For All The Heart Broke Lovers | |
| That restless feeling, when you sense you are searching for something but you really don't know what. When everything seems to be just not what you need, and you know you will know that special something that will move you or kick-start you when you stumble across it, whether it be a book, a record or a smile. Well, I found mine. I had been feeling very restless of late, and even got to the stage where I doubted I would find the inspiration I longed for. To escape everything, and to recharge my batteries I decamped to Edinburgh for a few days to lose myself or something. It was there while browsing in a very pleasant record shop (Fopp) that I found my salvation. Rebel Inc is an Edinburgh imprint that has been quietly reissuing 'classics' over the past few years, and some important books have reappeared in this way from writers such as Richard Brautigan, Nelson Algren and Jim Dodge. Fopp had stacks of Rebel Inc titles for £3 each when I was in there, but my attention was caught by Emmett Grogan's Ringolevio, simply because I had never heard of it, and partly because the introduction was by Chris Sullivan which seemed intriguing. I paid my £3 and have not touched the ground since. Ringolevio was exactly what I was searching for and all I want to know is why it is not as 'popular' as Catcher In The Rye? Still, in a world where you cannot walk into Waterstones and buy Absolute Beginners or any of Nik Cohn's early novels, at least we should be grateful to Chris Sullivan for championing Ringolevio. I am sure there will be those who do not know, so I'll give a little spiel on the book. It is an epic romantic adventure on the scale of Rob Roy and The Three Musketeers. It is the true story of Emmett Grogan (aka Kenny Wisdom), the hero of his own life, and if there is any elaboration or embellishment then I for one do not care. The books starts with a young boy of Irish descent growing up in Brooklyn in the late 1950s, tracing his rights of passage (gangs, smack, prison, Raffles-style robbery, romps round Europe, hanging out with the IRA in Dublin, being a dandy in the Soho underworld, then coming back to the States in time to beat the system and avoid going to Vietnam). |
And it's then the real story starts as Emmett makes Haight Ashbury his home just as the hippy counter culture is exploding. He in turn explodes the myth of the 'love generation' and manages to seriously antagonise the hippy establishment as much as he does the authorities. Using everything he has learnt in his life so far, he gets together with some righteous colleagues and does what he can to put something back into the community by liberating goods and food and medicine and bedding and making it all available free for the casualties of the love generation who had been sold and swallowed whole the hippy lie and subsequently were caught in a trap on the streets and had nowhere to turn. You must read the book and absorb all that Emmett and 'the Diggers' were doing. It has really knocked me out because while in no way can I claim to even kiss Emmett's feet, his philosophies seem to fit right in with all I have ever hung onto. Without going on too long about all this, I would like to mention a few things. One is Emmett's pathological hatred of the hippy establishment, which is something I have always wanted to be confirmed. It's good that my own punk disgust at the likes of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey is borne out by an historical document. Conversely, it is good to see some of my own heroes come out well: Richard Brautigan, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsburg and Bobby Seale and elements of the Black Panthers. Two is Emmett's avowal that action (on whatever scale) is better that words and dogma and theories, while doing something to make another's life better is more worthwhile than futile demos, riots and terrorism that ultimately have no impact. It's like the May Day anti-Capitalist demos in London: all I was thinking about was some gut on a few pounds an hour having to clean up all the mess. Do you really think anyone from the establishment had to clean the paint off the cenotaph? The third point is to do with the Diggers' desire for anonymity. There is no doubt Emmett could have been a rebel icon like Che (ironically they both struggled with asthma and how I wish I had known that when I was 16!), but he tried very hard to shun adoration. Some of his comrades may have claimed he did not try hard enough, but that's part of the story and you need to place those sentiments in the right context. There is a school of thought that says activities such as those of the Diggers indulged in could have succeeded more if there was a wider exposure and major backing. The Diggers, however, staunchly believed such self-aggrandisement and ambition would be fatal. This is something I have always passionately believed, and it's great that these people were doing something special, plugging away day in and day out, achieving a little more than a drop in the ocean but never compromising. So, from me, a big time Emmett-style two finger salute to all those who thought they could change things from the inside and that the ends justified the means. Where did it ever get you? | |
| My final point is to do with the Diggers' loathing of the media, and particularly the then underground press. It did not help that the hippy press hated Emmett and the Diggers for not playing the game by their rules, so they tried to undermine and misrepresent what was going on. Some things never change, and even I have been on the end of media irresponsibility in recent weeks, which makes you wonder if it's all worthwhile. The point in Ringolevio is that (even unintentionally) it is those who should be helping you that end up betraying you. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I am telling you stuff you already know. Maybe everyone has been in on Ringolevio for eons apart from me. I know one guy has. Isn't the guy fronting punk supergroup The Long Decline calling himself Kenny Wisdom? I'm not that familiar with what they do, but I have known (of) Kenny for nigh on 20 years. Of course he wasn't Kenny back then, and it came as a huge surprise that he was trying his hand at pop anyway. Of course I liked the irony of Vic Godard and Mark Perry playing in HIS band. For back in the days I used to get Subway Sect bootleg tapes from Kenny, and it was indirectly through me that Kenny became involved with Mark Perry. Incidentally, it was in another Tangents feature where Everett True recalls hearing Jonathan Richman for the first time through a live tape that Stephen Pastel had. Well Everett, I gave Stephen that tape, and I got it from Kenny. Funny old gameÉ Of course the other person I know who 'digs' Ringolevio is Chris Sullivan. It was Chris I understand who encouraged Rebel Inc to salvage this great text. Judging by his introduction, Chris has been keeping the flame burning for Emmett since 1978 (around the time Dylan dedicated Street Legal to Grogan) and has been pressing copies on people ever since. If you know Sullivan through Blue Rondo or any other dubious activity, this may seem slightly surprising. In fairness though, that sect (Robert Elms and so onÉ) did mix their hedonism with some very moral left wing leanings during those dark days of Thatcherism. That in itself seems very innocent and endearing and a long way from this century's cynicism. So, here I am, fresh back from Edinburgh with my purpose renewed and my vigour re-energised and just as the speech by Henry Fonda at the tend of The Grapes Of Wrath brings tears to my eyes, so the final speech at the end of Ringolevio will now forever be tattooed on this heart. And maybe, just maybe this is what Pete Wylie meant in the 'The Story of The Blues'. © Kevin Pearce 2000 |