Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby airstrip and in Georgetown, Guyana's capital. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.
A total of 909 Temple members died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones and some members on an audio tape of the event and in prior discussions. This includes over 200 murdered children. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at a nearby Port Kaituma airstrip. The victims included United States Congressman Leo Ryan. Four other Temple members died in Georgetown at Jones's command.
To the extent the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass murder, it was the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001.
Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco. It is best known for the events of November 18, 1978, in Guyana, in which 918 people died at the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project (informally, and now commonly, called "Jonestown") and nearby airstrip at Port Kaituma, and Georgetown in an organized mass suicide/killing.
The mass suicide and killings at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural non-accidental disaster prior to the events of September 11, 2001. Casualties at the airstrip included, among others, Congressman Leo Ryan.
Before forming a church, Jim Jones had become enamored by communism and frustrated by the harassment communists received in the U.S. This, among other things, provided a seminal inspiration for Jones; as he himself described in a biographical recording,
Although he feared a backlash for being a communist, Jones was surprised when a Methodist superintendent (whom he had not met through the American Communist Party) helped him into the church, despite his knowledge that Jones was a communist. In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church in Indianapolis, but left that church because it barred him from integrating African Americans into his congregation. In 1954, Jones began his own church in a rented space in Indianapolis, at first naming it the Community Unity Church.
The death tape or "Q042", is the final tape recorded by Jim Jones before the mass suicide of the residents of Jonestown in Guyana, in 1978. This recording includes Jones urging the members of the Jonestown community to come forward to receive the poison - first for their children, then for themselves - as Jones describes the horrors of what would await those who did not commit what he described as "revolutionary suicide".
Some debate has been raised as to the authenticity of the tape, owing largely to the number of edits audible; however, given the fact that other tapes generated by Peoples Temple also contain numerous edits, and given the fact that the tape refers to events quite specific to 18 November 1978, it seems likely that the tape is genuine in the sense that it was recorded on 18 November 1978. In the background of the tape there is what appears on casual listening to be organ music and/or choir singing; however, the tape has been analyzed carefully, and as it turns out, the music actually consists of several Delfonics songs (e.g., "I'm Sorry") copied onto the tape (played back at a much slower speed). Since the recording was stopped and started many times, the amount of time covered is somewhat longer than the length of the recording itself.
Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip. Over 200 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of whom were forcibly made to ingest cyanide by the elite Temple members.
Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in that state in the 1950s. Jones and the Temple later moved to California, and both gained notoriety with the move of the Temple's headquarters to San Francisco in the mid-1970s.
The incident in Guyana ranks among the largest mass suicides in history, though most likely it involved forced suicide and/or murder, and was the single greatest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001. Among the dead was Leo Ryan, who remains the only Congressman assassinated in the line of duty as a Congressman in the history of the United States.
"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.
The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.
The earliest recorded use[citation needed] of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." [dubious – discuss] In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.
Sheep are running scared tonight
The cows are coming home
They cling together terrified
Afraid to be alone
The bees are buzzing around their queen
Waiting for a word
The [Incomprehensible] are [Incomprehensible] the scene
Collectively absurd
They're looking for Jesus, they're looking for more
Just what are they looking up here to me for
They're looking for someone, they're looking for Christ
They're looking for some human sacrifice
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
They don't know who to run to
And they don't know where to go
Unless you tell them what to think
They don't know what they know
Repeating the commercial
Or something they have heard
From someone, not they, someone else
Somebody good with words
I think they're looking for an answer, they're looking for more
Just what are they looking up here to me for
They're looking for Jesus, they're looking for Christ
They're looking for some human sacrifice
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
They are looking for an answer, looking for more
Just what are you looking up here to me for
They're looking for Jesus, they're praying for Christ
They are looking for some human sacrifice
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
It looks like Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown
(J.P. Maunick/M. Stuart)
Use your imagination
To recreate the heart of our creation?
Explore the force within you
On a journey to forever
Take a trip to your mind
The secrets you'll find
Chorus:
I hear them inside life
(Take a look inside life)
I hear them inside life
(Take a look inside life)
There's a river that flows
To the heart of the matters
Follow your dreams into tomorrow
Like the blue moon to the sea
And the yellow moonshine
To show you the ?
Hear them inside life
Chorus
Close your eyes
And listen to your thoughts
And you'll feel your heart beatin'
It's the river of life
(Inside life)
Take a trip to your mind
The secrets you'll find
Chorus
Repeat (Fade)
No love, no peace, spend your days counting sheep
When you're dead, you're done, you're dead, you die, and life goes on
Born low, no lives, wasting your days, waiting to die
I wouldn't mind If you never woke up again, goodbye my friend
No hopes, all dreams, breaking away from reality
Today is the day you see the consequence, may you never wake up again
I will walk even after I'm dead, I will bring the dead to life
When they put a price on your head, say goodbye to your wonderful life
I have seen the lying face of God, I have seen the ends of the earth
We have already lived too fucking long, may we regret our birth
I was born a monster, I will die the same
No one can live forever, I will become a household name
Born low, no lives, wasting your days, waiting to die
I wouldn't mind If you never woke up again, goodbye my friend
No hopes, all dreams, breaking away from reality
Today is the day you see the consequence, may you never wake up again
We will choke the ones we love, your admiration means nothing to us
When push comes to fucking shove, we never do what's expected of us
We all want to be a part of something, but I swear you want none of this
We live our lives afraid to die, but these dreams are selfish
I hate everything you love
I hate everything you love
I hate everything you love
I hate everything you love
Born low, no lives, wasting your days, waiting to die
I wouldn't mind If you never woke up again, goodbye my friend
No hopes, all dreams, breaking away from reality
I will sing
I will play till I reach my dyin' day
I will give my one and all
When I get the certain call
All my love I give to you
I know that my aim is true
And I will bow, I come around
Jonestown
We must go, we can't stay
We said all there is to say
We gave it up
We have fun, now we have to travel long
Is there a long and windy road
Today I almost lost my throat
But we stand proud, we come back around
Jonestown
You're in Jonestown, Jonestown
You're in Jonestown
I will drink
I will play till I reach my dyin' day
I will give my one and all
When I get the certain call
All my love I give to you
I know that my aim is true
And I will bow, I come around
In Jonestown
Now we must go, we can't stay
We fought everything today
We gave it up
We had fun, now it's time to fuck up and go
Is there a long and windy road
Today I almost fucked a goat
But we stand proud, we come back around
In Jonestown
Oh, in Jonestown, you fucker
You're in Jonestown
Oh, in Jonestown
- White alert!
- (...) they've come to kill us! (...) Drink wine (...) They'll be here with flamethrowers! (...)
- What is best in life?
Hey Lady I've been going crazy,
thinking all the time, you¹re always on my mind.
Hey sugar let¹s not waste no time
let us pour the wine, let¹s set this off right.
Step in my room, cause lady it¹s on,
I¹m in the mood to love you all night long,
cause baby it's on till the brake of the dawn
and I¹ll give you loving till you tell me ³no more².
It's a Sweet Thang
I¹ll give you some of this Sweet Thang
Sweet Thang, it¹s such a Sweet Thang,
sweeter than a Honeydew and you never be the same,
Sweet Thang, my lovin¹ is Sweet Thang.
Now I¹m a show you things you never seen before,
take you shopping at the spot and buy the whole damn
floor,
Christian Dior, Versace by the ounce.
I¹m a buy you things you can¹t even pronounce,
jump in my cream Bentley, girl and let¹s bounce
Dam-Da-Da makes more chedder than you can count or
we can chill if you will and just stay still
out my Masion over looking all of Beverly Hills
outrapanour, player with big boom E-Class Mercedes,
Villa in Can Coon
never hesitate to drop you in the latest thangs,
Crocodile Boots, Armani Suits, know what I mean?
Dive with the willies puffin on Cuban Phillys
laced in Cartagin Silks, now can you feel me?
Tell your girl Friend, who be working,
SKI the Dam-Da-Da you found your Sweet Thang.
I¹ll give you some of this Sweet Thang
Sweet Thang it¹s such a Sweet Thang,
sweeter than a Honeydew and you never be the same,
Sweet Thang, my lovin¹ is Sweet Thang.
Hey lady don¹t wanna waste your time,
just wanna bump and grind, now would that be fine,
hey sugar, Marvin Gaye to set the mood,
I hope that you feel it too, let me show you what to
Step in my room, cause lady it¹s on.
I¹m in the mood to love you all night long,
cause baby it¹s on, till the brake of the dawn
and I¹ll give you lovin till you tell me ³no more²
Yeah! [2x]
Jonestown
Yeah!
I was Jim Jones' attorney
I said, 'When did you find out that he was not the man of God that he was billed to be?'
He said, 'When I visited Jonestown, when I walked in his so-called church'
He said, 'There was no bible, there were no holy pictures, there was no cross
Nothing
And I looked him right in the eye and I said to him
"Why is it there's no bible, and there's no place to pray?"
He said, "We don't need that anymore"'
Yeah!
They were injected with a poison
Yeah!
And I'm going to reveal something to you that possibly the public does not know
Sir Lionel Luckhoo told me that the coroner was a close personal friend of his
And he said that he examined every one of the bodies
This was not a mass-suicide like the world was brainwashed into thinking
They were injected with a poison
Yeah!
Yeah!
I was Jim Jones' attorney
(Yeah! )
I said, 'When did you find out that he was not the man of God (go! ) that he was billed to be?'
He said, 'When I visited Jonestown'
They were injected with a-
Yeah!
[2x]
Yeah! [3x]
Jonestown
hey lady i've been going crazy,
thinking all the time, you're always on my mind.
hey sugar let's not waste no time
let us pour the wine, let's set this off right.
step in my room, cause lady it's on,
i'm in the mood to love you all night long,
'cause baby it's on till the brake of the dawn
and i'll give you loving till you tell me "no more".
it's a sweet thang
i'll give you some of this sweet thang
sweet thang, it's such a sweet thang,
sweeter than a honey
dew and you never be the same,
sweet thang, my lovin' is sweet thang.
now i'm a show you things you never seen before,
take you shopping at the spot and buy the whole damn floor,
christian dior, versace by the ounce.
i'm a buy you things you can't even pronounce,
jump in my cream bentley, girl and let's bounce
dam-da-da makes more chedder than you can count or
we can chill if you will and just stay still
out my masion over looking all of beverly hills
outrapanour, player with big boom e-class mercedes, villa in can coon
never hesitate to drop you in the latest thangs,
crocodile boots, armani suits, know what i mean?
dive with the willies puffin on cuban phillys
laced in cartagin silks, now can you feel me?
tell your girl friend, who be working,
ski the dam-da-da you found your sweet thang.
i'll give you some of this sweet thang
sweet thang it's such a sweet thang,
sweeter than a honey
dew and you never be the same,
sweet thang, my lovin' is sweet thang.
hey lady don't wanna waste your time,
just wanna bump and grind, now would that be fine,
hey sugar, marvin gaye to set the mood,
i hope that you feel it too, let me show you what to do.
step in my room, cause lady it's on.
i'm in the mood to love you all night long,
'cause baby it's on, till the brake of the dawn
and i'll give you lovin till you tell me "no more"