Assassin's Hotel

'...(friends...let me tell you about a dream I had...)...

I dreamt Mark David Chapman met that coward Robert Ford

they became fast friends on Mark's very first day in hell...

Chapman talking trash, and expecting to be taken at his word...

he was the new 'fish' in the Assassin's Hotel...

...

... and Bob said: "Welcome, Mark... you'll see... it's a measure of our infamy that we

should be condemned to replay this tableaux, time and time again...

now every day at three, for eternity you will join me on yon gallows tree

and we'll take our turns... twisting in the wind..."

...

yea, the Assassin's Hotel... it's a blood rare slice of Hell...

where many a wayward soul may come by happenstance...

but like as not they'll stay... for the daily matinee...

don't we all love to watch a dead man dance?

...

and Bob whispered: "Tell me Mark; no lies...

did you see something in John Lennon's eyes;

beyond shock or fear; some glint of resignation?

me. I took the true coward's tack; when I shot poor Jesse James in the back;

to earn my share of scorn, of unborn generations..."

 

...(yea, the Assassin's Hotel...)...

...

I dreamt Mark David Chapman partnered up with that coward Robert Ford

kindred spirits they... two bad seeds in a pod...

and for evermore they'll dwell... down in the Assassin's Hotel...

beyond the purview of man or god.

 

...well... this is most certainly NOT a 'love song'... no love lost for either Chapman or Ford; though in an earlier version Ford quipped to Chapman:..." I shot a thief and murderer to earn my notoriety... you, sir... blew a hole in the heart of history...".. now I'm sure it could be argued that 'poor Jesse James' deserved a better fate, and I would contend that John Winston Lennon, for all his faults and foibles was entitled to leave this world in his own good time (and preferably after leaving us more music). I've been tempted to contact Chapman. at the 'correctional' facility where he still resides, after numerous refusals at parole. Ron Hynes wrote a great ballad from Robert Ford's perspective; 'Judgement' I believe it is called. Ken Tizzard does a fine job of that one (and many other Hynes compositions).  I don't intent to go out of my way to give Chapman any degree of satisfaction, miserable son of a bitch that he is (or was). He made his play for 'fame'; and in doing so, robbed a woman of her husband; two sons of their father; and the world of a man who should still be making music and comment on the human condition. love to all (well, most everyone), d.

 

 

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