Does Anyone kow "Up Against the Wall MortherFuckers"?

when i was in new york in 68 for a big brother show i visited abbie & jerry and lived with the motherfuckers on ave b at a place they had

peace white rabbitt

 

Hell yeah, man

 

Rabbitt, we must have crossed paths sometime. The Neighborhood wasn't that big, most people hung close to home.
WE probably shared a bottle or a doob.
sh

 

i would have shared a bowl with ya but i was part of the haight hippies that dont drink, always hated it, strongest thing i drink is coke-cola on the rocks

 

Well I am so delighted to hear all this! The founder ~ Ben Morea, is a good friend of mine, and yes indeed he is getting closer to 70! I used to drive him across the country, and he'd tell me all his stories, I've even met other MF'ers.... and one of the Chicago 7. I keep telling Ben to write a memior, he says he might someday. He went to Ginsburg's funeral (Ben gave over the MF'ers to him when he left NYC in '69) lots of good stories~ his Manifesto was Black Mask (google it?) Some of the Diggers came out to Colorado and started some communes...there was AAA, Drop City, Ortivie's Farm, Red Rock & Libre, well not all started by the Diggers.

My father used to work at Max's Kansas City... anyone know of it? There is a book out about it, there's also a book out about where I'm from called ~ Huerfano. Cool shit, another book by Lisa Law called Flashing on the Sixties, that has a lot of pictures of folks that I grew up around....god I love you all!

 

Max's Kansas City was big when I was in the City. I worked for a printing shop that made their menus sometimes. White Rabbit, I lived between B & C on 11th Street around the same time you did, a little later. I think Ginsburg lived on 10th St. by the park. I was told once that Ginsburg just left his doors open. I've heard of Morea, but I forgot that he started the MFers. The way I heard it they got their reputation for trying to open up the Filmore East to the people for free. I knew a dude called Arty Motherfucker, and a girl I knew lived with another girl who was a Motherfucker, she called herself Cathy Motherfucker. The MotherFuckers and the STPers used to be tight and everybody flew under the aegis of the Angels.

 

I remember, I was once a part of them in the lower east side.

 

True, he used to do that song in washigton square park daily back in the late sixties.

 

I remember seeing/hearing David Peel play in the park, too. Remember the lyric from one of his songs, "the Pope smokes dope, the pope smokes dope."

A friend of mine crashed at his apartment several times. Don't ya know he liked men, my friend didn't...difficult situation.

 

mtnwoman,

I'm not sure I don't want to keep my distance. It's one thing to talk about the Mfers out of their ear shot, it's another thing to talk to one face to face. The Mfers were a very intimadating bunch but the nicest people you could want to know if you could somehow get past their tough exteriors. They never wanted much to do with me. I think it was because I could never make up my mind whether I wanted to fight or not, still can't.

 

I found that out when a young hitchhiker french guy I met told me that he had made a pass at him at his pad.

He had a following (sort of) of junkies and psedo musicians, yet he atracted even John Lennon who once visited his apt on 3rd street and gave him a Martin for an old leather jacket.

 

I knew (sort of) an Arty who sang in the park daily, is he the same?
My old friends still have stories to tell in relation to him. We thought he was a little hyper.

 

The name ,Max kansas city rings a bell..what street was that on?

 

When Airplane turned in the lyrics for the recordings that included the line "Up against the wall, motherfucker", their record company informed them that they couldnt release it with that word on the record.

After it was pointed out by Airplane that they already HAD released a record with the word "motherfucker" on it, the record company gave in and let the recording stay on the album.

The album that had the word motherfucker was HAIR, on the song Abie Baby. Somehow they had missed the use of the term in the lyrics of the play!

However, when the Jefferson Airplane record was released, the insert with the lyrics reads "up against the wall FRED".

I always wondered how the hell they got FRED out of motherfucker, but now when I need to tell someone to put something by the wall, I tell em to "put it up against the Fred" lol

 

Last I heard, "UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHER FUCKERS" came out as an album title (or song) by Iggy Pop and the Stooges (from I believe Ann Arbor - John Sinclair's people). For straight broadcast purposes it was changed to "up against the wall brothers and sisters". Some where in the back of my closet, I think, I still have the album.
peace out .
ZEV aka ZIH-AVE
Good Earth Family member

 

SafetyPin, sorry it took a while for me to get back here. I never thought that they were intimidating. A good number of the Yippies! were also involved. I lived in two places - corner of east 3rd and second ave - above the yiddish music store; and on east sixth st bet. ave.a and 1st avenue. I led a rally on St. Mark's Place that invaded the Electric Circus. Ah, those were the days.

 

Oh yeah, I was mtnwoman previously.

 

hemlock hollow,

Haven't checked this thread in a while either.

I also lived on e. first st. between first and 2nd avenues. What a place that was. A den of facist hippies. They suckered me in when I was down and out and like all facists once they sucker you in it's already too late.

Word was on the street (if I remember correctly) by the time I got there that the Electric Circus was once a happening place but changed into hard drug users...as opposed to us peace and love people/hippies who only took LSD, LOL. We hung out on the other side of 8th st.

Amazingly I never did that much LSD myself.

Isn't this cozy wlzev; an STPer (you), an MFer (hemlock hollow), and me (the non-entity just like I always was) all together again.

What are the odds that a Hell's Angel would mingle with us on this site. I know they mingled with the STPers back in the day. Generally they couldn't lower themselves enough to mingle with me and people like me. Never knew one personally but they were numerous enough and visible enough all over the east village so that you couldn't fail to know they were there/be aware of their presence.

In my own somewhat warped mind I always regarded the MFers as the first line of resistence or you might say a people buffer, between the Angels and smaller, less numerous, less recognized groups like the STP Family and some others. Nobody ever remembers or sees things quite like I did or do though.

 

SafetyPin, nice to hear from you. Remind me again, what years did you live there? I left rather early. Leaving radicalism in the streets behind and picking up radicalism in my life - my beliefs were much different than a lot of folks there. I was mostly with more traditional groups of radicalism, such as Yippie!, Student Mobilization League, Fifth Ave Peace Parade Committee, etc., etc., - I was more aware of history and politics than a lot of the youngsters around me.
I also worked for Avant-Garde Magazine. I left NY in the fall of 68 to get married and what a mistake that was! But that's another story!
Basically, I kind of danced to my own tune.
Was the Yiddish Music Store next to the Anderson Theatre still there? I lived in the loft directly above the store and next to the theatre. Saw Janis Joplin there and since I only had to walk 10 ft home, on acid - nice.
Okay, now you've got more info to go on - do we know each other?

 

Only had to walk 10 feet home on acid after seeing Janis Joplin, wow! Well yes we do know each other a little but not from back in the day. I didn't get to the lower east side until Sept. of 69. Was living in a rooming house on the upper west side in 68 and going to Long Island U., Brooklyn campus . Left the city on my 22nd B-day in 1971.

I don't remember the Yiddish music store but I remember the Anderson theater. It had been abandoned by the time I was living on the the street in 71 but the Hell's Angels opened it back up to sponser a free concert by the Dead.

hemlock hollow, I was a very strange kind of hippy. I was in NYC for 3 years, lived in the east village for 2 years and never went to a concert at the Fillmore. I did however, if I may be so crude, nail my first girl. I haven't forgotten her yet!