Rock & Roll Dope

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Fifth Estate # 72, February 6 - 19, 1969

I remember two and three years ago and longer writing columns for the Fifth Estate and trying to hip people to a new music and never getting anywhere—people just didn’t seem to be ready for the high-energy jams for one …

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Rock & Roll Dope

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Fifth Estate # 71, January 23-February 5, 1969

For two weeks now I’ve been trying to write a letter to William Leach, the Black Panther who attacked what he calls the “white left” in the Fifth Estate last time as being jive and untogether. [See “The White Left—Serious …

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Rock & Roll Dope

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Fifth Estate # 70, January 9-22, 1969

We arrived in New York City on Dec. 15 and made it to Steve Paul’s Scene to dig the Rationals and Slim Harpo. The Rats were cooking as ever and even managed to get a few people dancing. Slim Harpo …

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Rock & Roll Dope

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Fifth Estate # 69, December 26, 1968-January 8, 1969

“The duty of the revolutionary is to make revolution.” The duty of a musician is to make music. But there is an equation that can’t be missed: MUSIC IS REVOLUTION. Rock and roll music is the most vital revolutionary force …

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Rock & Roll Dope

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Fifth Estate # 68, December 12-25, 1968

“If we want to do much more fucking, we’re going to have to start fighting. If we want to be able to live we have to start fighting and not let ourselves be fucked around any longer by this shitpile …

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Rock & Roll Dope

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Fifth Estate # 67, November 28-December 11, 1968

People need music to live. We know that and act on it, all ways. Only straight people—honkies—think music is superfluous, that it doesn’t make any difference what you listen to, and their lives demonstrate their ignorance. Music shapes us and …

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White Panther Statement

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Fifth Estate # 66, November 14-27, 1968

First I must say that this statement, like all statements is bullshit without an active program to back it up. We have a program which is on-going and total and which must not be confused with anything that is said …

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Rock and Roll Dope

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Fifth Estate # 64, October 17-30, 1968

Hi kids, sorry I wasn’t here last time but I got a little depressed by Cella Alderson’s letter and just couldn’t get it together in time for the deadline. The only reason I write this shit is because people seem …

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Prison Letter from John

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Fifth Estate # 90, October 16-29, 1969

Sept. 30, 1969 Dear People, Sorry I haven’t written in so long but I wanted to get settled up here before writing you again. There seems to be a lot more going on out there in the streets than happens …

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Poem for Warner Stringfellow

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Fifth Estate # 85, August 7-20, 1969

Detective Lieutenant, Detroit Narcotics Squad, who has been single-handedly responsible for busting me on two separate occasions for possessing and selling marijuana . and who stumbled into my new apartment last night by accident over a year since the last …

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