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Attica
Sept 5, 2010 8:25:09 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2010 8:25:09 GMT -5
Where does this song rate in John's solo catalog...
I wonder what made him write about the Attica prison riots..
was it just a part of his political period.....
Interesting lyrics
What a waste of human power What a waste of human lives Shoot the prisoners in the towers Forty-three poor widowed wives
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
Media blames it on the prisoners But the prisoners did not kill "Rockefeller pulled the trigger" That is what the people feel
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
Free the prisoners, jail the judges Free all prisoners everywhere All they want is truth and justice All they need is love and care
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
They all live in suffocation Let's not watch them die in sorrow Now's the time for revolution Give them all a chance to grow
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
Come together join the movement Take a stand for human rights Fear and hatred clouds our judgement Free us all from endless night
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
Attica State, Attica State, we all live in Attica State
Attica State, Attica State, Attica, Attica, Attica State
How about the irony......
that dog chapman is imprisoned at Attica......
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Attica
Sept 5, 2010 11:40:32 GMT -5
Post by John S. Damm on Sept 5, 2010 11:40:32 GMT -5
I hate this song and its expressed sentiment. I especially laugh at: "Free the prisoners, jail the judges Free all prisoners everywhere All they want is truth and justice All they need is love and care." I wish John and Yoko would have started an "Adopt A Violent Felon" program and agreed to take into their home convicted felons found guilty of things like murder, rape or child molesting and give them "love and care." That's all those poor chaps needed. I like much of SINYC but have always hated this song. I see Yoko in the lyrics much more than the once street wary John(the streets of Liverpool and Hamburg weren't safe for naive fools). From all I have seen or read, I support Governor Rockefeller's use of force to suppress the Attica uprising.
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Attica
Sept 5, 2010 11:48:58 GMT -5
Post by mikev on Sept 5, 2010 11:48:58 GMT -5
My father was an NY State Trooper sent to Attica. From what we even heard in grade school, it wasn't pretty, and we weren't even sure if he would make it home. Very scary times.
Needless to say- I hate this song, but historically conditions there were not great. Not suppoting the violent way they tried to get results- just that it was a recipe for disaster.
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Attica
Sept 5, 2010 11:50:11 GMT -5
Post by mikev on Sept 5, 2010 11:50:11 GMT -5
oh yeah... and of course the irony. Eerie.
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Attica
Sept 5, 2010 20:21:46 GMT -5
Post by Joe Karlosi on Sept 5, 2010 20:21:46 GMT -5
I hate this song and its expressed sentiment. I especially laugh at: "Free the prisoners, jail the judges Free all prisoners everywhere All they want is truth and justice All they need is love and care." I hate the words and sickening sentiment, but I love the rockin' tune.
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Attica
Sept 7, 2010 14:39:06 GMT -5
Post by acebackwords on Sept 7, 2010 14:39:06 GMT -5
I hate this song and its expressed sentiment. I especially laugh at: "Free the prisoners, jail the judges Free all prisoners everywhere All they want is truth and justice All they need is love and care." Oh yeah, that song is just garbage. Radical chic at its worst. And 10 years too late on top of that. And hey, I don't hear Yoko making any heroic speeches about having Mark Chapman released from Attica.
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Attica
Sept 7, 2010 20:50:15 GMT -5
Post by mikev on Sept 7, 2010 20:50:15 GMT -5
Speaking of Attica parole denied again.
No soup for you.
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Attica
Sept 7, 2010 21:49:30 GMT -5
Post by sayne on Sept 7, 2010 21:49:30 GMT -5
I hate this song and its expressed sentiment . . . I get your sentiment, but sometimes, no frequently, one needs to beyond John's literal words to get to the crux of what he's saying, in my opinion. Yes, there are bad people, and yes those bad people do bad things. But, if one looks at the prison industrial complex objectively, one will see historical inequalities in who is and who is not arrested, who was and who was not the victim, how long or how short the sentencing is, and who had and who did not have the best legal defense. I remember reading a report once that said the chance of someone going to jail had as much to do with WHO the victim was rather than the perp. For example, if the victim was white, the sentence would tend to be stronger than if the victim was black. We know that sentencing for crack use/possession is often greater than cocaine use/possession - and that socio-economic standing is a correlate for use of one drug over an other. A poor black or white guy may often get more time for breaking and entering than a rich guy who swindled thousands of dollars. Anyway, that's what I take from the song. Along with the poor conditions in Attica, which led to the riots, the general inequities of the legal system were, I think, the real gist of the song . . . . or maybe not.
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Attica
Sept 8, 2010 5:13:03 GMT -5
Post by vectisfabber on Sept 8, 2010 5:13:03 GMT -5
Attica State is merely symptomatic of the whole SINYC album. I laid out my hard earned cash on an import only to find one album of unlistenable jams (saving only the killer version of Cold Turkey from the Lyceum) and another album, half Yoko, of half-assed rants on every fashionable left wing cause under the sun. And, given that I was working in London at a time when the IRA was very actively bombing the public (I heard several of the bombs and was close enough to feel one of them), I didn't take too kindly to my erstwhile musical hero and his pretentious wife accusing me of genocide when it was the poor victims of this "genocide" who were trying to bomb the crap out of me[/i]! Attica State - more of the same, albeit misjudged polemic for the other side of the Atlantic. This was Lennon in his most idiotic pillock phase.
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Attica
Sept 8, 2010 17:08:45 GMT -5
Post by ursamajor on Sept 8, 2010 17:08:45 GMT -5
Looking at the lyrics they're not that great but I don't understand why this particular incident was so important for John to write a song about and put it on an album. I like the rocking tune and was blown away the first time I heard it but it's way too focused and narrow-minded IMO that unless you lived in New York you wouldn't know what the song was about and what was the trigger.
If you read a John and Yoko interview they will say it's like reading a newspaper but once you've read the newspaper you throw it away and unfortunately whether John and Yoko wanted or not, it's the same with this whole album, once you've heard it there is no reason to listen to it again, like yesterday's paper it's forgotten.
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Attica
Sept 8, 2010 19:42:25 GMT -5
Post by acebackwords on Sept 8, 2010 19:42:25 GMT -5
I hate this song and its expressed sentiment . . . I get your sentiment, but sometimes, no frequently, one needs to beyond John's literal words to get to the crux of what he's saying, in my opinion. Sorry, having lived in Berkeley for 30 years -- the radical chic capital of the world -- I saw that attitude played out literally in all its insane glory. There's a great book, "Destructive Generation" by Horowitz & Collier, that details that aspect of '60s radicalism. All these white radicals, like the Berkeley lawyer Fay Stender, who took those sentiments to heart. Got tons of Black Panthers and other "victims" released from prison. Violent lunatic thugs like George Jackson (yes the same guy that idiot Dylan eulogizes in song) and Huey Newton. Most of these guys after they got out of prison just ended up committing more violent crimes. In fact, one of them went after Fay Stender for "betraying the Revolution" and shot and paralyzed her. And -- just like with Yoko and Mark Chapman -- Stender did everything she could this time to get the guy locked up back behind bars. I guess its only matters to these radical trendies when THEY'RE the victims.
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Attica
Sept 8, 2010 21:46:57 GMT -5
Post by John S. Damm on Sept 8, 2010 21:46:57 GMT -5
The Attica Uprising started 39 years ago on September 9, 1971.
We're all mates with Attica State!
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