Believe in Revisionist History and Guilty Until Proved Innocent: JAGGER THE DAGGER (Gene McDaniels)

It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world. Truth? Be damned! Listen to the man...of your choice. Or the woman who is so convincing as she points the finger. That's good, too.

Two items of news the past week: Woody Allen's latest movie plays in Europe but NOT in America because Fascist Jeff Bezos did everything to end his contract with Woody for four movies, and refused to stream this first one. Second: a solid week of blatant looting long after there was no reason, other than GREED, to keep doing it. The cops in the George Floyd case were arrested, and on their way to a trial. Same as Officer Noor (another Minnesota cop) who shot and killed an unarmed white woman.

But let's get on with THIS: "Jagger the Dagger," which didn't get much attention way back when, but will probably end up in the (revisionist) history books as an accurate song about a racist incident and the person responsible.

Never heard of "Jagger the Dagger?" Probably not, but no doubt it will be taught in schools, the same ones that will be offering mandatory courses in Pulitzer Prize-winning Kendrick Lamar while ignoring Shakespeare, John Milton and Bob Dylan. Mick Jagger? He's the guy who did everything but stab a black man to death himself. Racism y'all. Over six minutes of surprisingly smooth-groove soul, these lyrics:

Jagger doing the devil dance
Just a victim of circumstance
Jagger wheeling the rolling stone
He and the devil know he's all alone
Jagger lived in the world a while
Now he's learning the devil's style
Jagger playing a heavy game
Free from guilt and he's free from shame

Jagger sucking the source of life
Slashing the pig with a horny knife
Jagger merging the sexes now
Just stand back and he'll show you how
Jagger's organ will play the tune
He will watch the heavens open soon
Jagger doing the devil dance
Just a victim of circumstance

Yes indeed, Mick Jagger, he the devil. Stole the black man's way of dancing, too. Stole the fucking name of his group from the black man (Muddy Waters, y'all). Has no shame! "Jagger sucking the source of life, slashing the pig with a horny knife." You figure it out.

How fortunate that nobody is telling us we don't know the truth, or can't research the truth, or that we had better take this as the truth or ELSE. That's why we can, for the moment, shrug this off as just somebody's hot-headed opinion and not factual. But who knows when revisionist history will pull Jagger down to the level of Al Jolson, or horrible Warner Oland who played Charlie Chan, or the Tarzan movies that should never be seen again. Let's not forget Kate Smith's statue being pulled down -- because she sang a song that Paul Robeson also sang but nobody cared to do their research. And Francis Scott Key never did anything for slaves (he did, but why get in the way of an ignorant football quarterback taking a knee and lying on the way down?)

Today, more and more, we're being forced to believe what we don't know, and accept "fake news" as real, and shut our eyes to what's blown out of proportion. And so Woody Allen's new film isn't available in America, and Senator Al Franken had to resign, and America was humiliated by nights and nights of rioting long after the "right thing" (arresting the cops) was done. 

An irony here is that Mick was quick to write a song that pretty much gave opinion as fact.  Wiser heads prevailed about releasing it at the time. He condemned Claudine Longet as a cold murderess in the death of the guy she was living with in Colorado. I think the official verdict was that it was an accident, but you can't be expected to offer all sides of the issue in a three minute song, and it's much more fun to get yer ya-ya's off.  But let's get back to Gene McDaniels declaring Jagger to be in league with the devil. 

Yes, the song references the ill-advised concert where Hell's Angels ended up guarding the stage and beating the crap out of  people. Several white guys barely escaped with their lives, and one black guy wasn't so lucky. Was the latter a racial incident? Well, the victim was dressed outrageously like a pimp,  strolling around with a silly white blonde, but when he ran afoul of the Hell's Angels, she was in the background somewhere, and he was rushing the stage and he happened to be carrying a gun. Some witnesses say he was high on meth and others say he seemed sober.

(These days the truth can be obscured by Photoshop, denied because it would be politically incorrect to interfere with martyrdom, or blurred so as not to offend viewers or subscribers who pay good money to be entertained rather than informed).

Should the Hell's Angels have treated him much better than all the white hippies they were pushing and shoving and beating? Or did one rogue go too far because he simply wanted to beat the shit out of someone, and then have a few of his pals join in because it was fun? Hmmm. Seems a bit similar to the case of Mr. Floyd, who may have been resisting arrest. Resisting arrest for passing counterfeit money, and it would be hard to claim innocence when you have a police record. A good reason to try and NOT get taken into custody. But why even explore who this guy was and what his motives were, which might give a clue as to what really went down?

A police union president, Bob Kroll, claimed Mr. Floyd had a record. Kroll was instantly accused of racism and demands were made to fire him. Memes such as the one above, asking about the police record have been denounced as inflammatory (as opposed to the flames of burning stores being looted?).=

Convenient rationalization comes to play: "So what if the charges are TRUE, " some argue, "that doesn't give the cops a right to use violence." No? But, the truth might dent the notion that any black who is arrested will automatically be choked to death...and in some circumstances (though not the Floyd case) the victim might have a pre-existing condition he knew about but ignored even if the stress of an arrest and a struggle to avoid arrest could be fatal.

"The animal cop" (to use Kid Creole's phrase) is not always going to show restraint, unfortunately. Many people of every race and religion can talk about some instance where a cop was physically or verbally abusive. Officer Noor, who shot the unarmed white woman? Racist or not, the woman is dead. Should he have been allowed on the force? How could anyone know he'd make a fatal decision like that? What is more disturbing is when a cop seems to have a record of complaints and nothing is done until it's too late. Is it a surprise that government employees are not properly screened or monitored? Who in their right mind wants a low paying job that involves dealing with scumbags and loonies and risking assault or death by sniper? How does a police force monitor a cop who might slowly be getting unhinged by stress?

"All I want is the truth," John Lennon once sang. It seems that sometimes, asking for the truth is asking for trouble. It'll brand you as racist, sexist, somebody who should be fired,  or, in every sense of the word, "cancelled." Both rational people and nutjobs and conspiracy theorists are currently debating George Floyd's character, and what went down — with the truth often pushed aside or not even known.

It seems, irony of ironies, that everything is either black or white. Or, as Phil Ochs sang it: "So they argue through the night. Black is black. White is white. Walk away both knowing they are right." And nobody is buying flowers from the flower lady, and few are extending the olive branch. Wasn't it important for the news media to show black protesters hugging white cops, and white cops kneeling with black protesters? Or did that spoil the desire to see red instead?

Also fun in social media is insulting Woody Allen (anti-Semitism is part of it, but nobody seems to care about certain minorities). It's also good sport to tie down Rolf Harris and say he should still be in jail. The supporters for Allen or Harris tend to be dismissed as deluded fans who are probably pedophiles themselves.

You can read all about the Rolling Stones concert on various reputable websites, including Rolling Stone. That tragic evening included several people dying or overdosing, and some rock acts on the bill refusing to perform because it seemed too dangerous.  Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane could've died at that scene, but fortunately for him, he didn't get tangled close enough to the stage with several Hell's Angels around him, and he wasn't carrying a gun.

Eventually, the song "Jagger the Dagger" might be taken as the truth, as Bob Dylan's 'Hurricane" is still widely regarded as the truth. Bob hasn't performed it in years, proabbly because there's a lot of very solid evidence that Carter and his pal were guilty. Go here For Cal Deal and the Hurricane story

Jagger didn't even see the incident from the stage, and later was begging the crowd to behave. He wasn't devilishly condoning it, but why let the truth interfere when flashy fire can be added to the smoke, and an incident or a person can be scapegoated for blame and outrage? 

The other story of the week: Woody Allen's movie, completed with Amazon money, suddenly was yanked by Bezos. No American distribution. Dylan Farrow was once again making accusations that she felt should be taken as truth. 

If you want the truth on Woody Allen, and a very even assessment of the problem, a female reporter has it for you: Woody Allen piece in THE GUARDIAN

Dylan sang, "We live in a land where justice is a game." Yes, it's a "political world." And "the world is ruled by violence, but that's better left unsaid." We are taught not to rush to judgement, that one is innocent until proven guilty, and that mobs with torches are dangerous...that trying to placate the mob by self-flagellation will only show weakness and lead to more people taking advantage and playing whatever race card or blackmail card will get them the power they crave.

It's a bad idea to try and "cancel" people via social media or boycott out of misplaced malice. But it happens. Just as once in a while, there's a cop who shouldn't be on the force, "animal" or just incompetent.  Kid Creole: "He should never have been given a gun..."

Woody Allen is being denied something basic: being judged innocent until proven guilty. “You can give them the facts over and over," Woody says, "But the facts don’t matter. For some reason, emotionally, it’s important for them to buy into the story.” If he was Black, it would be easy to say he's hated for being Black. That he is most obviously Jewish, well, Jews are not a violent minority and his fans aren't going to march on Jeff Bezos' mansion. 

The he said-she said of Allen's case conveniently has leaned toward she said. As long as Woody Allen can still make movies for his small circle of fans, and he's done it even by resorting to going overseas, then few will be that upset. But at any time, all of Woody's films could be pulled from distribution, and never be taught in film classes. He could join Al Jolson and Kate Smith as scapegoats -- "cancelled" by bullying.

It's possible that one day "Jagger the Dagger" could be taught in schools as the truth. Who knows, one day Gene McDaniels could be declared a genius for this song, and "Tower of Strength" banned because "the white man wrote it and the white man made him sing it, and it's a song of weakness and a deliberate attempt to bring him to his knees and take away black power!"

A shade of gray here? McDaniels was a remarkable man. From "100 Pounds of Clay" and"Tower of Strength," he went on to write a brilliant black protest song "Compared to What" (Les McCann and Eddie Harris) as well as the beautiful "Feel Like Making Love" (Roberta Flack). Just as one can still listen to Bob Dylan's 'Hurricane' as a compelling work of art, one can listen to "Jagger the Dagger."

It just helps if people are allowed access to the truth, are allowed to question what somebody says and form their own opinion, and not be drawn along with the "rush to judgment" losers and looters trying to overpower the facts.

The truth is what you always want. COMPARED TO WHAT?