Counter Culture: Who Does it Serve?

It's funny in research: just when you think you'll never find anything about what you're looking for, you just happen upon it, and then, when you find it, you simply can't believe it! So you read it several times, remember back as to why you are doing the research in the first place, and then it hits you...By God, the writer just might be saying the truth (!)--no matter how much it shatters your illusions...

In my other life, I write novels about fictitious rock bands, which means I basically have to know what is happening in pop culture and its offshoot, counter culture. For instance:

I have to know how rock music trends get started, who starts them, and how they are disseminated. I have to know how the record-CD-tape business works; how recordings are made; how recordings are distributed; royalties, etc.

I have to know how talent is chosen for "making it."

I have to know why various songs, many of which I can't stand, get to be "hits" and other wonderful songs never get anywhere.

I have to know the mentality of "rock stars," which is to say, I have to know the mentality of "wanna-bes". This is something you only get to know by knowing these stars (which I don't) or by knowing wanna-bes (which I do and did). I mean, what would make a guy want to go through the horrors or drink and drug addiction, lonliness, no rest on tour, health problems, getting old before his time (have you seen a recent photo of Mick Jagger? The guy looks at least seventy!), having to deal with Mafia, the threat of has-been-dom, loss of soul, loss of self-control, being stuck at a certain emotional age, loss of freedom, and, of course, loss of life? > It made me wonder: just why do so many rock stars kill themselves on drugs precisely, seemingly, at heights of careers? And the real killer--why did a "lone crazed killer" named Mark David Chapman murder John Lennon? Can the assassination of a rock star be part of a conspiracy? ("http://www.apbonline.com" has evidence in their 'celebrity' section that Chapman may have been an MK-Ultra subject sent to murder Lennon. Lennon's IRA connection is proposed for the purpose for Chapman's 'job'.)

I mean, why is it the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, the victim of death number one by "drugs" in rock stardom, would be foolish enough to take a drug (supposedly LSD, but this has been disputed--see Rock of Ages, the Rolling Stone magazine History of Rock 'N Roll), and then "fly" out of his window into his swimming pool? Again, this has been disputed--another theory is he was in the pool and "took LSD". Or, was he "given" LSD perhaps against his will? Now, of course, we all know how hippies used to "fly" out of windows on LSD. Right! Folks, that is a myth. Very simply--and anyone knowledgable of LSD can tell you this--LSD makes you hallucinate but all the time you are aware of what you are doing. I have never used LSD but know several folks who have and the "flying" out of windows business doesn't happen! Unless you are pushed out of one. Could that have happened to Jones?

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