Warning: Some of these videos contain very graphic images.
Anyone who knows Rocks Off, even in passing, knows of his fierce JFK assassination obsession. The theories, the scientific data, the literature and the various opinions shooting through the Internet with a lightning-fast velocity are all like catnip to us. We even make the trek up to godforsaken Dallas every year to visit the Grassy Knoll and throw down our own conspiracy theories about JFK's death with what is now a familiar group of fanatics and quasi-academics. For the record, we believe that a high-level conspiracy involving the military industrial complex is at fault, whose goal was to line the pockets of war profiteers and to ensure we stayed in Vietnam.
Since that shadowy day in Dealey Plaza in November of 1963, musicians and artists have struggled to convey the feeling of loss and sadness that surround it. The implications of a husband, father, brother and son losing his life in front of the entire world are hard to fathom even in on its face. The fact that there exist so many strange and dissenting viewpoints on what happened those few seconds on Elm Street in Dallas show that we are a country that won't be sated with one version of the truth. When you factor the pain that comes with losing something with so much promise and shine, the fact the almost the entire world is conflicted is no surprise. The music world began mourning the death of Kennedy a few years after he was gunned down, and references to his life and demise still abound in most all corners of recorded music. Every genre can boast a song that deals directly with the assassination, from hip-hop and indie-rock to glam-metal. The level of esotery is the only thing that changes. "Abraham, Martin, and John," Dion "The Day That John Kennedy Died," Lou Reed "Jackie's Strength," Tori Amos "Coma White," Marilyn Manson "Dallas 1pm," Saxon "Bullet," the Misfits "Brain Of J," Pearl Jam