I was thinking about personal heroes the other day, mainly questioning who my personal hero was. Honestly, I can’t really say there was much thinking involved in it. It is someone I was introduced to in late 1996 when the band Tool put out their album ænima. On that CD was a song that a song called Third Eye that started out with a quote from Bill himself.
“See, I think drugs have done some good things for us, I really do.
And if you don’t believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a
Favor: go home tonight and take all your albums, all your tapes, and all
Your cd’s and burn em’. cause you konw what? the musicians who’ve made
All that great music that’s enhanced your lives throughout the years…
Rrrrrrrrrrrrreal fuckin high on drugs.”
I found this quote fascinating. Not because I’m some hippy thinking about all the good things drugs have done, and how the government is suppressing blah blah blah blah. No, the reason I like this quote is because of the blinding truth of it. Think about how true that is. There aren’t a whole lot of “rockers” that were produced during the late 70’s and early 80’s that don’t currently have or have had in the past, a drug problem. And that’s what Bill was good at, pointing out the blinding truth to us. Bill Hicks brought us this truth through comedy. He inspired a generation to look though the hype and judge something based on the facts. Tell us more Bill:
“Supreme Court says pornography is anything without artistic merit that causes sexual thoughts, that’s their definition, essentially. No artistic merit, causes sexual thoughts. Hmm… Sounds like…every commercial on television, doesn’t it? You know, when I see those two twins on that Doublemint commercial? I’m not thinking of gum. I am thinking of chewing, so maybe that’s the connection they’re trying to make.”
What was great about Bill Hick’s comedy wasn’t that it caught us off guard, it wasn’t that it was getting us with misdirection, and it wasn’t something we hadn’t thought about. A lot of his comedy put things in front of our faces that were already in front of our faces, just under a new light. He took what we were being told and shined a light on it. Take this for example:
“Go back to bed, America, your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed America, your goverment is in control. Here, here’s American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up, go back to bed America, here is American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on the living in the land of freedom. Here you go America - you are free to do what well tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!”
Ok, Bill wasn’t much of a fan of the media. In fact I would go as far to say that he pretty much hated anything to do with the media. And although Bill did talk a lot about his hate for pretty much everything, there were some ideas that he dearly cherished. This is something that Bill said near the end of most of his shows. It was his theme if you will.
“The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: “Is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “Hey, don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” And we kill those people.”
More Reading:
Bill Hicks at Wkipedia
BillHicks.com
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