Iron Curtain. One of these new bands are the PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE. They started up in the 1960s, this hippie band did covers of the Rolling Stones and the Doors and then started their own stuff. They are electro jazzy funk love, Frank Zappa and the VelvetUnderground esque as well. One of our assigments for class was to go see them at a concert.( We came late and missed them!) So they started to become big, but were constantly harrassed by the Communist Regime. The concerts we disbanded, records confiscated and burnt! Its crazy, imagine you are going to see your favorite band play with some friends and them the fuckin Popo tell you that you can't because this artist is promoting disruption of the Socialist homeland! What the fuck man! So these Plastic People decided to create a commune in the woods and their woodcutting products would finance their musical equipment. They played weddings of friends since that was the only instance where state involvement was minimum also the wedding would be used a guise for them to rock out. The secret police had found out about this through an informer so they arrested the band when they played a giant Festival/Wedding party in 1976. Intellectual dissidents protested against they arrests and the prison sentences that followed,this is when the band became politicized. After an average 1 year sentence, the group was not able to perform in public again. The state run media depicted them as deranged alcoholic untalented beatniks. By 1989 they could play for the president Vaclav Havel who led the Velvet Revolution and they played Irving Plaza in 1998! Here are some lyrics from Egon Bondy, the singer
Twenty
At the age of twenty today
you feel like vomiting all day
But those that are forty of age
have even more to spew at that stage
Only those that reach sixty, senility at hand
can go off peacefully to slumber land
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Toxic Chemicals ( Toxika)
I am the victim of an addiction
a mania for all things toxical
it could be an affliction
but instead its rather comical
I drink beer, I pop pills
still I hardly sleep at night
come morn I'll sell the empties to get some bills
Julie will help me with my plight
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Early Bird ( Ranni ptace)
The Early Bird
gets the worms.
I will kick it
till it squirms
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My Country
Just like a kiss from a queer
my country gets up my rear
it chews me over in its gums
as I walk around feeling dire
in the public baths with no attire
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One hundred points ( 100 bodi) my abridged version
They fear painters and singers
They fear the free flow of information
They fear to let people out
They fear to let people in
They fear the left
They fear the rights
They fear the agreements they signed
They fear tommorow morning
They fear today and everyday
They fear the future
They fear the past
They fear what they said
They fear what they wrote
They fear jokes
They fear the talented
They fear Marx
They fear Lenin
They fear the truth
They fear freedom
They fear democracy
They fear Human Rights Accords
They fear socialism
So why do we fear them?
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