Crazy JW urban legend

by Simon 48 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Band on the Run

  Violia,

  Why would Johnny Carson remove it? According to your version, Johnny Carson stood up for a minority group's rights. I never knew John Denver was a Viet Nam vet. His songs seemed so white to me, like Wonder Bread. Of course, I was so into rock'n'roll in those days. It seems that Carson would be proud of standing up to John Denver. As a Paul McCartney fan, I wish he would announce when he performs his mediocre songs. He will do one mega Beatle hit after another, and then do Wings songs. He always had to perform some songs that are embarassing to McCartney fans. The audience decides to take a bathroom and food break. The man can't be blind. Perhaps he wants us to be standing on our chairs when he returns to songs worthy of his talent.

  It also strikes me that if this incident occurred, esp. on the Carson show, the entertainment media would jump to report it. Carson was always big news. If I were an entertainment reporter, I would do this story. It has front page potential. Entertainment Tonight and those shows would cover it. If we are discussing John Denver, we are talking a long while ago. Such a story could illustrate the tension in the country. Witnesses were not as prominent back then.

  It did not happen in my Evidence class and I feel cheated. In order to show that people's memories are fallible, they usually stage some purported crime during Evidence. The students write down what they witnessed. The prof and actors reveal what actually happened. All semester I was so ready to be an accurate witness. What a bummer. The school should have been reported to the ABA for not providing the experience.

  I don't know. It does not seem that important to me. Why would Johnny Carson employ so many Witnesses? Those are union jobs. I've heard that they pay well. If it happened, my assessment of John Denver as a friendly guy would change. Maybe it was his trigger issue. I just watched TV. How do we know he wasn't alerting members of his audience that an uncomfortable section would be played? If I were Denver, I would be concerned with the majority of my audience. I can't imagine Bob Dylan or Peter, Paul, and Mary stopping a concert and giving a shout to a neutral religous group.

  Now I have to read about John Denver at wikipedia. This JW urban legend stuff is too much for me. I don't care who said what to whom. If John Denver ordered them to leave, you have the makings of a law suit.
• 

  sir82

  Not sure if this counts exactly as an urban legend, but....

  An embarrassing (to me) number of years ago, Terry Angelacos (CO) gave a talk at a circuit assembly about the dangers of "debasing music".

  One of his points was, if you played Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" backward, it tells you "decide to smoke marijuana".

  Then, he proceeded to play a pre-recorded snippet of that exact same song, presumably spun backward.

  Here is what the recording sounded like:

  "Desheergaber smakophewe mugawehuaogowowawa"

  But, if you asked anybody afterward about it, thy'd swear up and down "oh yes, I heard it just like he said!"
• 

  steve2

  It's interesting that no videos or clips exist to back up claims about John Denver that were allegedly shown on TV. Even the TV record has been "cleansed. Since when would reporting that a celebrity ordered JWs to leave be liable to a lawsuit if the program showed that's what he actually did?? Something's a bit fishy....

  I would think that, had a well known clebrity issued such an edict against the Witnesses even several decades ago, the record of it would not be able to be suppressed. The video or reporting of it would be leaked in one form or another.

  The fact that isolated individuals swear that it happened at a major public venue is not enough. Show me the evidence.
• 

  Band on the Run

  I don't know for certain. If you purchase a ticket, you expect to see the entire performance. Bethel would have pounced on it. The New York Times and other national papers would write about it. I had a right to have my Woodstock tickets refunded. Let us be honest. The audience would have responded in some way. Photographs of Jehovah's Witnesses exiting , while crying that they were forced to leave, would exist. Furthermore, what police force and mayor would enforce such a request? It sounds implausible.

  The venue would be large. I don't quite know the radio stations that would follow John Denver. Howard Stern or someone would have made comments. Good Morning America would report it. The freedom of religion issue would bring publicity.

  The mayor of the town would probably hold a news conference.

  It just seems so unlikely. I never knew Witnesses attended concerts. All these years I assumed I was doing something wicked and naughty.

  Wikipedia has no mention that Denver was a veteran that gunned down people in Viet Nam.

  Also, Witnesses do not have a good record for veracity concerning such matters. Denver had much to lose. Would he risk his position over Witnesses?
• 

  Violia

  What I saw on TV had more to do with Carson insulting Denver by asking him to leave and the jws are just a side issue. I do not know if Denver actually said that at a concert but would not be at all surprised. I do know one person ( not jws) whose friends were there and they swear it happened. This is sort of Carson removing the evidence to protect his and Denver reputation or lawsuits. The episode is gone or the part about Denver has been edited out. When someone first told me this I was appalled-- it was on TV, how could they do that? This was long ago and they could do that. They made it go away.

  The world I lived in here in the Bible belt was not as litigious as where you lived Botr. Jws seldom sued for slights over their beliefs , it was all in the name of persecution. Ultimately it was Denver's concert and if he wants someone removed , he can have it done.
• 

  FlyingHighNow

  I heard that heathen John Denver asked JWs to stand and then he played the Star Spangled Banner.
• 

  jws

  Viola wrote:

  The Carson "thing" happened. Me a a lot of folks who watch late night TV saw it. it got edited or is gone. There were people at the Denver concert who know Denver did ask jws to stand up and leave. This has been a long time ago. Sometimes folks would get on late night TV and say things and it would conveniently disappear. It could not happen today but it happened then. I spoke to someone in the "biz" years ago and they told me the Carson tape was edited or destroyed due to threats of a lawsuit from Denver. Not defending the nutty jws, but this did happen. It was easy to edit or destroy tapes then. It was a long time ago. and yes I am old but I know what I saw on national TV.

  Maybe Viola is the one who started the rumor.

  What reason would they have to "erase the tapes"? Why not just not replay that show? And why would a network be scared by a lawsuit because of something John Denver said - on camera? To cover up something that he supposedly announces to auditoriums full of people?

  Johnny Carson, from all accounts was an asshole only interested in himself? Why would he defend Jehovah's Witnesses and kick a guest off the show? He was an asshole, but a professional.

  When guests come on a show, it's not because the network thinks they're interesting. They come on a show to promote something. If John Denver is on a show to promote something, he's going to make a little small talk then transition to the veiled sales pitch and talk about the new album or whatever. I don't see any reason why, out of the blue, he's going to start bragging about telling Jehovah's Witnesses to leave a concert. How does that fit in there and how does that sell albums?

  I remember hearing this when I was a kid and then hating John Denver. Still not thrilled about country music which I think of him as. But I respect him more that I'm not a JW and that this is just an urban legend.
• 

  rebel8

  Earth Wind and Fire - They are heavy into demon worship. At one of their concerts they were playing and the music sounded awful. They stopped the concert and said, "If therre are any Jehovah's Witnesses in the audience can you please leave because your presence is prventing us from channeling the spirits"

  *chuckle*

  So nowhere outside the music industry do the demons get static when jws are nearby.
• 

  AFRIKANMAN

  Dont fall into the trap of the Urban Legend - the fact that it ends up growing further "legs" is what makes it abound even further - "A friend who was there told me" "I was there" " the cousin of a cousin of the wife of my husbands second sister twice removed was there and told me herself" "I was a a seance and John D told me himself" --- and then the conspiracy theory based addendums to the story -

  I dont deny that there is "backward masking" but I do remember a talk at a DC in which we were urged to examine our Vinyl [those days] collections and then purge it and he quoted all these "incidents" which as it turned out later had been compiled by BA Christians and he sourced his material straight from that - and then we purged our collections based on that. All cock a pot !!

  btw is it possible to check the hidden messages of CD's ?? Cant play them backwards and besides you wouldnt have much evidence off-a the digital copy.

  Ave - have a great day
• 

  Gypsy Sam

  Just last year, when I was still in, a sister relayed the Earth, Wind, Fire urban legend. So happy to be free of all superstitious nonsense.