A/V script for presentation at the 7th annual Experience Music Project Popular Music Conference; Saturday, 12th April 2008, 4:00 to 5:45pm.
By Tom Kipp [A/V deployed by Dan Mohr]
[Slide 1: title] Just a few words of caution before I begin—much of the material you will see and hear during this presentation is disturbing, some of it also offensive. Given what happened in the years leading up to and on November 18th, 1978 [Slide 2: Time and Newsweek covers—12/4/1978], when 914 members of The People’s Temple died in the jungle of Guyana, how could it be otherwise? [Sample 1: loop of NPR instrumental leitmotif]
In the winter of 1981 National Public Radio first broadcast a groundbreaking 90-minute documentary called Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown, based on the book [Slide 3: book cover] by James Reston, Jr., Our Father Who Art in Hell, itself largely based on a portion of the more than 900 hours of tape recordings discovered at Jonestown in the aftermath of the mass murder-suicide.
Reactions to this innovative, intimate, very raw piece of programming were contentiously mixed, to say the least, as an hour-long “National Radio Call-In” program hosted by Bill Moyers—held immediately following the broadcast, and featuring a panel of experts—amply demonstrated.
A friend of mine named Shawn Swagerty taped [Slide 4: TDK D90 cassette, alongside Father Cares cover artwork] the broadcast in his dorm room at The University of Montana, in Missoula, and later shared it with me, when he returned to our hometown of Havre, Montana that summer.
To say I found Father Cares riveting would be like saying “9/11” was an Historic Day! A supreme understatement obviously, but really no useful statement at all. For any number of reasons it’s a program that every interested adult should hear at least once, and readily available on the web. [Slide 5: NPR/Father Cares homepage]
A distinctive element of Father Cares is the deliberately soporific—one might even say “post-emotional”—narration by Noah Adams (longtime host of All Things Considered), which makes the contrast with the many taped tirades of Jim Jones as stark as possible, as you will hear in the following examples, the first Adams, the second Jones! [Slide 6: “Jones” screen/ Sample 2—Noah Adams: “Perhaps Father was Evil decades before, perhaps he was insincere and cruel, and even bestial, from the beginning; but he was surely bold and exciting, with an animal sexuality. His voice was captivating, his presence commanding, his power was overwhelming.”
Sample 3—Rev. Jim Jones: “I want you to BE like me—I don’t want you to worship me, I want you to be like I am. I want you to become what I am, I want you to enjoy the fearlessness that I have, the courage that I have, the compassion that I have, the love that I have, the ALL-ENCOMPASSING MERCY that I am. I want you to be what I am…and something greater! I want you, to give you more than I have, I want you to be greater than I am, and if you don’t wanna go this route, then go to Hell where you want to, but don’t bother me!”]
Any notion that Jim Jones became a cruel bully only after reaching Guyana is belied by the existence of a facility he named [Slide 7: “Peoples Temple Children’s Black Light Discipline Room”—photo from Re/Search #6/7] the “Children’s Black Light Discipline Room”, at the original Peoples Temple in San Francisco, an instrument of sadistic control so fiendish that only pictorial evidence can do it justice!
One aspect central to not just my paper, but to all research on “Jonestown”, is the simple existence of those 972 hours of taped conversations that were left behind at the Peoples Temple Settlement. [Slide 8: “Jones” screen. Sample 4—Adams: “Father had always thought of himself as a Historic Figure, and therefore—knowing that everything he said was important—he recorded his descent into History.”]
The tapes contain all manner of sermonizing, testimonials, disciplinary tribunals, the rehearsals for Mass Suicide on what were called “White Nights” (which Jones also referred to as “catharses”), shortwave radio communications, musical performances and Jones’ unforgettable ranting.
It boggles the mind to ponder the historical impact, had a comparable audio archive been left behind by Hitler, Stalin or Jim Jones’ hero, Mao Tse-tung. [Slide 9: Mao and Jones (sunglasses)] And after all, what “messianic” figure of the past—whether political or religious—would or could have resisted the opportunity to document his every utterance?!
The obvious comparison, especially with regard to this particular brand of Technological Hubris, is Richard Nixon [Slide 10: Nixon and Jones (sunglasses)]—that earlier 1970s “boogeyman”, who insisted on taping his every Oval Office oration, whether for posterity or merely out of egomaniacal habit. Look where it got him!
[Slide 11: “Jones” screen] Jones moved Peoples Temple from Indiana to The Bay Area in 1965, and rapidly grew his congregation by targeting those most vulnerable in our society.
One means by which he acquired immense political power after relocating to San Francisco in 1972 was to embrace and attempt to rehabilitate populations the State of California had largely abandoned—the homeless, the aged, the drug-addicted, the mentally ill and ex-convicts. Jones’ success in wooing major California politicians is amply-demonstrated by a passionately supportive letter [Slide 12: Harvey Milk’s letter] written to President Jimmy Carter in February 1978 by San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, himself infamously assassinated—along with Mayor George Moscone, another avid Jones supporter—just 9 days after the massacre in Guyana.
Though not a secret, by any means, it is still not universally known that the Peoples Temple congregation was somewhere between 70 and 80% Black, and that it skewed both very old and very young, two especially-vulnerable demographics. In fact, 287 children [!] were among the 914 dead at Jonestown and, in the months prior to the mass murder-suicide, Jim Jones received approximately $40,000 per month from the United States Government, in the form of Social Security benefit checks intended for his numerous “Seniors”, an amount worth in excess of $135,000 today. Jones’ fortune at the time of his death has been estimated at 26 MILLION dollars!
[Slide 13: “Jones” screen/Sample 5—Adams: “The U.S. Government had stopped sending the Social Security checks, a mistake that was quickly corrected, but it was perceived as a threat, since the Seniors of The Temple were bringing in about $40,000 a month.” Sample 6—Adams: “Those who stayed accepted the fraudulence, to receive the message, one that became a combustible mixture of Sacrilege and Socialism. By his own testimony, Father’s spark of Divinity had ignited into a great flame, consuming all other gods. He said that he had come to the world under the guise of Religion, for the very purpose of destroying Religion.”]
That nihilistic message—however explicitly offered—seems not to have resonated with Temple members. On the contrary, there was an implicit acceptance of “Father” as Earthly Savior, albeit one prone to bouts of fevered gibberish! [Sample 7—Jones: “Christianity was never based on the idea of an Unknown God. I’m gonna cause you to know that you are what Jesus was—Jesus said that every human being was a god—it is written that you’re gods! I’m a god and you’re a god, and I’m a god and I’m gonna stay a god until you recognize that you’re a god, and when you recognize you’re a god, I shall go back into Principle and will not appear as a personality! But until I see all of you knowing who you are, I’m gonna be very much what I am—God, Almighty God!”]
On the tapes Jones’ rampant egotism is frequently breathtaking, and the pedagogical set-up not unlike Elementary School, “Father” repeatedly bequeathing permission in mid-sermon, before allowing his followers to perform even the most elemental bodily functions. [Sample 8—Jones: “You don’t know how clever I am. One thing you’ve all done is underestimate me! I made plans for treason long ago, ’cause I knew I couldn’t trust nothing. I knew I couldn’t trust anything but Communism and the Principle in me—Yes, restroom.”]
And both his paranoia and delusions of grandeur were contagious.
[Sample 9—Adams: “The people were frightened, but some were also proud—how could there be heroism, without a strong enemy?”]
Once they were in Guyana, Jones often summoned his followers to testify as to how they would kill their increasingly Concerned Relatives back home, or any others he branded as “traitorous”, including anyone who’d ever “defected” from Peoples Temple.
[Sample 10—Small Boy: “My mama’s a damned fool, hope I, I hope I knock the fuckin’ shit out of her, she’s…!” Jones: (maniacal laughter, then…) “I’m glad I put my life on the line to save you. Say, ‘My mama’s a goddamn fool, like to beat the fuckin’ shit out of her!’” (general group laughter) Small Boy: “I dare, I dare her to come up, ’cause I’ll be the one that…I’m a-shot her!”]
Jones’ screeching hyena laughter and cackling dementia recur frequently throughout these sessions! What follows seems to me The All-Time Pastoral Conniption Fit:
[Slide 14: Jim Jones “Rant Shot” (use for slides 15-17, as well, with subtitles)
Sample 11—Jones: “But don’t ever say ‘Hate is your enemy’…Love has practically caused me to just get you destroyed. If I had hated a little more, just a little more, we woulda had a little less trouble. ’Cause I look at my faults analytically…sure you got Love, Principle! But don’t say ‘Hate is my enemy’—what do they say, what’s that words? ‘Hate is my enemy and I’ve gotta fight it day and night’ and what else is the other line? ‘Love is the only weapon’—Slide 15: SHIT!—Slide 16: BULLSHIT!!—Martin Luther King died with Love! Kennedy died talkin’ about something he couldn’t even understand, some kind of “generalized love”, and he never even backed it up—he’s shot down! Bullshit! ‘Love is the only weapon with which I’ve got to fight’? I’ve got a helluva lotta weapons to fight. Slide 17: “I got my CLAWS, I got CUTLASSES, I got GUNS, I got DYNAMITE! I got a helluva lot to fight! I’ll fight, I’ll fight, I’ll fight! (glossolalia) I will FIGHT! I will FIGHT! I will FIGHT! I will FIGHT! (APOCALYPIC glossolalia) Ahhh, yes we’ll fight!”]
[short pause…Slide 18: “Jones” screen]
There is a widely-known hymn prominently featured in Father Cares called “I Never Heard a Man”, which has been frequently recorded since the late-1940s, though it is certainly much older than that. In the recordings excerpted here we find a jaunty swing, a thoroughly celebratory tone, and an unquestionable and unshakeable professionalism. [Slides 19-21: highlight each album cover— B.B. King/The Original Five Blind Boys of Mississippi/The Sterling Jubilee Singers—as its version plays/Sample 12: a 55-second medley of all three versions of “I Never Heard a Man”]
[Slide 22: “Jones” screen]
By contrast, I’ve been haunted for 27 years now by a very different, extremely heart-wrenching performance of “I Never Heard a Man”, offered to Reverend Jones by an elderly member of Peoples Temple on a “White Night”, not long before the fateful final night of November 18th. Her testimony comes first, calmly at the start—very calmly, given that she’s offering to commit suicide—and then with increasing anger and desperation, until Jones invites her to share the hymn.
[Sample 13—Elderly Woman: “Uh, yes, I think we all should die tonight, if it’s our turn. I’m willing, Father, to stand with you all the way, just like I always have told you, three years ago. ’Cause everything seems and will always be the same, I’m not changin’…”
Jones: “You don’t need to say, you don’t need to say no more, I remember your fight.”
Woman: “I know… I love you, Father!”
Jones: “I know you do.”
Woman: “I know…some of my people, the others, I felt like they’re gonna hurt you…when they hurt you, they hurt ME! (very emotional) I’ll tell you the truth, I’m not gonna lie! You’re the only father I have; you’re the only family I have! I gave up my brother…to you.”
Jones: “I remember you fighting. I remember when you sang, ‘I never heard a…’— sing it for us right now.”
Woman: “I’m gonna sing it fer ya.”
Sample 14—Woman sings: All the days of my life/ever since I been born/I ain’t never heard a man/speak like this man before/I never heard a man/speak like this man before/now, all the days of my life/ever since I been born/I ain’t never heard a man/speak like this man before!]
I’ve never heard a singer convey a greater emotional commitment to a song!
But not all Jonestown’s beloved “Seniors” were treated so respectfully, witness the following tirade against, and consequent humiliation of, an elderly man who’d merely expressed a wish to see his people back home in San Francisco…one last time.
[Sample 15—Jones: “I have the power to send you home by Christmas, but it’s not on Trans-World Airlines. I have established myself on this proposition unequivocally clear, and I have now moved from an administrative Socialist office into the office of Savior!”
Elderly Man: “You just take anything and make a big thing out of it…”
Jones: “That’s not a ‘big thing’, that’s BLASPHEMY!”
Man: (cowed, mutters in his own defense)
Jones: “It’s BLASPHEMY! It’s BLASPHEMY! It’s BLASPHEMY! They may find good humor in your much…badgerings, I do not! It’s blasphemy to talk about going back when you have not been given any approval. Do you want to go home?”
Man: (meekly) “No.”
Jones: “Well then be seated and shut your mouth and don’t be in my face anymore.”]
Only Absolute Control would ever suffice, and in the end not even that.
[Sample 16—Jones: “I love you very much. Think now as you go down the path, please, on healings, blessings, protections…Father cares, Father cares…you can tell in his voice he cares…he cares and he’ll be with you all the way…goodnight, my darlings; goodnight, comrades.”]
[Slide 23: “Drinking the Kool-Aid”—“Jones-Aid”]
Many people know that those who died at Jonestown were forced to swallow poisoned grape Flavor-Aid, or were forcibly injected with the poison. In truth, very few of the 914 dead willingly “drank the Kool-Aid”, as it is said, and certainly none of the 287 children were capable of making such a decision.
I’ve been horrified, but also fascinated, as this smugly obnoxious boilerplate phrase “Drinking the Kool-Aid” has achieved a near-ubiquity in American culture, now seeming almost entirely disconnected from the horrors of Jonestown’s murder-suicide. I propose that we each declare a personal moratorium on the use of it, unless speaking about Jonestown specifically. As my collaborator Dan Mohr—who works at Microsoft, a place where the phrase is common parlance—said the other day, this glib use of “Drinking the Kool-Aid” as a cheap put-down should be considered just as far beyond the pale as using the equivalent Hitlerian locution with regard to something we dislike: “Send it to the ovens”!
[Slide 24: “Jones” screen]
I’ll step down from my soapbox for A Few Concluding Thoughts:
In the end, Jim Jones’ Political “Vision” amounted to little more than a crudely misprised fruit salad of Paternalistic Racial Equality, Mad Lust for Power and Control, and a one-quarter-baked version of Worldwide Socialism, ultimately designed to facilitate his own Personal Fiefdom, Private Harem and Martyring Passion Play!
As to the multifaceted utility of “I Never Heard a Man”, particularly with regard to Jonestown, individual perspective is all:
To the Elderly Woman this hymn was the vehicle by which she could most proudly and personally express her love and devotion to “Father”. And it undeniably conveys, as few songs could, a gravitas commensurate with this Apocalyptic Event, the Ultimate Sacrifice of a “Revolutionary Suicide”, as Jones called it.
For journalist James Reston, Jr. “Never Heard a Man” must have held the irresistible appeal of a stunning serendipity, the hymn’s simple lyrics so blatantly emblematic of his central point—that the toxic mixture of Jim Jones’ overwhelming oratorical charisma and his increasingly demented mental state led inexorably toward the horror of this mass carnage. Jones’ absolute dominance and control of Peoples Temple seems, within the confines of Reston’s documentary at least, to arise quite LITERALLY from that voice and whatever words it happens to pronounce aloud—however cruel, self-contradictory or idiotic they may be, at times.
In fact, no Hollywood contract songwriter or Brill Building tunesmith could have devised a song more perfectly apposite, nor one more ideally-suited to condensing, better, TELESCOPING, the “narrative” Reston wished to convey from what he’d gleaned in listening to 120 hours of Jonestown tape!
And for Jim Jones himself, what could possibly have surpassed “Never Heard a Man” in terms of Self-Mythology or Self-Aggrandizement?! Actually, even that wasn’t quite sufficient, as he could never resist the opportunity to appear Benevolent and Deferential toward one of his beloved “Seniors”, as he did by gently curtailing the singer’s testimony and asking that she favor the assembled congregants with a rousing, nay, Transcendent, rendition of a hymn clearly familiar to them all! His on-the-fly orchestration of their climactic passion seems both utterly compelling, from a purely theatrical point of view, and downright DIABOLICAL by any other measurement!
What was captured on the tape is in fact no more than the CHORUS of the song. In fact, “Never Heard a Man” has at least FIVE verses that I’m aware of, a variety of which appear in the commercially-available versions.
Yet it’s solely repetitions of that indelible chorus that we hear from those singing at Jonestown, as though nothing but those TWO lines was of the slightest importance!
In his remarkable 1977 book [Slide 25: book cover] Country: The Biggest Music in America, Nick Tosches wrote:
“I think Elvis Presley will never be solved.”
More than 30 years on from his death, I believe that is due, at least in part, to the superabundance of so-called “information” we possess about The King—much of it diametrically incompatible, virtually NONE of it from the source.
And although we possess a unique archive of recordings related to Peoples Temple, right through its very last moments in Jonestown, I think it fair to say something similar of Jim Jones—a man of the cloth who borrowed what he could of both the look [Slide 26: Elvis and Jones (both in sunglasses)] and frenetic onstage vitality of the early-’70s Elvis—that he too “will never be solved”— no matter how many books, newspaper articles or academic monographs are eventually published; no matter how many FBI, CIA or Congressional files are one day declassified; and no matter how many radio, film or internet documentarians attempt to corral The Meaning of his heartbreaking, infuriating & kaleidoscopically-demented story!
[Slide 27: “Jones” screen] But that certainly doesn’t mean we can’t profit from serious consideration of the many deeply-troubling issues encapsulated by the term “Jonestown”, among which I would include nearly all The Big Ones—Racism, Sexism, Poverty, Access to Education, Corrupt Leadership, Lust for Power, Greed on a Global Scale, Cruelty and Disregard for Human Suffering, Senseless Violence, and Self-Serving Manipulation of the Vulnerable.
Sadly, none of those scourges has notably receded since Jim Jones staked himself a permanent place on The World Stage…by dramatically exiting same!
[The Grand Finale: step back from the microphone, then sing one chorus of “I Never Heard a Man” acapella, forcefully:]
“All the DAYS of my life/ever SINCE I been born,
I NEVER heard a man/speak like THIS man before!
Never heard a MAN/speak like this man BEFORE!
All the DAYS of my LIFE/ever since I been born,
I NEVER heard a man/speak like THIS man before!”
(quietly) Thank you for listening. [Slide 28: “Jonestown Assemblage”]
