Tribute to Hunter S. Thompson
In a time wherein my heroes are dropping like flies, here is my tributes to HST, the Good Doctor.
Last night I tried. I tried so damn hard. The sweat poured and the blood thumped and the floor shook - but was it enough?
How do I convey the tremendous pressurehead of passion in my heart to an audience?
I leapt from the speaker stack, I threw myself to the ground, I thrashed at my instrument with pick, fingers and then closed fist - I pounded it until its growl reflected the innermost turmoil that I could dredge up into unseemly daylight. I was HONEST. I played well; the beats flowing from my mouth were crisp and every note I cajoled from my bass sounded like flesh stripped from a wounded walrus.
And yet...
And yet...
"If you feel what I feel it's a musical masterpiece" - and do they really? For all my passionate hyperantics, do the audience feel a tenth of the pure love I feel for music? Do they sway because the music bids them so, or because everyone else is doing it?
I wonder if the razor would help. If drawing the sweet line of pain across my forehead and donning the crimson mask would convince doubters of our sincerety... If by physically bleeding the music that streams from my hands, armpits and eyes I could somehow make it something more, or whether I would pass out and collapse to the ground unmoving...
I need them to leap off the fence. Arms in the sky, hearts in the clouds, breathing, loving, living, positive... I need the force of wellbeing, the magnificent beauty that comes from communal exertion, the collective focus and the power of unity, the oneness from two hundred fucked up and scared individuals finally agreeing on something and getting behind a cause... The raw splendour of a negative becoming a positive...
Life is for the dreamers as much as the mundanes. Let us sing whilst the tears flow, let us scream into the cloying darkness, let us make the statement that WE ARE ALIVE, we can love each other, we can support each other, and we can be more together than we can alone.
Let us at least try
