Dear friends, the pastor would say, You are gathered together to witness, He would continue, a ceremony of holy matrimony. What a beautiful dress Doesn't he look nice Is she crying It's just because she's happy And what has this got do with Vietnam and what city is it this time? Khe San, Memphis, Hue, Panama No, it is San Francisco The Mission A slum And what are Protestants doing in this neighborhood? No matter The Lord spoke unto Abraham and said ye shall have faith in my wisdom and ye shall do my bidding, ye shall convert the Indians and Niggers and Spics He always uses ye not you; he's not talking to us Ye shall return to the spirit of the Sierra Maestra and ye shall be ascetics and make the world cry with electric music and sad and funny theatre for ye are the blessed children and carry the seed of the new, always new, hope and faith that this world shall be and it shall be and it shall be Boroch ataw adenoih elehanu meloch olum Yatta, yatta, yatta rabbi Cut all that shit and tell us why we are here You're here because you're invited except for the crashers and you have to sit through this part because if you want to eat the food and drink the booze you have to sit through this part. That's the way it's always been. There is a specter haunting the world And it's not Phil and hammers and sickles castrated our parents, the good ones anyway Eisenhower and Krushscev buried together in Disneyland or Outer Space and we have come back to the heritage of Moses stuttering, stammering poor kike, diddled by Egyptian chicks, and fed with the affluence of slavery and one day like the good hippie he was he said Feh, which was the old way to say Fuck it and he said to his people let's split and sure enough on the way to the rural commune some Ingmar Bergman character jumps out of a burning shrub of marijuana and says I'm God buddy and you listen to me And the sons of Moses listened and the prayed and by the large they were peaceful but their music got behind and they got righteous and full of pity for the Dead and they kill Arabs and burn villages just like Americans, just like Germans, just like Christians and Muslims But enough of foreign religion Mah Fellah Americans, says the Great Potato, we are gathered here today for the purpose of national unity The bride and groom grow edgy, the audience murmurs, What the fuck is he doing here He's everywhere and we shall overcome for there's an old American saying oh no When the going gets tough, the tough get going, Get him out of here, this is a church And just as our ancestors persevered in the past against our deadly enemies, the Injuns, the Mescans and the Nigrahs so too will we persevere against the communists, the hippies the kikes and all the other great unbelievers who menace our precious civilization And in our ears the Great Society responds with applause led by George Meany but George is alone the applause is canned the TV camera supers behind the face of the Great Potato and it reveals an electric razor and an oil well and a painter taking a photograph and pasting it on his canvas And there is a thin blue line of cops between the barbarians & Harlem There is a specter haunting us today And we don't know what it is My children join hands At last say the parents By virtue of the power invested in me Who the hell would invest in him and by the laws of Moses and of Jesus and of The Buddha of the holy ghost and the millions of other ghosts who don't give a damn In Hanoi it is one day later, in Cuba it is 6 o'clock and the workers come back from the cane field We don't know it but they are looking at our ceremony They are saying Stay as you are Country Joe Stay as you are Robin Do not fall prey to the temptations of the Great Potato Stay with Moses, stay with Fidel, stay with Che And the ghost of Che lurks in the church and his death wail booms from the mighty Fenders Don't forget me And the ghost of Malcolm stands guard against the blue eyed devils and the burning monk takes the uncollected garbage with him in a purification of the holy And it is we who are holy By the laws of all who were holy and who have invested this power in us to join and to cry and to make each hatred a deepening of love Under the Laws of Moses, Jesus, Mohamed and Ho Chi Minh Under the Laws of Ginsberg, O'Casey and Mayakovsky How about the laws of California How about the lynch law How about the Geneva convention How about Pacem en Terris How about kissing my ass, says the Great Potato Again he sneaks in and his friends hover over him, shaking giant Bar B cued ribs, clutching their genitals in their pistol pockets Begone says Moses Beat it says Jesus Que se vayan, says Fidel And the ghost of the Che and Malcolm and the burning monk surround them, and give them a powerful revolutionary hex and for a brief instant there was light and the specter hovered in the sky and became a rainbow and the guns were turned into plowshares in Israel and into electric guitars in the Great Society And they joined together in bodies and with the sound in their heads, like millions of fish in the great ocean and the audience pushed onto the stage and the stage became the tabernacle and the power was invested in all of them and it was all of them who shouted Country Joe, Robin, and all the friends in Vietnam and Cuba and Texas and the Mafia Lay down, and they all lay down, and the couple stood alone, still alone, but the friends were near, each time nearer They carried their burden, alone, together, and they took each others' hands, just as they would do in the unholy temples And the Most Reverend Bishop Mackerel said "May the Lord bless you by giving you children" and the audience didn't laugh For the time had come when the laughter became serious, the moment, the instant at which the laws of God, of the Great Potato and the State of California were to come together for the most sacred of rituals which would be reported in tomorrow's paper and would include details about where the bride bought her dress That Moment has come That Moment has gone Relax, said the minister, because we are where it is at. And Country Joe and Robin's hands began to sweat as any hands held together would sweat and the Minister now told Country Joe that if he wanted he could kiss the bride and the audience peeked to see if they blushed and some thought they did and some said they didn't And the Great Potato was frying in lard And Malcolm said these were good blue eyed devils and he would protect them when the time came and ghost of the Great Che shouted that They Would Triumph And the ceremony came to an end as the Minister pronounced the lovely couple He said I hereby pronounce you and he pronounced them Country Joe and Robin and ye shall remain Country Joe and Robin and today we feel your love and you must feel ours For you are know locked together in holiness, give or take the matrimony for as long as you want to be and May you groove with the great guru and may your children be Great Fish, and birds, and beautiful Country Folk And now the Great Ring bearer comes forth bearing the Ring of the Niebelomin, and the Carousel ring - and the ring of truth and the ring of love And the best man and the bride's father fumbled and hands touched and another part of the ancient ritual is completed All that remains is the blood of Christ, dry for a thousand nine hundred odd years. And bottled by Mogen David. Drink he said and together they drank. And none else shall drink from that glass. (They stomp on the glass). Robin do you yattayatta take Joe, more or less the way he is, for more or less forever. And do you Country Joe yatta blah yatta take Robin the way she is. Yeah, said the groom. Go in peace.
Source: P. Stansill and D. Z. Mairowitz (eds.), BAMN: Outlaw Manifestos and Ephemera 1967-70
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1 comment:
Astonishing! It really takes me back in time.
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