(TV) OT Brian Wilson, Beatles, Stones, drugs

["Joe Thornton" <joe.thornton@gmx.net>]

I just know that many of you will be interested in this interview with Brian
Wilson...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1128599,00.html

In the same newspaper, the controversy about legalizing cannabis, especially
the alleged link with mental illness, rages on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1129216,00.html

Hey, maybe George Bush could profitably raise the issue of legalizing drugs
and thus distract the voters from the real issues. (After all, doesn't the CIA
now control Afghanistan where most of the heroin comes from?)

OK, OK, anything you say. Here's Tom Verlaine on drugs. Melody Maker
interview, 15 April 1978:

"I think all people are drawn to extremes," he replies. "I think that
everybody puts themselves into an extreme situation at some point in their
life, and then they realize that some situations are maybe too dangerous and
they draw back. The ones I put myself into aren't exactly dangerous. I mean, I
don't -- let's say I don't _abuse_ drugs.

"A lot of people do abuse drugs. I've known at least two people who've died
from drugs, and I know about four people, probably more, who've ended up in
hospital through the accumulative effects of drugs."

MM: You've experimented yourself with narcotics?

"Oh, sure," he replies cheerfully. "Not much anymore, but for a while I did.
It's a period most people seem to go through. Say, from somewhere between 16
and 25. I'd say from 21 to 23 I was using all kinds of hallucinogenics. Just
out of interest. To see just what scrambling your senses could do to you.

"But drugs, you know, they begin to dominate the personality to say the least.
Their after-effects, the memory of the experience, can be inspiring in a
certain sense. But they do lock you onto a certain level that you do have to
get away from after a while.

"I also think that for sure they can debilitate a person's ability to
communicate. That's pretty obvious. I also think they make people more
egotistical and at the same time make those people less aware of their own
existence. It removes them from reality.

"People who mess with drugs, I can't take their personalities. I can't stand
to be around them for too long. There are still a lot of people doing it to
themselves. They also have so many illusions about things that they're totally
boring to listen to."

--JoeT

P.S. Did anyone get the reissued The Wonder yet?
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"