Don H. who attended Washington University in St. Louis saw this flyer at school. He showed Mark S. and me and we figured we better attend in case all the drugs and drinking didn’t destroy our mind the music we listened to might.
Gumbys have hurt brain
We liked Beethoven and we liked the Sex Pistols could that fact make us immune from this destruction of our brain or could you not mix them? The club had a very scientific name, The Fusion Club. They must be authorities on understanding how musical note sequences and rhythmic modes could either make you smarter or turn you into a Gumby.
Off we went for the enlightenment that can only be found in our city’s finest learning institution.
The room was full of young and well dressed people. Immediately we knew we must be in the presence of our betters. We took a seat in the classroom setup for the discussion eagerly awaiting the passing of wisdom on how musical taste can be a detriment to cognitive functions. While waiting for this to begin I was wondering how the Circle of Fifths in musical theory would react differently when executed by a symphony orchestra or by a Les Paul going through a Marshall Amp.
The lecture started and to our surprise they did not talk about music composition and how the correct style of music would increase neural activity. Instead they launched into conspiracy theory on how the British Royal Family were controlling all of society with the assistance of MI5 and MI6. How all of World War II was put together as some experiment to plum the depth of human depravity all for the laughter and enjoyment of these Royals. At hearing this I had to question, why weren’t these people on-board with the Sex Pistols as they had called them out in the recent UK best seller God Save the Queen, which was so very anti-Royal ?
Funny story, when I was looking for the link for the video above to embed into the post and found it to preview… it started with a commercial for Rural King stores. I guess Google really does know how to target ads… Yes? No? ha ha
T Bone
They really went on and on in this conspiratorial theory to the point that Qannon-ers would be envious. Turns out this really didn’t have anything to do with music but was part of a movement to bring attention to the Deep State ruining Lydon LaRouche and his plan for Fusion Energy.
I know what you’re thinking isn’t crazy shit like this part of our current times? (2022)Doesn’t this need Facebook and Twitter to get going? Well, since my friends and myself were the only outsiders in attendance I would have to say that yes, social media surely help procure an audience far better than flyers posted around campus. I also wondered if our friend Don who attended the university we were at was not well connected to the other students who might have clued him in on avoiding this.
If you’re old enough you might be somewhat familiar with the name LaRouche. He was able to field some candidates in the Chicago Democratic primaries and they were able to win based on their names being WASPy unlike their opponents on the ballot that were more ethnic sounding. See young ones politics and people were always stupid, not just now days.
This had the effect of derailing the governor’s race because it would have required the Democratic Governor to run with the LaRouche candidate. One good thing about the old days the party did what they could to insure that these loons would not be elected unlike in more modern times when an even more crazy reality star and grifter gets nominated and his party goes as far as fostering insurrection against the constitution to insure he stays in power.
As the lectured ended and it was time for Q&A we demanded to know about the brain destroying properties of the music we listened to. It appears as though this was some kind of trick to draw an audience. Well done. They got three people who showed up for the sole purposes of heckling and making fun of them which we proceeded to do as they tried to convince us of righteousness of their cause.
They really did work hard on persuading us. I recall it being similar to youths in religious groups when I was growing up. I must admit that I got sucked into a religious cult temporarily as a teenager. They were called Southern Baptist. They caused me to leave the one true religion Catholicism of which I was not really practicing at the time. This detour was short lived thank goodness because I’d have a hard time squaring away being a Southern Baptist in the age of evangelical Trump devotion.
Needless to say had either the LaRouche’ies or Baptists held sway over me, you the reader, would not have all these fun stories of my youthful misadventures having forsaken rock and roll.
But…
As Danny put it so succinctly, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay