An Excerpt From An Essay On The Subject Of Hell’s Angels
By A London Boy (14 years of age)
Dated August 1st, 197–
‘It seems to me that too many of the people at the top enjoy persecuting young people. Look at all those policemen that were killed last month in Birmingham. All that because the Last Heroes Hell’s Angels motorcycle chapter were making a film and the authorities didn’t approve of that.’
‘I, and a lot of my friends, think that it’s all terribly unfair the way the people in power have a down on us. We know that Gerry and the Last Heroes did a lot of mean rotten things – stealing and killing – but they never had a chance. And they never dropped thousands of bombs on innocent peasant people. If you don’t give people any freedom at all and jump on them if they try and show that they want to be free, that they’re individuals – however they try and show it – then you’re bound to make them worse. It’s like when America banned drink but everyone still got it and lawlessness flourished. It’s the same with any kind of restriction.’
‘Although my friends and I are still too young to be able to vote at this election that’s coming, I know that a lot of my older friends feel the same. We wait and it’ll be our turn. We want a little more freedom, and more of a chance to make our own mistakes and then learn by them. That’s why I hope there’ll be a change at this election. So that there can be more freedom.’
‘Finally, this is a poem I wrote about the Hell’s Angels that sums up the way we feel. One day, if they’re still alive up in the mountains, I’d like to go and join them. One day.’
Everywhere I look I see
Faces grey with misery.
Everybody looks the same,
I just don’t know who to blame.
I don’t want to grow up grey,
With a boring job and rotten pay,
Spend it all on birds and booze,
Nothing to win, so there’s nothing to lose.
I’d like to leave it all behind,
Ride my hog, see what I’d find,
With my old lady behind me,
We’d ride with Gerry and all be free.
Brothers running high we’d see
What we wanted when we’re free.
Really, that’s what I’d like to be,
Out of it all and free, free, free!’