Letter from A Friend #2
Dear Ann,
I've heard a more recent podcast by you talking about your family. Here's the quote:
"The connections are all there, if people want to find them, you know. I can just talk & talk, um, you know. And I'm not going to get into the rock star (laughs) aspect of it, but that's part of it. And my father was a musician and he was a music teacher in Montreal and he knew people in the jazz scene. He knew Oscar Peterson, and so on. He knew Maynard Fergusson early, people in the jazz scene. He also had a brother who worked in Chicago in & Detroit with black entertainers. So my family were positioned to be part of the music (um, ah) arm, (laughs) the musical arm. And there were rock stars being programmed at McGill when I was there. And it's just part of our, you know, our youth rebellion. Psychedelic culture was a controlled, in many ways, a controlled military program and kids were flown around. Kids who were chosen, for example, in the UK could be flown to Montreal for programming and to be part of this scene before they were famous--when they were still too young, when nobody'd ever heard of them. But they went on to become some of the most important, um, you know, people in the music scene. And, as we all know, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll. All of that was Dr. Cameron's, (laughs) you know, field." (Starts at 19:15, ends at 20:42) (Emphasis mine.)
Ann Diamond Video on Brainwashing Victims of the Allen Memorial Public News Page, posted 15 OCT 2021
You realize that you have contradicted yourself in other places where you clearly say that your parents were NOT in the music scene.
Meanwhile, I'm collecting all my own proof of my trip to London in 1963, and of my father's work with Maynard Ferguson, and all my other Rock 'n' Roll credentials. Which are exhaustive.
You should have stuck with your Leonard Cohen stories. You impressed me as knowing a lot about him. But when you try to talk about London, the Stones, ALO, etc., you fall flat on your face and it's very clear that you know nothing except what you pick out of a book. You just have no feel for it, face it.
The fact is that my father was well-known to probably all the Stones, most definitely Brian Jones because his father is quoted in Stanley Booth's book as having been a huge Stan Kenton fan (my father was chief arranger for the Kenton band). And certainly Charlie was also a Kenton fan.
I was with the Stones in real life in 1975 & 1977 and have actual evidence. You really need to drop this whole fantasy of yours.
Hi Camille
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a music teacher at several Montreal high schools from 1948 to 1962. During World War II he was a troop entertainer in British Columbia while training as Air Force intelligence officer at Prince Rupert and Sea Island bases. I have photos of him playing piano in a jazz combo - they played big band tunes eg Benny Goodman. He came to Montreal in 1943 at 41 and worked with an RCAF intelligence unit which was looking for Nazi spies based in Quebec. This brought him in contact with the Air Force doctors and psychiatrists who that same year (1943) set up with Allan Memorial Institute of McGill for brainwashing research. At that time Montreal was a major centre for jazz where young Maynard Ferguson and Oscar Peterson had landed recording contracts with CBC and often played in downtown clubs - my dad knew them through his RCAF network. He didn't play with them as far as I know but he may have jammed with some of the same musicians. After the war he taught vocal music at Baron Byng High School where Maynard Ferguson's mother was also a teacher, and the school was a 10 minute walk from McGill and the Allan Memorial Institute - Baron Byng HS was named after a British military officer famous for his involvement in music halls etc in England after WW1 - the same world and scene that produced the Beatles.
Thousands of people work in music. Books have been written about the Montreal jazz scene.
My uncle Jim enlisted in the Air Force the same year as my father in Windsor Ontario and ended up living in Detroit where he trained black choirs and bands in the 1950 through the Salvation Army. He and his wife and their four children were great singers. They sometimes lived in black neighborhoods in Detroit, Chicago, Flint, Grand Rapids so my cousins were immersed in jazz and blues.
My family's involvement in music defined us. My brother played in bands and wrote songs. I sang in school choirs and dated musicians throughout my life including Cohen - but also others. I lived downstairs from Michel Pagliaro the King of Quebec Rock, while across the alley was a Pogues cover band and a Senegalese drummer who these days is a French TV personality... That was my world in the 1980s.
My best friend in Grade Two was black and knew Oscar Peterson through her aunt who lived next door and used to listen to him practice as a kid.
What is your point? That your dad was a record producer? That's great. Congratulations.
I was 12 in 1963 and have a detailed memory of flying to London for a weekend courtesy of the Air Force - I met the Stones before they were famous. I met Mike Jagger at McGill before he was in a band. It's a big world - billions of people listen to music. Mick came to Hydra in 1967. He knew Leonard in NY. He knew the Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa who was the reason I went to Mustique in 1992 to bring Mick a message. Mick often comes to the Montreal Jazz Festival where I also met him in 2006.
I hope you write about your time in London. Good luck.
Ann
Camllle
DeleteYour dad Blll Russo worked in the Trad Jazz scene in London in the mid 5Os -- that was the BBC approved world that ALO's generation rebelled against in the early 60s.
You can what he says about all that in his books Stoned and 2Stoned.
I don't claim to be a musicologist. In that interview I was mainly talking about my childhood world and the people I met at McGill through my father's music connections etc - and why Dr Cameron thought rock and roll was a great way to "spread mental illness to a whole generation."
I see you got this from the Brainwashing site - where we discuss the impact of MKULTRA. It's not a music site.
I'll share your email with the editor Kimmy Jay - she may want to do a follow-up
Thanks for sharing.
On Fri, Aug 5, 2022, 9:59 AM Anne McLean wrote:
I'm asking you if you have the slightest proof of your father ever doing even one gig anywhere as a jazz pianist please. It doesn't have to be Carnegie Hall. I'm not a snob. And any proof about your uncle working with black entertainers in the States.
You realize that you have contradicted yourself in other places where you clearly say that your parents were NOT in the music scene.
Where did I say m parents were "not in the music scene"? Do you have a quote from me?
My dad Donald McLean was not a recording executive. He didn't manage bands. He wasn't an A&R man. He an AF troop entertainer - so was Glen Miller. And after the war he taught music at 3 Montreal high schools - and yes I have photos.
I don't understand your problem with all this but I can see you're talking to Ellen Atkin because in her latest video she repeats things you have said to me about "stealing your story." And she's coming out as a 'Christian conservative" - that's funny.
If we're going to discuss this, let's do it in public. I've added your letter to my new blog.
Xxoo
https://auticulture.com/the-liminalist-198-spectrum-of-the-occult-with-camille-blinstrub/
ReplyDeleteHere's Camille Blinstrub three years ago in conversation with Jasun Horsley + exchanging comments with me.
I'm.not saying anything different than I did back then re: my dad.
"Camille and I are the same age and although my dad was not in the music business during the British invasion, he was a musician and a troop entertainer during WW2 and (as I’ve learned) an Air Force intelligence officer – and all these elements seem to mingle in the history of post war MKULTRA programming — he became a high school music teacher during the Cold War in a city (Montreal) which was a hub for occult activity – and schools back then were also being used for programming. And as kids we were all caught up in the massive musical wave that swept the world and always seemed linked to politics and the game of war. God and the Devil were always battling in the backstage areas of our minds."
Camille, in May 2020 you also wrote:
Delete"Just a note for the historical record…It’s been about a year since we talked, Jasun, and as I told you, things were clarified for me afterwards. A note about my father being protective of me. It was a selective protection. When I said that he was “too sharp” to allow pedophiles to abuse me, it was because he *was* a pedophile. It takes one to know one. Since this conversation, I have written two pieces concluding that my father was a musical cult leader and a predator of the young. Thanks for your support."
I think you need to put your own house in order. Just for your own peace of mind.