CIA’s Miles Copeland most prolific business manager in punk-rock
“The head of cia had one son who was the drummer for the police & the other son managing & signing bands to his record label. More specifically punk & new wave bands. This is not by coincidence. And his other son was booking his brother’s famous band and the bands his other brother would sign! While Miles Jr. was never the head of the CIA himself, he was a very powerful and influential co-founder.”
Sex Pistols. Dead Kennedys. The Police. IRS Records. The Cramps. R.E.M. CIA. OSS. Military intelligence. Punk-Rock. Dav McGowan.
If there was direct CIA involvement with Punk, it would not be to “invent” or try to “popularize” it, but rather to co-opt and manage it to the best of their ability. Capital subsumes all critiques into itself, and the same thing definitely happened with Punk. They needn’t have been concerned though, punk was always toothless culturally and politically. It absorbed the same hyper individualism as the hippies. Punks checked out of mass political struggle pretty thoroughly. Adam Curtis covers this a bit in Hypernormalisation (great documentary, free on youtube)
There are numerous ties between the Laurel Canyon scene and military intelligence.
A good book on the music business is “Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon” by David McGowan. All the bands in Laurel Canyon in the 60s had connections to military intelligence and The Establishment.
The CIA controlled the whole counterculture movement of the 60’s. Blew my mind as a teen to find out some of my icons were government assets. Some knowing & willingly participating. Others having no clue I’m sure but finding out later only to be dealt with. Always wondered this about Blind Owl Wilson’s death
Unfortunately the person that was in a position to offer the best insight into the story is no longer with us. Ian Copeland the middle brother passed away in 2006 shortly before the Police reunion was announced. Even though Ian didn’t grow up in the United States he was an American citizen and enlisted in the US army. He was a decorated soldier serving in Vietnam. It is well worth seeking out a copy of his witty and charming autobiography called “Wild Thing”. Cheers.
Social Engineering via music is completely plausible. This reminds me of a story I read a while back about the producers of rap music in the late ’80s/early ’90s being rounded up by men in black & brought to a meeting where they were told to make the music they were producing have more violent, gangster rhetoric. The premise being that the privatization of prisons was about to happen & there were contracts that demanded a certain number inmates at all times. It was believed that violent music would help in this. (If you’re old enough to recall, rap music did seemingly overnight go from “Can’t Touch This” to “Cop Killer” etc.)
Got here via SOUND QUALITY site run by an ORGanization — notes Stu Copeland revealed his dad as ‘founding member of CIA’ on a Late Night w Bob Costas interview in 1980s/1990s.
Really interesting video! My very 1st job in the music biz 20+ years ago was working for Miles. Never knew any of this stuff as I was a 25 year old kid. What I do know is there was no one more passionate about music and he was so incredibly kind to me. I genuinely adored him as he was the real deal.
It should be evident how environmentalism first captured well intended youth, then went on to become fully weaponized.
The CIA had a major hand in creating modern art, its entirely plausible. Punk rock is after all just a musical form of modern art, it was birthed from art scenes in London, NY and California
Stiv Bator of the Lords of the New Church, who was managed by Miles Copeland and signed to IRS, frequently spoke openly about Miles’ CIA connections and used alot of pseudo political conspiracy imagery in his lyrics (the first LOTNC single was called ‘open your eyes’ and was a pretty obvious nod to CIA programming) . Stiv would also joke about how he stole secret documents from the CIA, that was a big part of the build up to the single/video Russian Roulette. I would not be surprised if the mystique was more or less just a marketing tool used by Miles. Also other unrelated bands were attempting tours in the middle east/south Asia at the same time as well. Hanoi Rocks played a series of gigs in India in 1981 or 82, and Israel. I don’t think the CIA would be using a Finnish glam band to be spreading western ideals. But I guess you never know, lol.
Best party I ever went to was an after party for GWAR at Miles Copeland’s house on Benedict Canyon. I went with my friend, photographer Dawn Laureen. None of the guys were in costume. It was disorienting & ever-so-much fun!
Tavistock is claimed to have a deep influence in the “creation” of the Beatles and many if not all the subsequent rock genres. Interesting book (I have yet, but will, to read) is “Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, & the secret history of the 60’s”. Apparently, a must read for those with eyes to see and ears to hear
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Remember The Doors?Jim Morrison’s father was the head of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Ya know, that little spat that got us into Viet Nam…? That whole music scene had parents in the military/govt. They started the hippies to discredit respected professionals who were protesting U.S. involvement in Viet Nam, it makes perfect sense they also started Punk Rock to discredit respected professionals protesting U.S. involvement in the Middle East with the Mujahadeen… Who later became A.L. Queda… Yup. Not at all surprised. Controlled Opposition. We know what they want us to know…Show less
Stewart Copeland. Stuart Copeland.
