BILL HICKS
Bill Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American comedian, social critic, satirist and musician. His material, encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy, was controversial, and often steeped in dark comedy. He criticized consumerism, superficiality, mediocrity, and banality within the media and popular culture, which he characterized as oppressive tools of the ruling class that keep people “stupid and apathetic”. In 2007, he was voted the fourth greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4’s list of the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, and he maintained that ranking on the 2010 list. (More from Wikipedia)
I am reminded of comedian Bill Hicks; he was one of several stand-up comedians who were starting to fill up arenas in the 1980’s and 1990’s and were doing so well that many were comparing them with rock stars. Also, like rock stars, several of them died tragically young, Hicks among them, along with Sam Kinison. Anyway, I saw a documentary about Bill Hicks not long after his death, and several of his friends and colleagues mentioned that Hicks was the man who told you the truth, however painful that was. He had a long rant in his act that was on HBO and elsewhere that started out: “Drugs”. This was in the wake of Nancy Reagan’s surprisingly successful “Just Say No” campaign that had just about driven even marijuana back into the deep underground. As an example, in case you’d forgotten, MTV censored the word “joint” in Tom Petty’s harmless 1994 hit song “You Don’t Know How It Feels”; and Warner Bros. Records refused to include the B-side of the single, “Girl on L.S.D.” on the accompanying hit album, Wildflowers. Bill Hicks told everyone how omnipresent drug use was in our culture, that alcohol was just another drug, that everyone who hated drugs ought to go home and throw out all of their rock records, because that’s where all of that great music had come from, etc., etc.
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(January 2013)
