Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines [Paperback]

I was given this volume of writings and transcriptions of Bill Hicks by someone who was under the mistaken impression that I was a fan of Hicks. So I read it, and found it of greater interest than I had anticipated.

One thing that struck me was that comedy was really only a secondary feature of Hicks' work. Primarily, he was a social critic and something of a philosopher. He was a relentless critic of politicians, the media and of hypocrisy in all its guises. He had a complete, and possibly naïve, faith in the essential goodness of humankind, blaming capitalism for the problems in American society. He also talked about God a lot, and referred often to the teachings of Jesus, often to point out the ways in which organized Christianity deviated from the teachings of their prophet. He saw his own task as being to force his audience to hear their own inner voice of reason, beneath the incessant hum of the agenda-driven and fear-mongering mass media. Another central theme for Hicks was drugs: he wanted them legalized, on the grounds that alcohol causes more destruction than any illegal substance. Hicks' politics did not help him win mainstream media coverage in the USA, and his fame in his own lifetime was greater in Britain.

This volume also contains the original treatment for Hicks' intended TV show for Channel 4, "The Counts of the Netherworld"; a bizarre affair, highly ambitious, quite pretentious, with little apparent humour. It features a manifesto in poetic form from Hicks, proclaiming himself to be "the Voice of Reason/ In a world gone mad, adrift on banal seas". Hicks was nothing if not earnest, bringing an evangelical zeal to his mission to "enlighten people to think for themselves". He was cynical about society, but he never extended this to people. He never really explained why, either, if people are so good, society is so, in his view, bad. He had, I think, a psychological need to believe in the goodness of people and the meaningfulness of life. This becomes even clearer in his last writings, when he knew he was not far from death. He becomes almost sentimental. He never seems to have stopped looking for his parents' approval, either, still trying to convert them to the music he liked on his death bed. The deadpan persona hid a sensitive, insecure individual who longed for acceptance and fellowship. But his foremost allegiance was to truth and in his pursuit of this he certainly showed himself to be a man of integrity, and integrity is the one thing we look for in our cultural icons these days. As to whether he was a genius, I'm not so sure, unless one can be said to have a genius for integrity. Many in Hicks' wake have faked this characteristic successfully enough, but Hicks was the real thing, one cannot deny him that.

Bill Hicks was one of the last true comic geniuses we had. This may be a bit repetitive for old fans who already know most of the stand-up material in the first two thirds of the book, but this is supposed to be a collection of Bill's best routines, along with other philosophical thoughts, letters and creative writing. It is the thoughts and Bill's own writing on smoking, drugs, abortion, love, politics, conspiracies, evolution and enlightenment etc towards the end of the book which show the depth of his imagination. These thoughts are inspirational, open minded and much more positive than those shown throughout his so-called 'comedy of hate'. Really, as shown at the end of the book, Bill was a man who believed in love, but just didn't know how to show it in the conventional way. This free thinker will truly be missed - but at least he will have evolved to a better place.

Ok, so this is a pretty good book. Its not supposed to be an edited text of Bills work. It does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a collection of his letters lyrics and routines. Including all his recorded material. If you have his CD's then you will also notice that he tends to repeat himself, albeit with slightly different takes and slants from gig to gig. This is what happens when you perform stand-up and is not a 'cynical attempt to pad out the book'. Its also interesting to fans like myself to pick up on subtle nuances and how stuff evolved. It's meant to be a book for the Bill freaks of which I am one. It's so we can have his words in written form to quote at our friends and nemeses to make ourselves look clever and look cool. It's also for those who want some extra Bill stuff never seen before. Like letters and scripts. So get off yer high horse Welsh bloke, American Scream was a Bio not a comprehensive collection of routines. How the hell does this capitalise on that? In the same way the CD's do I suppose..Love all the people is a welcome addition to the body of work on Hicks. The bloke was a genius comedian and a social commentator the likes of which could have a made a difference in todays paranoid, cartoon world had he not been cruelly taken. Anything which helps spread the word can only be a good thing.