Off The Shelf: The U.S. Versus John Lennon

John Lennon's anti-war community building activities make him an "enemy of the state" from 1968-1975.

David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, two directors who've made their careers by presenting the lives of entertainers like Elvis, Bette Midler, Sinatra and the Beach Boys, made a definitive documentary on the former Beatle that premiered at the Toronto Film Fest in 2006. This A+ documentary features interviews with those closest to Lennon and exhaustive research including reviewing John Lennon's F.B.I. file prepared by J. Edgar Hoover and sent to the Office Of The President Of The United States Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixson during the height of the Viet Nam War.

The U.S. vs John Lennon searches Lennon's sphere of influence by interviewing a startling amount of legendary and historical figures, lawyers, musicians and activists. This list features: Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, anchorman Walter Cronkite, John Lennon's immigration lawyer Leon Wildes, reporter Geraldo Rivera, Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy, excerpts from benefit concerts with activists Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman, with surprisingly warm-hearted narration from Yoko Ono and many more.

This out-standing documentary takes the many political struggles that Lennon chose to fight and follows the Nixon administration's covert efforts to silence the anti-war community that he and his followers had helped create and foster into political reality (26th Amendment, Freeing John Sinclair). Leaf and Scheinfeld present the whole of Lennon's trumped up deportation battle based on a marijuana conviction in England during his time as a Beatle.

Bob Dylan's letter sent during in 1972 to The U.S. Immigration And Naturalization Service stated: "John and Yoko add a great voice and drive to the country’s so-called art institution. They inspire and transcend and stimulate and by doing so, only help others to see pure light and in doing that, put an end to this dull taste of petty commercialism which is being passed off as Artist Art by the overpowering mass media. Hurray for John and Yoko. Let them stay and live here and breathe. The country’s got plenty of room and space."

After three years of hearings, Lennon won his American citizenship by saying "Time wounds all heels". The documentary ends with his assassination in front of his building, The Dakota, at One West 72nd Street in New York City on December 10th of 1980.

References:

• Wikipedia, The U.S. vs. John Lennon
• Wikipedia, Lennon Deportation Attempt
• IMDB, The U.S. vs John Lennon (2006)
• IMDB, David Leaf
• Lennon FBI Files, Bob Dylan's Letter
• Slide Share, Appeal Of Conviction November 1968

Deep Cuts: Irish Folk

Dervish formed in 1989 in Sligo in north western Ireland. In 1991, the band was joined by the incredibly lovely singer Cathy Jordan and All-Ireland champion fiddle player Shane McAleer. Since then, the group has taken traditional Irish music and breathed into it an unbelievably, fiery fury into their compositions.

Dervish, due to their unprecedented critical and popular success, intense performance style, and thorough understanding of the musical and social elements of traditional Irish music have performed for two Irish presidents and travelled through out Europe in concert halls, biergartens and taverns.

Dervish - The Kilavill Set

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References:

• Compass Records, Dervish
• Wikipedia, Dead Man's Run #0

Under Review: Ministry

Al Jourgensen, captured in the midst of a quick brood-break.

For many, Al Jourgensen and his seminal band Ministry, represented the best of what industrial music could be. Ministry was raw with Jesus Built My Hotrod, referential in using over-the-top Ed Wood dialogue lifted from The Violent Years (1956) for So What?! and incendiary with clear-eyed tirades against the neo-fascist leanings of both Bush administrations in Rio Grand Blood and New World Order.

A Mind is A Terrible Thing To Taste, released in 1989, was probably the most unlikely album ever to be certified a "Gold" album. The tracks were ugly, pulsing, guitar-driven echoes from a subterranean vault.

Tracks like Thieves featured cuts from Full Metal Jacket interspersed with The War At Home - an anti-war documentary set in Viet Nam era Wisconsin. The track questions the value of human life when it is arbitrarily ordered to kill or not to kill. This question is set against a backdrop of earth-shaking drums and sonically charged guitars.

In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up, released in 1990, showcased the lurching, electrifying performances of Ministry's best music from the bands 10 years of experimentation.

The documentary and album featured Deity, Stigmata, So What?!, Thieves and Burning Inside from the Land of Rape and Honey (released in 1988) and the best cuts from A Mind is A Terrible Thing To Taste. The documentary also featured Jello Biafra with whom Jourgensen collaborated with in the infamous art-punk band Lard.

Psalm 69 was released in 1992 and was Ministry's last great album. This album seemed to be about decayed structures, one piled onto the next, and contains the inspired collaboration with Gibby Haynes (of Texas psycho-billy band the Butthole Surfers) in Jesus Built My Hotrod. This track made Ministry an MTV staple. The album also contained the grinding, nihilist TVII questioning the value of broadcasted "facts" in mass media. The title track, Psalm 69, targeted the blinding effects found in religiously compelled zealots and the near sexual ecstasy of witch burnings.


The "C U LaTouR" Tour, Ministry's final world tour in July of 2008.

Ministry, in their three decades of albums and tours, confronted the contemptible effects of fanatical religion, claustrophobic urban society and the modern jingoistic bent in media on the human spirit in a way that their contemporaries could not approach. Jourgensen re-purposed this propaganda and re-directed it back at it's creators. The efforts of his contemporaries: Front 242, Godflesh, and Skinny Puppy seemed monotonous and lacking in coherent subject matter in comparison.

On July 18th, 2008, after 27 years, Ministry officially called it quits. But, in 2009, just to confound people that keep track of things like release dates: they released a double CD and a DVD called Adios...Puta Madres with a bonus documentary called Fuchi Requiem shot in part in Jougrensen's adopted hometown of El Paso, Texas.

References:

• The Official Ministry Web Site
  
• Wikipedia, Ministry
  
• Prongs.org, Ministry Discography
  
• Slicing Up Eyeballs, Al Jourgensen Speaks