Jim Jones

Unlike Charles Manson, another mass murderer with a discography, Reverend Jim Jones never intended to have a recording career -- at least not in punk rock music. Like many preachers, he did record his own sermons, creating a series of self-distributed audio tracts for the membership of his People's Temple, originally founded during 1953 in Indianapolis, IN. These recordings provided ready fodder for artistic tweaking when in the late '70s Jones successfully ordered nearly 1,000 of his flock to commit suicide with a cyanide-laced drink. This horrid event, dubbed the "Jonestown Massacre" or just plain "Jonestown," was an obvious source of inspiration to recording artists in certain genres that thrive on elements of black comedy and/or disturbing social content. It would be difficult to figure out which historical figure has made the most appearances on punk, industrial, and other recordings as a voice dubbed in on top of layers of whatnot: Ronald Reagan, Adolf Hitler, Reverend Jim Jones, or Charles Manson. But one thing is for certain, although the explanation is elusive. Unlike the others in this list, Jones always seems to get credit for his contribution, sometimes creating confusion with actual performers named Jim Jones, including a member of the Cleveland avant rock band Pere Ubu and jazz pianist Jimmy Jones. The Reverend Jones' previously mentioned recordings as well as the sensational news broadcasts from the day represented a generous library of possible soundbites. Nonetheless, Jones purists should be on guard for performers who grab material from a TV movie about the Jonestown Massacre; in this case, the voice heard is really that of the superb actor Powers Boothe. The influence of the Jones cult on the music scene has gone beyond simply using his voice or comments, as well. A handful of songs were written about the subject and a band even cleverly called itself the Brian Jonestown Massacre in 1990. Undoubtedly the finest artistic creation to be inspired by the event came not from a band or record, but a fanzine. The edgy Forced Exposure created a series of puzzle cards, with a number of excellent underground artists depicting horrific scenes from the Jones tale. Despite all this attention, the public continues to get one key detail wrong: the victims did not die drinking Kool-Aid. Instead, Jones used a cheap substitute, Flavor-Aid. ~ Eugene Chadbourne