October 2, 2008

The Gonzo Tapes

I just learned from, We Buy Balloons, that on October 28th, the world will be made privy to Hunter S. Thompson’s private gibberish, ranting, and mad genius. I have already pre-ordered my copy of The Gonzo Tapes, and I suggest you do the same. I can barely contain my excitement. Here is the blurb from Amazon:
Recorded by Hunter S. Thompson between 1965 and 1975, these tapes capture his thoughts and descriptions both as they're happening and in reflection, as he would often go back to rerecord commentary while writing. Filmmaker Alex Gibney, producer Eva Orner and Gonzo archivist Don Fleming were given permission by Thompson's widow to explore the boxes of tapes stored in the basement of his Owl Farm home in Woody Creek, Colorado, left behind after Thompson's suicide in 2005. Fleming transferred the audiocassettes and reel-to-reel tapes to digital files, and they made their way to the cutting room for the film Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Now for the first time these previously unreleased recordings are available in a 5-CD set. The Gonzo Tapes features original cover artwork by Gonzo artist Ralph Steadman, an amazing 44-page booklet full of never-before-seen images from Hunter S. Thompson's estate, along with memorable photos and an introduction by film director Alex Gibney, an essay by journalist and Thompson's fellow foreign correspondent Loren Jenkins, and notes by The Gonzo Tapes producer Don Fleming.
Before I go on please take a look at this to set the mood:


San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . .

You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.


And now forty years later, the watermark has all but completely disappeared, barley leaving even a hint that any moisture had been there at all. The forces of Old and Evil have made the subsequent generations unable to feel any sense of victory or community. They have erased every trace of victory that Hunter and the rest of the revolutionaries fought so hard to create. Raised on fast food, commercials, and situational comedies pimping farcical realities, we are a regressive generation. We exist as if the sixties never happened.

The madness has been erased from our lives, replaced by strip malls, subdivisions, and a robotic sense of conformity to the status quo that would make fascists proud. Splintered generations, cracking at the seams, we are political eunuchs, creatively numbed by commerce and a farcical advertised democracy. It what other time, but this deadened age, could a nation commit to endless war, while simultaneously looting the treasury, and the people… shop on, sleep walking, pushing our faces further into the trough.

Hunter speaks of lighting sparks anywhere and a sense of what they were doing being right, but now the planet is literally melting, resource wars loom in our immediate future, and there is no sense of doing what is right. There is no sense of doing anything. Where is our magical place, when is our time, where we can gather and act and spark the fires?

Where has our gonzo spirit gone? Where has my Gonzo spirit gone? I have read everything Hunter S. Thompson has ever written. If I were to name one hero/role model in my life, Hunter’s name would top the list.

Hunter’s antics and words have guided me on the path I have taken since the fateful day in high school, when I read the opening line of Fear and Loathing. There was a time in my life when I prided myself on my drug and alcohol consumption, and so, Hunter was an obvious role model to emulate, but now older and wiser, I still consider Thompson a father figure. As a high school student, it was Hunter’s sheer bravado that I found appealing, but now I don’t need to know the amount of drugs he consumed, or what an ass he made of himself, I need to be reminded of his faith in the energy that pushed the wave mentioned above, so that maybe we could recreate a movement that will give us hope against the forces of Old and Evil. A faith in our ability to ride a wave of possibilities is what I need from Gonzo today.

In my twenties, I chased Hunter like some rabid fan, trying to feed off his energy. I tattooed his logo on my chest as a reminder of the ideals he stood for. I swore at twenty-four that I would never allow myself to forget what Gonzo means to me.

At thirty-four, sober, with a toddler working in some god forsaken desert for some corporate oil goons. This has got to be the end of the Gonzo line, where to next? What could the symbol possibly mean at this point?

Honestly, I am not sure. This is what scares me and makes this post and these tapes so important. I could type some gibberish about staying true to my beliefs, or maybe about not giving up, but I think this disillusionment about our current time is why I am so excited about these tapes. I don’t plan on ever throwing myself back into the alcoholic whirlpool that nearly drown me, but I do want to lose myself in Hunter’s words, because more than his immature and absurd behavior it has always been his words that have saved me. I need them in any form.

I will keep you posted, when the tapes arrive in a few weeks.

5 comments:

  1. i hate to be the one to break the news to ya- but it's the folks who were the revolutionaries who raised their kids on fast food and they are the generation that dumbed everything down. perhaps hunter wasn't one of them- but we are the product of these people. and now, our generation is passing along the corporatistic and consumeristic ways. i have no idea where the spirit of revolution went.

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  2. I love the energy of Thompson's writing but I have to say that I have never been much for generational navel-gazing. All this "we used to have ideals" and "our parents screwed us up" and "we are a lost generation" stuff.

    Why generalize and paint entire decades and generations with such a broad brush? Whenever someone starts writing stridently in the first person plural, I tune them out. The false inclusiveness of the generational "we" is why I can't stand Dave Eggers' writing. "Us" and "them" (the bitter generations locked in struggle) are straw men. The truth is no two people from the same generation have ever thought exactly alike or shared the same spirit. People born in the same year as I do not have the right to speak for me.

    Beez - This is going to sound totally square and very non-gonzo, but you might want to tone down the orporatecay oonsgay references. Don't bite the hand, etc.

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  3. Albtraum,

    Thanks for the comments. I think you are right it is dangerous to lump people together generationally. I guess I have been plagued all my life by the idea of the sixities. I have had this grandiose idea of what it must have been like to be alive in the 60’s in San Francisco. And like no one else, Hunter painted a picture of that scene that exceeded all my expectations. The idea that Eisenhoweresque Americana itself was crumbling seems very exciting to me. I am ready for another cultural revolution, more than anything else.

    Throughout my life, first as a child through the Reagan years, and now with the Bush Admin it feels like the bricks of that conformist wall have been not only rebuilt, but are now stronger than ever.

    I cannot believe you said you hate Dave Eggers, besides Thompson he is one of my favorite writers. Have you read anything besides Heartbreaking Work? You Shall Know Our Velocity is one of the best books I have ever read, and What is the What falls just short of greatness. Give him another chance.

    As for the “orporatecay oonsgay” my pig Latin is rusty, but I think I deciphered this to say, corporate goons? They have already fired me once, what more can they do? What, send me to Gitmo Bay? You may be right….all hail the corporations. They know what is best for us!

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  4. "Eisenhoweresque". Right there, for example, is an example of labelling which I don't feel is useful. President Eisenhower himself gave us American history's most powerful and prescient warning against the military-industrial complex.

    http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

    Eisenhower was our most prominent anti-globalization, anti-military-industrial-complex prophet. He probably did more to influence people with that speech than Bob Dylan has done with his whole career. (I don't really believe that, I'm just trying to make a point here). So what does it mean to label a society "Eisenhoweresque"? It's too broad. It doesn't really describe anything. There were revolutionaries before the hippies, and there were commies before Communism, and there were free thinkers before San Francisco was cool. Every generation has had just as much rebellion, in its own way, as every generation before it. The '60s were special because of the number of revolutionary and protest movements which came to a head during that time, but so were the 1860s.

    And I think Dave Eggers is a talented writer, but I think he has a tendency to pretend that he is somehow speaking for his generation, particularly by using "we", "us" and "our" a lot. I have a belief that every great writer is a loner at heart, and those that pretend they're speaking on behalf of some kind of "we" or "us" are usually faking the camaraderie, like Kerouac, who was, if you read about his life, anything but a spokesman for his generation. The dude couldn't even drive a car, and he lived with his mom.

    And as for the corporate oil goons comment, I'm just saying, you're an English teacher, use a metaphor or something, for God's sake. instead of "oil goons", say "The Man" or "Mister Jones" or something. Discretion. Better part of valour. You don't want to be a 55 year old Beez getting turned down for a loan application from the First United Bank of Exxon-Mobil-Chase-Manhattan because a Google search found that you lashed out against oil goons in 2008. Employ some sort of simile or something, is all I'm saying.

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  5. @Albtraum

    You bring up some great points and have made me realize that my writing has been at best lazy and at worst bad and overly generalized, but that is the state of my mind these days. It is overflowing with random ideas and I am trying to just get them out and away from myself as fast as they breed. I am considering a Pedagogy of the Oppressed for the heartland for god sakes. All is not well.

    Let me quickly address a few of your points:

    I used the term "Eisenhoweresque" out of sheer laziness. I just needed a term to explain the black and white, Pleasantville, Leave it to Beaver America portrayed in the propaganda films right after WWII. You are absolutely right about Eisenhower and the military Industrial Complex. Have you seen the movie Why We Fight? It does a great job of breaking down the speech.

    Eisenhower was our most prominent anti-globalization, anti-military-industrial-complex prophet. He probably did more to influence people with that speech than Bob Dylan has done with his whole career.

    I beg to differ on that point on principle!

    I don't really believe that, I'm just trying to make a point here). So what does it mean to label a society "Eisenhoweresque"? It's too broad. It doesn't really describe anything.

    Thanks for bringing up the following points, while I know you are right I often forget to mention these ideas in my writing. I often catch myself romanticizing the sixties, because many of my heroes are from that era.

    There were revolutionaries before the hippies, and there were commies before Communism, and there were free thinkers before San Francisco was cool. Every generation has had just as much rebellion, in its own way, as every generation before it. The '60s were special because of the number of revolutionary and protest movements which came to a head during that time, but so were the 1860s.

    Great point.

    And I think Dave Eggers is a talented writer, but I think he has a tendency to pretend that he is somehow speaking for his generation, particularly by using "we", "us" and "our" a lot.

    I don’t get this feeling from him. So I will agree to disagree here.

    And as for the corporate oil goons comment, I'm just saying, you're an English teacher, use a metaphor or something, for God's sake. instead of "oil goons", say "The Man" or "Mister Jones" or something.

    Point well taken.

    Discretion. Better part of valour. You don't want to be a 55 year old Beez getting turned down for a loan application from the First United Bank of Exxon-Mobil-Chase-Manhattan because a Google search found that you lashed out against oil goons in 2008. Employ some sort of simile or something, is all I'm saying.

    I don’t expect there to be oil, banks, or loans when I am 55 so I won’t worry about it now. First United Bank of Exxon-Mobil-Chase-Manhattan already has me by the balls, any griping I do on this blog won’t make a difference at this point.

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