Transcript prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
To return to the Tape Index, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2).
To read the Tape Summary, click here.
Song 1:
(Woman 1 sings “That’s the Way of the World,” by Earth Wind & Fire)
–’cause the world seems cold
Stay young at heart, and you’re never never never never old
That’s the way of the world, yeah yeah
Hearts of fire creates love desire
Hearts of fire to your love desire
Hearts of fire to your place on the throne
You will find that’s the way of the world of the world
Hearts of fire create love desire
Hearts of fire.
(Tape edit)
Man 1: –for medical attention, having the fear of black lung disease that kill most miners in their mid-forties. It costs a lot of money for doctors, and us miners still can’t get insurance. I’ve worked in the mines all my life, some twenty-odd years, and my family lived in fear that each day when I would go to the mines, that I might never return home alive. And my dad didn’t one day. I still miss the old home place, because the city’s sure no easy place to earn a living, especially when you’re like me, all I know to do is work in the mines, and even that’s no easy job with the poor working conditions. Lots didn’t even eat breakfast in the morning because I’d just vomit it up from laying on my back and crawling on my knees in that dirty old mine. We walked out on strike, protesting poor working conditions and no insurance benefits and low pay, but with no help from the unions and our family’s facing starvation, we were forced to return to the mines. I wonder where it will all end. When will people start caring for one another? I believe that’s the answer. (Pause)
Man 2: The house I live in. These bars of steel. They’re designed to break my spirit and destroy my mind. But they only serve to make me stronger. And more determined to defeat my enemy. The ruling fascist elite has ruled me a political prisoner, and has thrown me amongst the ranks of the forgotten, expecting never to hear from me again. But being here only gives me more time to plan my next move. (Pause) Inside these walls, there’s a whole different kind of world. A world where power is absolute, and the actions of the pigs that run this place are never questioned. No one on the outside could ever imagine the mass genocide of our people that goes on in here. Remember Attica. Remember George Jackson. Remember the Wilmington 10. Remember all of our brothers and sisters that have been tortured and murdered and buried within these walls. And remember, this house is only able to stand because you dare not speak out in the face of truth. So speak out. It may be you the next time.
(feedback and static)
(Tape edit)
Song 2:
(Man 3 sings, “A Change is Gonna Come,” by Sam Cooke)
–by the river in a little tent, yes I was,
And just like the river
I’ve been a-runnin’ ever since
It’s been a long, a long time comin’
But I know a change is gonna come
It’s been a long time comin’
But I know a change is gonna come
When I go to my brother and I say, “Brother, help me please”
And he winds up– And he winds up knocking me,
Knocking me to my my my my my my my my my my knees
Whoa
There’ve been times that I’ve thought woo-oo
I couldn’t last– I couldn’t last too long
It’s been a long, a long time comin’
But I know change is gonna come
Yes it is
(Spoken) A knock comes to my door. (Pause) And who turns out to be, a human just like you and me. And I’m bitter. Each day my bitterness grows deeper and deeper as I search for reasons to what we were really fighting for. You see, I volunteered my life to fight in the war, a war that was supposed to guarantee freedom for my people here at home, that they would have a better life, and I’m bitter. It was not the Vietnamese, it was not the Japanese, it was not the Communist who pulled a gun on my mother because she was one minute late for work in the fields. No, she had a sick baby at home to care for. And oh,
(sings) There’ve been times that I’ve thought
I couldn’t last– I couldn’t last too long
It’s been a long time coming
But I know change is gonna come, yes it is.
(tape edit)
Song 3:
Woman 2: (Song in Spanish composed by Chilean poet Victor Jara [Complete words and Music])
El derecho de vivir
El poeta Ho Chi Minh que golpea de Viethnam a toda la humanidad
Ningún cañón borrará
Cadena que harían triunfar el derecho de vivir en paz
Tío Ho, nuestra canción es puro fuego de amor
Es palomo palomar
Olivo de olivarEs el canto universal
Cadenas que harían triunfar el derecho de vivir en paz
El derecho de vivir en paz.
Crowd: (Applause)
(tape edit)
Man 1: –I’m being asked, what false figures and doctored statistics must I feed into this computer so that it will give the generals the excuse that they need to carry on a war that not only can’t be won, but should not be won. What is the morality of trying to destroy a brave people, the Vietnamese, whose belief in their cause is so strong that they fight back harder, with firmer resolve each time that their land and their babies are blown up by America’s bombs. Beautiful land. Precious babies. I’ve seen them. Human beings, so proud and so bold, and yet we call them gooks, because it’s so much easier, don’t you know, to drop napalm on gooks than it is on human beings. What kind of vicious inhumanity is this? What kind of sick and depraved minds would look at persons as if they were things? This is racism, like the world has never known before. And you want me to tell you this war can be won? It’s already lost. It was lost long before it was started. It was lost, America, when you told that poor young black man whom you wouldn’t provide a job for that you would pay him to fight. You gave him no choice, and then you lied to him. You told him he was gonna fight for someone else’s freedom, when he did not have his own. And now he’s dead. You killed him, America, and you don’t even care. God damn you, America, and God damn your system, your war, and your men who created it. God damn you, Secretary Rusk [former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk] and Secretary McNamara [former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara], for lying to the people to hide the death and destruction you cause, and God damn you, General [Maxwell] Taylor and General [William] Westmoreland. I charge you with the premeditated murder of innocent babies, whose blood drips from your hands, and God damn you, President [Lyndon] Johnson, you who could’ve stopped it all, but kept it going, because you didn’t want to look weak, or admit you were wrong. You blinded yourself to the tortures and suffering, all because you wanted to perpetuate your immoral and corrupt power. And you want me to feed your statistics into this computer? I’ll feed it all right, but I’ll feed it with the truth. And I’ll take the truth that comes out, the truth which reveals America’s committing one of the greatest atrocities in the history of mankind. I’ll take that truth, and expose it to the world.
Crowd: (Applause)
Song 4:
(Duet of women singing, most lyrics unintelligible with reverbs and overlapping vocals)
Brothers in the sun
(unintelligible lines)
People running from the law
(unintelligible lines)
And they make me get the feeling
(unintelligible lines)
Kids playing in the street
Stealing just for fun
Arrest one (unintelligible line)
They got you on the run.
(two women overlap)
No, no, I said, don’t you worry
Gonna talk about worry
No, no, white man, don’t you worry
Of what I’m a gonna do
Worry, worry, worry, worry, don’t you worry.
Worry, worry, no no no, don’t you worry.
Song 5:
(Woman 5 sings “Never Can say Goodbye,” by the Jackson 5)
I never can say goodbye
No, no, no no, I never can say goodbye
Every time I think I’ve given up
And start heading for the door
I get this very strange vibration
It seems to call me back for more
It says turn around you fool,
You know you love him more
And more
Tell me why is it so?
Never can say goodbye
No no no no I never can say goodbye
Every time I think I’ve given up
And start heading for the door
I get this very strange vibration
It seems to call me back for more
It says turn around you fool,
You know you love him more
And more
Tell me why is it so?
Don’t want to let you go
I never can say goodbye, girl
I never can say goodbye
No no no no no no no no no, hey
I never say goodbye, girl
I never can say goodbye
No no no
Never can say goodbye
No no no no I never can say goodbye
Every time I think I’ve given up
And start heading for the door
I get this very strange vibration
It seems to call me back for more
It says turn around you fool,
You know you love him more
And more
Tell me why is it so?
Don’t want to let you go
I never can say goodbye, girl
I never can say goodbye
No no no no no no no no no no no
Hey, I never say goodbye, girl
I never can say goodbye
No no no no no no no no no no no
Hey, I never can say goodbye, girl
I never can say goodbye
(tape edit)
Woman 6: Ka’ba, by Amiri Raraka
[Woman recites variation of the poem “Ka’ba,” by Amiri Raraka]
A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and black people
call across or walk across or scream across
defying physics in the stream of their will
Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone’s
though we suffer and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air
We are beautiful people
with African imaginations
full of masks, eyes, arms and noses,
though we sprawl in gray chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun
We have been captured,
brothers. And we labor
to make our getaway,
into the ancient image, into a new
correspondence with ourselves
and our black family. Now we need magic
now we need the spells, to rise up
return, destroy, and create. What will
the sacred words be?
Crowd: (Applause)
(tape edit)
Emcee: And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is comedy time right here at Jonestown. She is 77 years old, and every bone in her body that works. Let’s give a round of applause for the Jonestown Moms Mabley [likely Bertha Cook]. Woo! Come on.
Moms: Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. (Pause) Ain’t nothing jumping but the peas in the pot. Now they wouldn’t jump if the water wasn’t hot. I’m limited tonight to just three of them, three little ones. Well, I want you to know, it was a surprise to me today. I picked up an old box of Ex-Lax. And ate the whole box. Didn’t nobody tell me that wasn’t all chocolate. (Pause) Now there was a young man that went to the city. And he wanted to get a date. So he had plenty money, and he knew he was– he was on the ball. So he went up to a fellow on the street and said look, said, I’d like to know where I could find some girls. So the fellow says, I know exactly where you can go too. Ya see that house down on the corner. You go down there and you do exactly what the instructions tell you to do. So he went down, and in the living room he saw a little po– a little card that said, Take off your– (pause) Take your billfold out and put it on the table. Take off all your diamonds. Lay them here too. And go to the next room. (Pause) So he did what the note said, and he went on. When he got to the next room, the note says, take off your tie. Take off your suit and your shirt. Go to the next room. (Pause) So when he got to the third room, the note says, take off your shoes and your shock– socks and your underwear, and proceed. (Pause) So he went– He did that and then he went through the door. And he found himself standing in the alley.
Crowd: (Laughter)
Moms: Well, the door closed real fast behind him. And he looked, and it said, you just been screwed.
Crowd: (Laughter)
Moms: Bye! (Pause)
Emcee: That’s Moms Mabley. One more time for Moms Mabley.
(tape edit)
Song 6:
(Woman 7 sings variation of “Love ballad” by K-ci & jojo)
I have never been so much
In love, before
What a difference, a true love made in my life
So nice, so right
Jonestown gave me something new
That I’ve never felt, never dreamed of
Something’s changed
Though it’s not the feeling I had before
Oh, no now,
What we have it’s much more than they could see
Love, I never knew so much
Could mean so much
What a difference
And we walk hand in hand
I feel so (unintelligible word)
Till Jim Jones gave me something new
That I’ve never felt, never dreamed of
Something changed
Though it’s not the feeling I had before
Oh, no now,
What we have it’s much more than they could see
What we have now
What we have it’s much more than they could see
We got so much (unintelligible word)
What we have it’s much more than they could see, now
What we have it’s much more than they can see
We got so much
What we have it’s much more than they can see
They can see
What we have it’s much more than they can see
Oh yeah, now
What we have now it’s much more than they can see.
(Tape edit)
Spoken: One more time
Song 7:
(Man 4 sings variation of “How deep is your love?” by the BeeGees)
(unintelligible phrase) sun
I feel you touch me in the pouring rain
And the moment that you wander far from me
I wanna feel you in my arms again
Yeah, ‘cause you may not feel that I care for you
Keep me warm in your love and then softly leave
And it’s me you need to show
How deep is your love
Whoa yeah
You know it’s me (unintelligible line)
’cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down
When they all should let us be
We belong to you and me
I believe in you
You know that love (unintelligible phrase)
And the light of my deepest darkest hour
You’re my savior when I fall
And you may not feel
That I care for you
Keep me falling in love
Then you know I do
And it’s me you need
How deep is your love
(How deep is your love)
(How deep is your love)
You know it’s me (unintelligible line)
‘Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down
When they all should let us be
They belong to you and me
La-la-la
‘Cause it may not seem that I care for you
Keep me warm in your love
And you know I do
And it’s me you need too
How deep is your love
(How deep is your love)
(How deep is your love)
You know it’s me (unintelligible line)
‘Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down
And they all should let us be
Belong to you and me
Whoa yeah
‘Cause I’m living in a world of fools
Breaking us down
When they all should let us be
They belong to you and me
Whoa yeah
You know it’s me (unintelligible line)
‘Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down
When they all should let us be
They belong to you and me
Spoken: Goodbye.
(Tape edit)
(unintelligible phrase)
(Tape edit)
Song 8:
(Marthea Hicks sings “Lovers,” covered by Natalie Cole)
Everywhere I go, in every face I see the signs of love
Shining oh so brightly, it’s in the air, it’s everywhere, I can feel it in my bones
People holding hands, making love, really, really getting it on
I’m talkin’ ‘bout comrades, beautiful comrades,
And everywhere I go, I hear people say
That they wouldn’t mind checking it out, ah getting down
Don’t you know that life can be beautiful, life can be wonderful when you
Can only have that special someone around,
I’m talking ‘bout comrades,
Beautiful comrades
Lover, beautiful lover
Spoken: Diane Wilkinson on the piano, let’s give her a hand
Sings: There’s a feeling and it’s catching
Look what’s happenin’
(unintelligible line)
(sings scat)
And it’s catching, look what is happenin’, look what’s happenin’
Take a trip, ‘cause it’s hip, and the trip
Lovers, I’m talking about lovers
Lovers, beautiful lovers
Beautiful lovers
Lovers, beautiful lovers
Lovers
Spoken: Thank you.
Song 9:
(Marthea Hicks sings “Everybody’s talking,” by Harry Nielsen)
Everybody’s talking about me.
I can’t hear a word they’re saying,
Only the echoes of their mind.
People stop and staring,
I can’t even see their faces,
Only the shadows of their eyes.
I’m going where the sun keeps shining
Through the pouring rain,
Going where the weather suits my clothes,
Backing off of the northeast wind,
Sailing on a summer breeze
Skipping over the ocean like a stone.
(sings scat)
Everybody’s talking about me.
I can’t hear the words they’re saying,
Only the echoes of their mind.
People stop and staring,
I can’t even see their faces,
Only the shadows of their eyes.
I’m going where the sun keeps shining
Through the pouring rain,
Going where the weather suits my clothes,
Going where the sun keeps shining
Through the pouring rain
Skipping over the ocean like a stone.
(sings scat)
Emcee: Yes, Miss Unforgettable, Marthea.
(Tape edit)
Song 10:
(Marthea Hicks sings)
I’ll make the first step
And you will make the next
And we’ll join hands the farther we go
The hills may sometimes seem hard for him to climb
But I know he’s gonna make it by and bye
He’ll go on fighting
Until the whole world is free
We’ll live together in peace
I’m gonna make the next step
And you will make– make the next
And we’ll join hands the farther, the farther we’ll go
The hills I know seems hard sometimes
And it seems hard for him to climb
But I know my friend’s gonna make it by and bye
Well, he’ll go on fighting
Until the whole world, the whole world is free
We’ll live together, together in peace.
Together in peace.
(Tape edit)
Song 11:
(Marthea Hicks sings variation of “You Are So Beautiful to Me” by Joe Cocker)
Jonestown is so beautiful
To me
Jonestown is so beautiful
To me
Yeah, yes, I see
It’s everything I’d ever hoped for
And it’s everything
To me
Jonestown is so beautiful
To me
Jonestown is so beautiful
If you look around
To me
Jonestown is so beautiful
To me
Yes, I see
It’s everything I’d ever hoped for
And it’s everything everything everything
To me
Yeah yeah
Jonestown is so beautiful
I just want to clap my hands
Yes, Guyana is so beautiful
I want to clap my hands
Guyana is so beautiful
One more time one more time
Guyana is so beautiful
To me
Yeah yeah
Yeah yeah
(Tape edit)
Song 12:
(Marthea Hicks sings)
To be strong, gifted and black
Oh what a lovely prec– precious thing
Oh when you’re, when you’re, when you’re
Strong yeah, gifted and black
We must begin to tell our people
When you’re feeling real low
There’s a great truth we all should remember and know
That we are strong, gifted and black
Whoa
We got our souls intact
And that’s a fact.
And that’s a fact.
To be strong, gifted and black
Is this a quest that’s just begun?
World waiting for you.
Or is this a quest that’s just begun?
When you’re feeling real low
Just a little low
There’s a great truth we all should remember and know
That we are strong, gifted and free
We got our souls intact
We got our souls intact
We got our souls intact
Yeah
We got our souls intact
Clap your hands,
(unintelligible word) your feet
We got our souls intact
We got our souls intact
One more time one more time
One more time
One more time
Spoken: As we go home tonight, we’d like to thank our distinguished guests for being here. We’re glad you came with us, and this is Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin [Walter and Charlotte Baldwin], and we’re very glad to have you tonight.
Crowd: (Applause)
Hicks: We got our souls intact
We got our souls intact
We got our souls intact
We got our souls intact
We got our souls intact
(Tape edit)
Marceline: I would like– Before we go, I would like to say that uh, Jim Jones is very sorry that he could not be up here tonight, but as he said over this microphone, he had a very high uh, fever today. He had a heart attack a couple of days ago too, and uh, uh, he’s had to have medication but we know that he’s going to be all right.
Crowd: (Applause)
(Tape edit)
Marceline: –do want to say, before I introduce our guest to– to you and give him a chance maybe to say just a few words before you go, ‘cause it’s been a pleasure to spend the day with him, that all of this would not have been possible, what you’ve seen today, if it hadn’t been for a vision of Jim Jones that started when I met him– I met him 30 years ago, and I’ve been married to him 29. And many years ago, when he’d have a dream or start to do something, I used to say, Jim, you can’t do this. And I finally learned that whatever he set out to do, he did.
Crowd: (Applause)
Marceline: And there was no sacrifice too great, and I do want to say that I am indeed so grateful to say that I have lived to see Jonestown. I’ve had a lot of beautiful and enriching experiences with Jim Jones, but this is the most exciting and the most beautiful, and to live life, not just to exist, (Pause) is so important.
Crowd: (Applause)
(Tape edit)
Marceline: He has been about the business of identifying problems in this world, but he not only f– identified the injustices, stood up against them, but he gave us solutions to the problem which is socialism.
Crowd: (Applause)
(Tape edit)
Marceline: –return that you will be able to meet him. And I want all of you to give a warm welcome– and I’d like to be able to– I’d like for you to come and say a few words if you will. The gentleman that’s– is in our midst is from Denmark. He’s a socialist. He uh, is a filmmaker, and a little over a year ago, I met with his colleague in Charles Garry’s office in San Francisco, and he was in another– This is Peter [Elsass], and I’m going to have to admit, that be– his name is Danish and he’s been very kind, he said, few people learn how to pronounce my name, if they don’t live in Denmark, so I have a little problem with it, so he’ll tell you, it’s close to Ellis. But it’s Alief– uh, he is– he has his Ph.D. in psychology, but he’s about the business of making films, documentaries of the kinds of things that’re happening in Jonestown, and it’s been a pleasure having you here today. We hope you will return, and we’d love to have you come and say a few words to the people. Thanks.
Crowd: (Applause)
Peter Elsass: Oh, you are many. (Laughs) Well, I think I will sit down too. (Pause) Four– about five years ago, I was traveling around with a theater group in south of Italy. And I think now I will tell you a little about what happened with that theater group. It was a theater group who normally do their performance in theater cities, in theater houses. It was people who only work with their brains, not with their bodies. It was people who lived isolated in the south of Italy in a little house, and only acting theater for themselves. And only educating their brains. So they stay there in the little community, in the little village, for four months, and after four months, the people of south Italy in the little village got more and more aggressive about our theater people. Because what were they doing there with their brains? What were they doing in this house? Well, one day it happened that this theater group had to walk through the city, through the little village to a friend of mine, and to do performance in his house. But when the theater people– when the actors, went out in the street, the people of the village surrounded them and said, when now we will see what people you are? What can you do? What is your work? And the theater people was a little afraid because they only have brain, they do not have bodies. (Pause) But there happened something what that day when they arrived to our friend’s– to my friend’s house, it was closed. So suddenly we were surrounded of the whole village which were very aggressive to all of us and say, please show our work to us. And we do not have any other possibility to show a theater piece on the street. It was the first time our theater group show theater to people who do not know theater beforehand. When we do our job, and thereafter the people that dodn’t– that didn’t clap their hands because they were not coming to theater work, they were not coming to be an audience. But little by little, (unintelligible word) they began dancing in the street, they began making music, they began singing songs. And that was the audience that our (unintelligible phrase; sounds like “access lie”). And from this moment, this theater group have only do their– done their performance – and still do their performance – on the streets, among people who do not know anything about theater. (Pause) The people who know the ground, who know their bodies, who have brown under their knees, and that was the experience who drove the theater group to real acting people, not only people who are educating their brains, but their whole bodies. Well, I’d just like to say, at least here, that this experience have been the same for me today. I’ve been together with people who not only work the socialist in their brain, but with their whole body, who know the ground, who know how to live in a socialistic community. Not only talking about it, but do what you talk. That has been a great experience for me. Thank you very much.
Crowd: (Applause)
(tape edit)
End of tape
Tape originally posted March 2008