Pop Star es la tercera canción de Mona Bone Jakon, un disco de Cat Stevens publicado en julio de 1970.
Yes I'm going to be a pop star.
Yes I'm going to be a pop star, now.
Yes I'm going to be a pop star.
Oh mama, mama see me, mama, mama see me, I'm a pop star.
Yes, I'm going on the T.V. now.
Yes, I'm going on the T.V. now.
Yes, I'm going on the T.V. now.
Oh mama, mama see me, mama, mama see me on the T.V.
Yes, I'm going on my first gig.
Yes, I'm going on my first gig.
Yes, I'm going on my first gig.
Oh mama, mama see me, mama, mama see me on my first gig...
Pero ser una estrella del pop no es garantía de nada. El ser famoso, millonario, adorado y citado en todos los medios no da la felicidad. Ese vacío interior le vino de perlas al establishment para vincular el fenómeno pop y hippie con el consumo de drogas, por el sencillo método de convertir en drogadictos a las principales estrellas del pop. Sex and drugs and rock'n roll. Toda una generación perdida en medio del humo de la marihuana y el compás 4/4. Nadie alzó la voz para decirles lo que estaba pasando. Juventud de América, han matado al presidente de los Estados Unidos, a vuestro presidente, han dado un Golpe de Estado y os habéis quedado sin la República que soñasteis. Os drogan y os mandan a morir a Vietnam. Allí conoceréis la marihuana, el opio, los barbitúricos y la heroína. La droga une a wasps con afroamericanos y a soldados con oficiales. Vamos a Chicago just to sing o vamos a San Francisco, there's some gently people there. Mientras os ponéis flores en el pelo, fumáis Mary Warner y escucháis las locuras de Timothy Leary, los banqueros y los bandidos de la Bolsa se quedan con todo y se infiltran en el Congreso, el Tribunal Supremo y en cualquier parte en donde puedan dominar el país. No importa, vienen los Beatles al Show de Ed Sullivan. Cool! Too bad que luego fueron a hablar con el Dr. Robert. 1 If you're down he'll pick you up!
1 "Doctor Robert" era una canción de Lennon incluida en el LP de Los Beatles "Revólver". En "Lennon remembers", John cuenta cómo conocieron a Robert:
LENNON:
A dentist in London laid it on George, me and wives, without telling us, at a dinner party at his house. He was a friend of George‟s and our dentist at the time, and he just put it in our coffee or something. He didn‟t know what it was; it‟s all the same thing with that sort of middle class London swinger, or whatever. They had all heard about it, and they didn‟t know it was different from pot or pills and they gave us it. He said “I advise you not to leave,” and we all thought he was trying to keep us for an orgy in his house, and we didn‟t want to know, and we went to the Ad Lib and these discotheques and there were these incredible things going on.
It was insane going around London. When we went to the club we thought it was on fire and then we thought it was a premiere, and it was just an ordinary light outside. We thought, “Shit, what‟s going on here?” We were cackling in the streets, and people were shouting “Let‟s break a window,” you know, it was just insane. We were just out of our heads. When we finally got on the lift [an elevator in England] we all thought there was a fire, but there was just a little red light. We were all screaming like that, and we were all hot and hysterical, and when we all arrived on the floor, because this was a discotheque that was up a building, the lift stopped and the door opened and we were all [John demonstrates by screaming].
I had read somebody describing the effects of opium in the old days and I thought “Fuck! It‟s happening,” and then we went to the Ad Lib and all of that, and then some singer came up to me and said, “Can I sit next to you?” And I said, “Only if you don‟t talk,” because I just couldn‟t think.
This seemed to go on all night. I can‟t remember the details. George somehow or another managed to drive us home in his mini. We were going about ten miles an hour, but it seemed like a thousand and Patty was saying let‟s jump out and play football. I was getting all these sort of hysterical jokes coming out like speed, because I was always on that, too.
God, it was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I did some drawings at the time, I‟ve got them somewhere, of four faces saying “We all agree with you!” I gave them to Ringo, the originals. I did a lot of drawing that night. And then George‟s house seemed to be just like a big submarine, I was driving it, they all went to bed, I was carrying on in it, it seemed to float above his wall which was 18 foot and I was driving it.
WENNER:
When you came down what did you think?
LENNON:
I was pretty stoned for a month or two. The second time we had it was in L.A. We were on tour in one of those houses, Doris Day‟s house or wherever it was we used to stay, and the three of us took it, Ringo, George and I. Maybe Neil and a couple of the Byrds–what‟s his name, the one in the Stills and Nash thing, Crosby and the other guy, who used to do the lead. McGuinn. I think they came, I‟m not sure, on a few trips. But there was a reporter, Don Short. We were in the garden, it was only our second one and we still didn‟t know anything about doing it in a nice place and cool it. Then they saw the reporter and thought “How do we act?” We were terrified waiting for him to go, and he wondered why we couldn‟t come over. Neil, who never had acid either, had taken it and he would have to play road manager, and we said go get rid of Don Short, and he didn‟t know what to do.
Peter Fonda came, and that was another thing. He kept saying [in a whisper] “I know what it‟s like to be dead,” and we said “What?” and he kept saying it. We were saying “For Christ‟s sake, shut up, we don‟t care, we don‟t want to know,” and he kept going on about it. That‟s how I wrote “She Said, She Said”–”I know what‟s it‟s like to be dead.” It was a sad song, an acidy song I suppose. “When I was a little boy”... you see, a lot of early childhood was coming out, anyway.
WENNER:
So LSD started for you in 1964: how long did it go on?
LENNON:
It went on for years, I must of had a thousand trips.
WENNER:
Literally a thousand, or a couple of hundred?
LENNON:
A thousand. I used to just eat it all the time. I never took it in the studio. Once I thought I was taking some uppers and I was not in the state of handling it, I can‟t remember what album it was, but I took it and I just noticed... I suddenly got so scared on the mike. I thought I felt ill, and I thought I was going to crack. I said I must get some air. They all took me upstairs on the roof and George Martin was looking at me funny, and then it dawned on me I must have taken acid. I said, “Well I can‟t go on, you‟ll have to do it and I‟ll just stay and watch.” You know I got very nervous just watching them all. I was saying, “Is it all right?” And they were saying, “Yeah.” They had all been very kind and they carried on making the record...
Ninguna de las grandes estrellas del pop o del rock consiguió ser feliz. La droga no sustituye a la paz de espíritu, ni el sexo al amor, ni el dinero a los valores, mientras los fans, las giras y los contratos con las compañías discográficas les impedían tener vida privada. Luego fueron desapareciendo poco a poco. Nada de líderes juveniles, que lo mismo nos montan una revolución. Una vez instaurada la cultura del pop, los ídolos sobran. Brian Jones (Rolling Stones), Janis Joplin (Big Brother & The Holding Company), Jimi Hendrix (Experience), Jim Morrison (Doors), Keith Moon (Who), John Lennon (Beatles) y otros muchos, murieron demasiado jóvenes, víctimas de sí mismos y de la contracultura que habían contribuido a crear. Y la lista sigue, porque podríamos añadir a Kurt Cobain y Amy Winehouse.
1 "Doctor Robert" era una canción de Lennon incluida en el LP de Los Beatles "Revólver". En "Lennon remembers", John cuenta cómo conocieron a Robert:
LENNON:
A dentist in London laid it on George, me and wives, without telling us, at a dinner party at his house. He was a friend of George‟s and our dentist at the time, and he just put it in our coffee or something. He didn‟t know what it was; it‟s all the same thing with that sort of middle class London swinger, or whatever. They had all heard about it, and they didn‟t know it was different from pot or pills and they gave us it. He said “I advise you not to leave,” and we all thought he was trying to keep us for an orgy in his house, and we didn‟t want to know, and we went to the Ad Lib and these discotheques and there were these incredible things going on.
It was insane going around London. When we went to the club we thought it was on fire and then we thought it was a premiere, and it was just an ordinary light outside. We thought, “Shit, what‟s going on here?” We were cackling in the streets, and people were shouting “Let‟s break a window,” you know, it was just insane. We were just out of our heads. When we finally got on the lift [an elevator in England] we all thought there was a fire, but there was just a little red light. We were all screaming like that, and we were all hot and hysterical, and when we all arrived on the floor, because this was a discotheque that was up a building, the lift stopped and the door opened and we were all [John demonstrates by screaming].
I had read somebody describing the effects of opium in the old days and I thought “Fuck! It‟s happening,” and then we went to the Ad Lib and all of that, and then some singer came up to me and said, “Can I sit next to you?” And I said, “Only if you don‟t talk,” because I just couldn‟t think.
This seemed to go on all night. I can‟t remember the details. George somehow or another managed to drive us home in his mini. We were going about ten miles an hour, but it seemed like a thousand and Patty was saying let‟s jump out and play football. I was getting all these sort of hysterical jokes coming out like speed, because I was always on that, too.
God, it was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. I did some drawings at the time, I‟ve got them somewhere, of four faces saying “We all agree with you!” I gave them to Ringo, the originals. I did a lot of drawing that night. And then George‟s house seemed to be just like a big submarine, I was driving it, they all went to bed, I was carrying on in it, it seemed to float above his wall which was 18 foot and I was driving it.
WENNER:
When you came down what did you think?
LENNON:
I was pretty stoned for a month or two. The second time we had it was in L.A. We were on tour in one of those houses, Doris Day‟s house or wherever it was we used to stay, and the three of us took it, Ringo, George and I. Maybe Neil and a couple of the Byrds–what‟s his name, the one in the Stills and Nash thing, Crosby and the other guy, who used to do the lead. McGuinn. I think they came, I‟m not sure, on a few trips. But there was a reporter, Don Short. We were in the garden, it was only our second one and we still didn‟t know anything about doing it in a nice place and cool it. Then they saw the reporter and thought “How do we act?” We were terrified waiting for him to go, and he wondered why we couldn‟t come over. Neil, who never had acid either, had taken it and he would have to play road manager, and we said go get rid of Don Short, and he didn‟t know what to do.
Peter Fonda came, and that was another thing. He kept saying [in a whisper] “I know what it‟s like to be dead,” and we said “What?” and he kept saying it. We were saying “For Christ‟s sake, shut up, we don‟t care, we don‟t want to know,” and he kept going on about it. That‟s how I wrote “She Said, She Said”–”I know what‟s it‟s like to be dead.” It was a sad song, an acidy song I suppose. “When I was a little boy”... you see, a lot of early childhood was coming out, anyway.
WENNER:
So LSD started for you in 1964: how long did it go on?
LENNON:
It went on for years, I must of had a thousand trips.
WENNER:
Literally a thousand, or a couple of hundred?
LENNON:
A thousand. I used to just eat it all the time. I never took it in the studio. Once I thought I was taking some uppers and I was not in the state of handling it, I can‟t remember what album it was, but I took it and I just noticed... I suddenly got so scared on the mike. I thought I felt ill, and I thought I was going to crack. I said I must get some air. They all took me upstairs on the roof and George Martin was looking at me funny, and then it dawned on me I must have taken acid. I said, “Well I can‟t go on, you‟ll have to do it and I‟ll just stay and watch.” You know I got very nervous just watching them all. I was saying, “Is it all right?” And they were saying, “Yeah.” They had all been very kind and they carried on making the record...
Ninguna de las grandes estrellas del pop o del rock consiguió ser feliz. La droga no sustituye a la paz de espíritu, ni el sexo al amor, ni el dinero a los valores, mientras los fans, las giras y los contratos con las compañías discográficas les impedían tener vida privada. Luego fueron desapareciendo poco a poco. Nada de líderes juveniles, que lo mismo nos montan una revolución. Una vez instaurada la cultura del pop, los ídolos sobran. Brian Jones (Rolling Stones), Janis Joplin (Big Brother & The Holding Company), Jimi Hendrix (Experience), Jim Morrison (Doors), Keith Moon (Who), John Lennon (Beatles) y otros muchos, murieron demasiado jóvenes, víctimas de sí mismos y de la contracultura que habían contribuido a crear. Y la lista sigue, porque podríamos añadir a Kurt Cobain y Amy Winehouse.
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| Brian Jones |
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| Janis Joplin |
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| Jimi Hendrix |
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| Jim Morrison |
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| Keith Moon |
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| John Lennon |
Pero hoy quiero hablar de alguien que no murió por su afición a las drogas o por meterse en política y tener un expediente abierto en el FBI. Hoy vamos a hablar de un buen chico al que asesinó la industria del pop, plagada de usureros.
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| Pete Ham |
Badfinger fue un grupo respaldado por los Beatles, a través de Apple. Grabaron un disco llamado "No Dice" que contenía una perla musical compuesta por Peter Ham, el miembro más brillante de Badfinger, que tocaría con George Harrison en la versión de "Here comes the sun" del Concierto para Bangla Desh, después de haberle ayudado en la grabación de su primer disco en solitario.
El propio John Lennon invitó también a varios de los componentes del grupo con ocasión de la grabación de "Imagine".
Badfinger se fue de tour por Estados Unidos, y uno de los del grupo se enamoró de una chica americana y se la llevó a vivir con él a Inglaterra. La chica alucinó. Esperaba encontrarse con la residencia de un millonario del pop y resultó que los cuatro chicos de Badfinger, junto con sus parejas, vivían juntos en la misma casa y no tenían televisión ni nevera. Eran tan críos y tan ingenuos que no se preocupaban para nada de las finanzas del grupo. Y les estaban robando a manos llenas.
Porque la perla musical que cité antes es una de las canciones de amor más conocidas y extraordinarias del universo pop: "Without you". Lástima que los que se hicieron millonarios con ella fueron Harry Nilson y Mariah Carey. Porque el desaprensivo de Stan Polley, el manager del grupo y creador de "Badfinger Enterprises", se las arregló para que Badfinger abandonara Apple primero, para fichar por Warner Brothers, y para largarse con todos los beneficios del grupo después.
Pete Ham estaba desesperado. No tenía dinero para pagar la hipoteca de su casa, tenía un hijo pequeño y su mujer estaba esperando otro. Y no recibían ni un penique. La situación de miseria llegó hasta tal extremo que el 23 de abril de 1974 Pete se ahorcó en su garaje, tres días antes de su cumpleaños. Dejó una nota de despedida para su esposa y su hijo en la que les decía:
"Anne, te quiero. Blair, te quiero. Ya no puedo querer a todo el mundo y confiar en cualquiera. Esto es lo mejor. Pete. PS: Stan Polley es un cabrón desalmado. Me lo llevaré conmigo".
Las desgracias no terminaron ahí, porque siete años después Tom Evans, otro miembro del grupo y el mejor amigo de Pete, en medio de disputas contractuales con los otros componentes del grupo, se ahorcó en un árbol de su jardín. Tal y como había hecho su viejo amigo.
Well, I can't forget this evening
And your face when you were leaving
But I guess that's just the way the story goes
You always smile, but in your eyes your sorrow shows
Yes, it shows
Well, I can't forget tomorrow
When I think of all my sorrow
I had you there, but then I let you go
And now it's only fair that I should let you know
What you should know
I can't live, if living is without you
I can't live, I can't give anymore
I can't live, if living is without you
I can't live, I can't give anymore
Well, I can't forget this evening
And your face when you were leaving
But I guess that's just the way the story goes
You always smile, but in your eyes your sorrow shows
Yes, it shows
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| Badfinger |
FUENTES:
http://www.peteham.net/
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/784382.html
http://www.jotdown.es/2011/07/badfinger-la-maldicion-de-los-%E2%80%9Cnuevos-beatles%E2%80%9D/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Ham
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badfinger
http://www.voltairenet.org/article181602.html
http://www.cannabiscafe.net/foros/showthread.php/75695-Drogas-en-Vietnam-(La-guerra-psicodelica)
Lennon remembers. Jan Wenner's Rolling Stone interview.
