http://soundcloud.com/allplayedout/a...by-bob-avakian



Its like a 14 year old just discovered gill scot heron or amiri baraka and decided to write down like everything he thinks about the world.. only its infinitely more tragic because this man is 60-something and the leader of a political party.

How long can you listen for ?

edit; did he really just say 'homies in the hood' >_<

His voice is like a less cool Christopher Walken.

Listened for about ten seconds.

wow anybody with half a brain and a thesaurus could have written this. i couldn't take it. his lispy voice kind of creeps me out

LOL, this is fucking terrible.

The "ALL PLAYED OUT" is so cheesy.

really it is just awful.... and even embarrassing. Bad poetry, trite lyrics, and ridiculous hype.

I had to *make* myself listen to the end.

One RCP supporter wrote on facebook:

"Here's a marvelously dynamic poem which captures the horrors of the present-day, archaic capitalist imperialist system's essence while positing the road to a future of incomparable brightness and splendor."

The poem comes with formal instructions telling people to play it at open mics and requesting it on radios.

http://revcom.us/a/223/all_played_out-en.html

What jumps out at me is that the RCP is (literally) unable to see themselves as others do -- which is deadly for any pretense of political interaction.

The other thing that strikes me is the general bitterness of the piece. Maoists talked (back in the day) about denouncing the oppressors and "extolling" the people. But there is zero extolling here (except of Avakian himself and his new synthesis and his books). There is bitterness that no one reads his books, and a special chapter denouncing those who have a chance to read Avakian but choose not to.

Given the internal culture of the RCP, everyone there is required to gush with "ooohs and aaaahs" about this poem and tell their (dwindling) friend circles that 'you have to check this out."

Meanwhile, everyone with any critical faculties just shakes their head. Sad.

Kuppo wrote a haiku:

Bob Avakian
Shut the fuck up right now, man.
Like, seriously.

Their typically hyped and windy self-promo said:

"Avakian's heart and soul, outrage and humor, poetic spirit, and confidence in the masses to make revolution—transform the planet and themselves—comes out in this challenging declaration that the world really doesn't have to be this way, and we can make and live in a radically different and better world."

http://revcom.us/a/223/all_played_out-en.html

I got to the "homies in the hood" part and I was done. Mike raises a really great point when he says that the RCP is utterly unable to see itself the way all other revolutionaries and even non-revolutionaries do. At the US Social Forum, they were a joke. Any time I see one of those t-shirts, which is rare, I can't help but laugh. Still, I totally want to call my local radio stations and tell them to put Alice in Chains on hold so I can hear "All Played Out." Can someone do an auto-tune version?

That's a quality most cults share. Sadly, the RCP is far from the only leftist group with this problem.

To be fair, the Social Forums themselves are some of the biggest jokes of all. Or maybe they're more aptly described as tragicomedies.

A great meeting of revolutionaries... sponsored by Ford.

I'm impressed, I've never heard anyone rhyme revolution with solution before.

This has to be a parody... but no, it isn't.

I want the 30 seconds it took to load that onto my computer and the 1 minute and 30 seconds I spent listening to it back.

roses are red
violets are blue
bob avakian hasn't got a clue
do you hate him too?

We really are horrible to this poor man.

Still, it's pretty hilarious.

Oh how horrible it is that the main proponents of revolutionary change currently write this shit - when back in the day we had people like Renzo Novatore (who I named myself after)! I mean read this poem: http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/...ght_Dance.html

Try comparing that with this:

We must broadly unite,
To carry out the fight,
To resist the crimes of this system.
But on the real revolution,
Is the only solution,
So we need to call out,
Things who's time have run out,
That keep people in chains,
Suffering unbearable pains,
These things are all played out.

WHAT SHIT! That's the kind of crap I'd write for my 6th grade english class - which 6th grade was probably the only time in Bob Avakian's life when he encountered poetry. He probably doesn't even know who someone like Rimbaud is! It's like he just sat down one night and was like: "Hey, I'm going to be a poet because that's what a deep revolutionary does," and he scribbled this shit down writing like a two year old - "What rhymes with unite? Oh fight! So we must broadly unite to carry out this fight! Wow! I'm amazing! I'm better than Ezra Pound!"

this isnt actually a poem it's the audio from a scene from the motion picture "Easy Rider"

On the contrary. Bob was a student of romantic poetry -- even learned Italian to better understand some poetry in the original.

It is true that it is shit. It is a terrible poem, with ideas presented without any hint of poetic originality or wit.

So how do we explain it?

Or how do we explain the seeming acceptence of this dreck by people people like Michael Slate (who wrote so movingly about Howl) or Connie Julian who worked so closely with real poets in the Refuse and Resist artists network?

It is not ignorance. It is not lack of knowledge. It is line. It is what Maoists call "whateverism." Whatever you say, boss.

Avakian lives in a small hall of mirrors, and can no longer maintain any perspective on his own declining and pathetically over-hyped work. His remaining followers are simply unable to express a critical idea (no matter what they secretly know).

This is terrible. Thanks, Bob. Your revolutionary light shines bright.

Okay I got through about 1:20 of that, I must win, or lose .