Rev Jim Jones


The Reverend Jim Jones was the leader of a religious cult ('The People's Temple') who led his followers first to the Guyanan jungle, and then, in 1978, to mass suicide, effected by poisoned Kool-Aid.

Consipiracy theorists implicate the CIA in some way.

At some point, Jim gave a little speech which has been extensively sampled and used in tracks by a variety of modern musicians, including:

The odd thing is, nobody seems to agree on exactly what words Jim is saying. The best consensus that can be made from the various transcripts google can find is this (variable bits in square brackets):

If, if by any chance you will] make a mistake to try to come in and take any one of us, we will not let you, you will die - you will have to take anybody over all [of] our dead bodies! [Love isn't the only weapon.] Martin Luther King died [for] love! Kennedy died talking about something he couldn't [even] understand, some kind of generalised love! [And he never even backed it up [and he was shot down]!] [Love isn't the only weapon with which I got to fight with] [bullshit!] I've got a hell of a lot of weapons to fight! I got my [claws/clothes], I got [cutlasses?], I got guns, I got dynamite, I got a hell of a lot of fight! I'll fight! I'll fight! I will fight!

For anyone who believes that Kennedy 'never even backed up' an idea of 'generalised love', a generation of Whitehouse interns will argue the opposite. groovy, baby. But then, he'd never heard of Clinton. Or the Governator...


Tue, 21 Oct 2003 21:35:54 GMT Front Page Recent Changes Message Of The Day