This of this post as one that was left to ripen…. I have not finished it… I have areas to fill out and I dont believe the final question is fleshed out. I’ll get there someday… Maybe!?!?!
I was working on my new Iphone… Creating a new Beer Report… And parsing some video together tonight when I stumbled across this audio track on my PC. See the video link below to hear Jello predict the future.
Background on what Jello means to me.
I read the review for Frankenchrist in Rolling Stone eons ago and decided that I must have this album. It was not at Walton’s. It was not at Musicland or Disc Jockey. This adventure to find the album probably got me a taste of my first indie music store. I am pretty sure I found it at Appletree Records in uptown Normal IL. This was a very cool record shop that had EVERYTHING in music that you could want.
Upon popping this tape into the mighty Pioneer sound system of the Volare… I was enthralled. Surfer punk rock that spewed political and social commentary for nearly an hour. I had never heard anything like it. It was best served at max volume and even better when blazing a trail down Route 66 or 24. “Chicken Farm” became an anthem and we (I say we because a surprising amount of my friends tolerated or enjoyed this album) blared it driving around Fairbury.
Later in college, I was very lucky to see Jello at his finest when he did a spoken word tour stop at ISU. It was the “I Blow Minds for a Living” tour. To the casual Midwesterner… It was blasphemy at all levels . Everything he said would have made him a heretic back in Fairbury. I felt like I was watching the most subversive man in the United States and I was a very willing blank sheet of paper for him to leave an impression on.
Over the years since then, I have grown, Jello has grown… And we both lost a lot of hair. I have not always agreed with his views, but I respect the punk roots. I guess the area where I lost his vision was in the division of the parties. His hate Clinton was lost on me because I kind of lost track of him. (The below track is a great example of his disdain for all leaders) When I picked back up on what he was saying in later recordings, we had moved on to the Bush II era. His ripping on the Republicans seemed one sided to me and I thought he was a bit of a shill for the democrats. Wrong.
The more I tune in now… I think he has gone full blown green party socialist. His agenda is far more out on the edge than any major political party can accommodate. It should be interesting to see if his thoughts today will be as forward thinking in the future as the below clip was to today.
At one point in this 20 minute clip he says that elections will be more like WWF Wrestling matches. How could he have known???
Dan and I should talk about Jello on a podcast after watching and listening to some old and new material to see how it stands up.