July 4th – Happy 4th July to any American folk reading this. X!
You’re never quite sure, are you? You
know, when things come up about either certain individuals or organisations and
as you read them you keep looking for the angle, keep looking for the reason
behind the suggestion; who gains, who stands to lose… That’s the meal ticket
for the paparazzi and the publicist; it’s the reason why agents, pluggers and
those unprincipled cads, Advertising Executives, get out of bed each day; for
the opportunity to fuck some poor schmuck over before bedtime.
Fleetwood Mac (FM) is a band I’ve had an affinity with for
years, something I’ve touched on before, I know. Apart from their longevity (in
spite of everything, things that would kill lesser mortals) and their track
record of being able to produce, over
and over again, songs that connect in such a way that the earth
stops until the fusing together is completed, songs like Landslide or Songbird, Shake
Your Money Maker or Rhiannon.
Maybe it’s because we take them, through the integrity of their work, at face
value and realise all the trappings and hoop-la surrounding them still can’t
protect them from falling into the traps that you and I try to negotiate every
day, with varying degrees of success.
When they first started out in ‘67’ one of their members was
a guitarist of singular ability; Jeremy Spencer. If you get the chance, look
him up and have a listen to the recording of Shake Your Money Maker off’f the first Fleetwood Mac album; just
excellent guitar work. He really was a talent and had a certain affinity with
southern blues and the slide guitar technique in particular then, as FM became
more and more famous so the following and its demands became greater. Like many
of the time, various substances were imbibed and at one time, it’s said, Mr.
Spencer had a particularly unappreciative dollop of mescaline which made
inroads into his equanimity. He never seemed to be part of the scene even
before that, not off-stage anyhow; his on-stage antics and sometime lewdness
got the band into trouble on several occasions but off-stage he was,
apparently, quiet and withdrawn…separate almost. Certainly was when he went
missing mid-tour in LA in 1971.
Relevant searches eventually homed in on him having been
converted to become a member of a left-field religious sect called The Children of God (funny, I thought we
all were) and he announced he had quit the music business to concentrate on the
church’s message. Nowt wrong with that, each to their own…seems funny though
that a similar thing happened to Peter Green, remember? When he was whisked
away by some German cult folk called Highfisch-Kommune?
Turns out to be all a ruse by unscrupulous folk to get a rock-sleb onto their
books and influence booking agents and managers…remember to look for the angle.
Mr. Spencer formed a new band from within the community and
did some live stuff and recording, all amounting to not very much. Still, he
was happy…
When the stories of child sex abuse and general inter-group
fornication began to surface surrounding the religious order and Mr. Spencer,
the first thing that came to my mind was;
“If you don’t want to stink of shit, don’t put any in your
pocket.”
The Children of God, as they were known, or The Family of Love, or The Family, or The Family International (whatever) were the religious brainchild
of David Berg (he was a prophet, of course…every cult should have one) and, as
seems to be a prerequisite of such extreme branches of religion, became
renowned for their predilection to sexual practices of a diverse nature. Why is
that, hm? That almost anything starting out as an alternative religion has to
have a sexual core to it and usually at the behest of the originator? I mean,
isn’t the opportunity to worship God or Jesus – as they all profess they want
to do – enough? Or is it because no one in their right mind would join if it
wasn’t for the offer of regular sex with different people of different ages…?
Just a thought. Anyway, the labels kept coming (no pun intended) such as the Loving Jesus Revelation (children of 14
encouraged to have sex) or Flirty Fishing,
the use of sex to gain converts – look for the angle – oh and of course, to
show God’s love as well as have multiple fuck sessions..
There’s a saying;
“A dog that bites might be just a dog, but it still bites.”
So, a religious order that admits, through writings, photos
and videos that adult members abuse children in the name of God and Jesus may
be just a religious order but it still abuses children…
It’s hardly surprising then that negative press for Jeremy
Spencer has been the upshot of all the questions asked in various courts of law
and all the evidence given by his children and various other cult members. And
all he probably wanted to be was a bloody good guitarist, which he was until
faulty stimulants and the appearance of a religious brainworm infiltrated his
consciousness…shame; bad gods or bad drugs fuck up most folk one way or the
other.
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