A. J. Weberman
Encyclopedia
Alan Jules Weberman better known as A. J. Weberman, is an American writer, political activist/gadfly
, and popularizer of the terms garbology
and "Dylanology." He is best known for his controversial personal confrontations with the musician Bob Dylan
and for his 30-year involvement with the Yippies, a counterculture
movement of the 1960s. He was also an activist in the Jewish Defense Organization
, said by the Anti-Defamation League
to be a militant Revisionist Zionist organization regarded as a branch of Kahanism
, but which professes to be a Jabotinskyite organization.
A.J. Weberman has written on the life and works of Bob Dylan
, leaving college to focus on creating what he calls a word concordance
of Dylan's lyrics. Although a strong advocate of Dylan's importance as an artist, he is less supportive of Dylan the man.
Weberman's literary analysis of Dylan's work, which he has termed "Dylanology," is centered around Weberman's assertion that, to Dylan, many words have lesser-used meanings differing, sometimes greatly, from their common definitions. According to Weberman, "Rain", for instance, often means "hatred" in a Dylan song. Dylan wrote, "Father of love / Father of rain" in a song where opposites are contrasted.
Rolling Stone
magazine has called Weberman "the king of all Dylan nuts." They report an incident where Dylan, annoyed by Weberman and his associates who were constantly digging through his garbage, assaulted Weberman outside Dylan's apartment. In a different article, Rolling Stone reports that Weberman, "a man that terrorized Bob Dylan during the '60s," had now "returned to hassle his son," Jakob Dylan
. Weberman claimed that the younger Dylan was a heroin addict. The BBC has broadcast Bob Dylan speaking of his heroin use, so that is now on the public record.
Weberman later applied his unusual research methods to Richard Nixon
, Norman Mailer
, and other celebrities, coining the term "garbology" to describe his methods and writing the book My Life in Garbology. Cultural anthropology
anthropologists such as Dr. William A. Rathje of the University of Arizona conduct expeditions analyzing garbage to understand culture.
Weberman attempted to expand his "Dylan Liberation Front" into a "Rock Liberation Front", intended to pressure pop musicians into greater political activity.
Weberman, along with the Jewish Defense Organization
, and JDO chief Mordechai Levy
, were successfully sued for libel to the tune of $850,000 by Steven Paul Rombom, a PI arrested for impersonating an FBI Agent.
Weberman has also studied the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy
and was employed by the late Congressman Henry Gonzalez of Texas and Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Weberman's book on the subject, Coup D’Etat In America, postulates the assassination as part of a coup d'etat
led by rogue CIA agents Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis (a contract agent) and David Christ, Head of the TSD of the CIA, angered by Kennedy's failure to remove Fidel Castro
from power. The book includes transparent overlays, as in an anatomy textbook, so that the reader can compare the faces of the tramps briefly arrested in Dallas with photos of E. Howard Hunt
and Frank Sturgis
. Weberman's assertion that Hunt was involved in this action led Hunt to initiate a lawsuit, later dropped. Before his death in 2005, Hunt told his son that he had been involved in the JFK assassination.
In 2005, Weberman and other well-known Yippies, including Dana Beal
and Pie Man (Aron Kay), joined forces to turn the long-time Yippie headquarters at 9 Bleecker Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side into a counterculture museum. As of 2006, renovation of the building has been partially completed, and a charter from the New York State Board of Regents has been granted. Weberman, who is a member of the Yippie Museum's board of trustees, announced in early 2006, in a typical display of Yippie spoofery, that the museum would house an Institute for the Study of Advanced Political Protest. By 2011, the Museum is fully operational and features a regular schedule of musical entertainment in its coffee shop. Website: http://yippiemuseum.org/
A film about Weberman, entitled The Ballad of AJ Weberman won the Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs). He also did research for a book by Peter Lance on an al-Qaeda triple agent who penetrated the FBI and CIA. In 2008 The Yippie Museum Press published HOMOTHUG, an unauthorized biography of Rudy Giuliani that was later pulled off the market by Amazon and is only available used or from A.J. Weberman directly.
Gadfly (social)
A gadfly is a person who upsets the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or just being an irritant. The term has been used to describe many politicians and social commentators....
, and popularizer of the terms garbology
Garbology
The primary academic meaning of garbology is the study of refuse and trash. As an academic discipline it was pioneered at the University of Arizona and long directed by William Rathje. The project started in 1973, originating from an idea of two students for a class project...
and "Dylanology." He is best known for his controversial personal confrontations with the musician Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and for his 30-year involvement with the Yippies, a counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
movement of the 1960s. He was also an activist in the Jewish Defense Organization
Jewish Defense Organization
The Jewish Defense Organization is a militant Jewish organization in the United States.-Background and ideology:The JDO was founded in the early 1980s by Mordechai Levy after a violent feud with the Jewish Defense League's former leader Irv Rubin, who was killed or committed suicide in jail in 2002...
, said by the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
to be a militant Revisionist Zionist organization regarded as a branch of Kahanism
Kahanism
Kahanism is loosely defined as an nationalist ideology of dedication and self-sacrifice for Jewish causes, such as physical and spiritual freedom and safety of Jews in Israel and worldwide. The term is derived from the name of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane , founder of the Jewish Defense League in USA...
, but which professes to be a Jabotinskyite organization.
Public controversies
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, leaving college to focus on creating what he calls a word concordance
Concordance (publishing)
A concordance is an alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts. Because of the time and difficulty and expense involved in creating a concordance in the pre-computer era, only works of special importance, such as the Vedas, Bible, Qur'an...
of Dylan's lyrics. Although a strong advocate of Dylan's importance as an artist, he is less supportive of Dylan the man.
Weberman's literary analysis of Dylan's work, which he has termed "Dylanology," is centered around Weberman's assertion that, to Dylan, many words have lesser-used meanings differing, sometimes greatly, from their common definitions. According to Weberman, "Rain", for instance, often means "hatred" in a Dylan song. Dylan wrote, "Father of love / Father of rain" in a song where opposites are contrasted.
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine has called Weberman "the king of all Dylan nuts." They report an incident where Dylan, annoyed by Weberman and his associates who were constantly digging through his garbage, assaulted Weberman outside Dylan's apartment. In a different article, Rolling Stone reports that Weberman, "a man that terrorized Bob Dylan during the '60s," had now "returned to hassle his son," Jakob Dylan
Jakob Dylan
Jakob Luke Dylan is the lead singer and songwriter of the rock band The Wallflowers and is a son of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and Sara Dylan. He has also recorded two solo albums.-Personal life:...
. Weberman claimed that the younger Dylan was a heroin addict. The BBC has broadcast Bob Dylan speaking of his heroin use, so that is now on the public record.
Weberman later applied his unusual research methods to Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, and other celebrities, coining the term "garbology" to describe his methods and writing the book My Life in Garbology. Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
anthropologists such as Dr. William A. Rathje of the University of Arizona conduct expeditions analyzing garbage to understand culture.
Weberman attempted to expand his "Dylan Liberation Front" into a "Rock Liberation Front", intended to pressure pop musicians into greater political activity.
Weberman, along with the Jewish Defense Organization
Jewish Defense Organization
The Jewish Defense Organization is a militant Jewish organization in the United States.-Background and ideology:The JDO was founded in the early 1980s by Mordechai Levy after a violent feud with the Jewish Defense League's former leader Irv Rubin, who was killed or committed suicide in jail in 2002...
, and JDO chief Mordechai Levy
Mordechai Levy
Mark "Mordechai" Levy is a U.S.-based political activist and founder of the militant Jewish Defense Organization , a breakaway faction of the Jewish Defense League...
, were successfully sued for libel to the tune of $850,000 by Steven Paul Rombom, a PI arrested for impersonating an FBI Agent.
Weberman has also studied the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and was employed by the late Congressman Henry Gonzalez of Texas and Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Weberman's book on the subject, Coup D’Etat In America, postulates the assassination as part of a coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
led by rogue CIA agents Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis (a contract agent) and David Christ, Head of the TSD of the CIA, angered by Kennedy's failure to remove Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
from power. The book includes transparent overlays, as in an anatomy textbook, so that the reader can compare the faces of the tramps briefly arrested in Dallas with photos of E. Howard Hunt
E. Howard Hunt
Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G...
and Frank Sturgis
Frank Sturgis
Frank Anthony Sturgis , born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the Watergate burglars.-Early Life and Military Service:...
. Weberman's assertion that Hunt was involved in this action led Hunt to initiate a lawsuit, later dropped. Before his death in 2005, Hunt told his son that he had been involved in the JFK assassination.
In 2005, Weberman and other well-known Yippies, including Dana Beal
Dana Beal
Irvin Dana Beal is an American social and political activist, best known for his efforts to legalize marijuana...
and Pie Man (Aron Kay), joined forces to turn the long-time Yippie headquarters at 9 Bleecker Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side into a counterculture museum. As of 2006, renovation of the building has been partially completed, and a charter from the New York State Board of Regents has been granted. Weberman, who is a member of the Yippie Museum's board of trustees, announced in early 2006, in a typical display of Yippie spoofery, that the museum would house an Institute for the Study of Advanced Political Protest. By 2011, the Museum is fully operational and features a regular schedule of musical entertainment in its coffee shop. Website: http://yippiemuseum.org/
A film about Weberman, entitled The Ballad of AJ Weberman won the Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs). He also did research for a book by Peter Lance on an al-Qaeda triple agent who penetrated the FBI and CIA. In 2008 The Yippie Museum Press published HOMOTHUG, an unauthorized biography of Rudy Giuliani that was later pulled off the market by Amazon and is only available used or from A.J. Weberman directly.
Publications
- Weberman, A. J. Homothug: The Secret Life of Rudy Giuliani (New York: Yippie Museum Press)
The Weberman tapes
- Classic Interviews, Vol. 2: The Weberman Tapes (UK: Chromedreams. US: United States Dist Media, Catalog #541, released May 31, 2005.)
- Recordings of telephone conversations between Weberman and Dylan, New York City, January 6 and January 9, 1971. Originally released as Bob Dylan vs. A.J. Weberman on Folkways Records, Catalog #FB 5322, 1977, quickly deleted for legal considerations, but circulated in various bootlegBootleg recordingA bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
pressings. Original Folkways recording also contains an otherwise unreleased version of David Peel's "The Ballad of A.J. Weberman".- An excerpt from a transcript of the above
- Full transcripts:
-
- East Village Other (periodical), January 19, 1971
- Authors or editors unknown. The Fiddler Now Upspoke Volume 1 (Desolation Row Promotions, other publishing data unknown)
Other recordings of interest
- David Peel and the Lower East Side. "The Ballad of A.J. Weberman", on Santa Claus - Rooftop Junkie (1975, Orange Records. Re-released in box set David Peel, Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw — the Apple and Orange Recordings, 2005, Orange Records)
- Weberman recordings, private collection, catalogued here:
- Bob Fass Show With A.J. Weberman & Ellen Sanders, WBAI Radio, New York, 1968 (155 minutes)
- Bob Fass Show, WBAI Radio, New York (Studio discussion with Bob Fass, Allen J. Weberman & Ellen Zander) (Part 1) 1970
- Bob Fass Show, WBAI Radio, New York (Studio discussion with Bob Fass, Allen J. Weberman & Ellen Zander) (Part 2) 1970
- Bob Fass Show WBAI Radio New York (Studio Discussion With Bob Fass, Allen J. Weberman & Ellen Zander) (Part 3) 1970
- Alex Bennett Show, WPLJ Radio, With A.J. Weberman & Anthony Scaduto, 1974 (46 Minutes)
- John Roberts, telephone interview with A.J. Weberman for The Telegraph, (July 20, 1994) (12 Minutes)
- A.J. Weberman, WFMU Radio, New Jersey (18 Minutes) (no date given)
- The Larry King Show with A.J. Weberman, Garbologist (no date given)
- Weberman appears in the film Bob Dylan World Tours 1966-1974 - Through the Camera of Barry Feinstein directed by Barry FeinsteinBarry FeinsteinBarry Feinstein was an American photographer who was reputed to have produced over 500 album covers. Barry Feinstein began in his youth as a photographer. In 1955 he was engaged as an assistant at Life magazine...
, Joel Gilbert, and D.A. Pennebaker (DVD released March 8, 2005 by Music Video Distributors and/or Highway 61 Entertainment)
External links
- Feature Length documentary about A.J.Weberman
- Weberman's Dylanology site
- Weberman discusses Dylan to English Dictionary
- Review of Dylan to English Dictionary
- Review of Dylan to English Dictionary
- Bob Dylan, America's Greatest Anti-Communist poet
- Weberman's RightWing Bob Website
- Weberman's Steve Rombom site
- Weberman's turn a pot high into an LSD highsite
- Weberman's Kennedy assassination site
- New Yippie Cafe and Museum Web Site
- Weberman's Major Nidal Malick Hasan Book