Caesar Drives A Fast Car

 

I wrote this song and we recorded it in 1979. The legendary John Peel played it on his BBC show amongst other things.

1992 L.A. Riots (Rodney King) I was there!

 

I was attending The University of Western Ontario in London when I received a fairly substantial legal win. And as usual I did the reckless thing and dropped out suddenly for some fun.

My long time close friend Director Tibor Tackacs invited me to be a guest in Los Angeles for a bit.

I couldn’t say no.

I should have stayed in University. The University of Western Ontario was my THIRD university after Ryerson University and the University of Toronto. It wasn’t until 2000 that I was diagnosed and treated for ADHD (inattentive type). 

The tyranny of the shoulds. 

I SHOULD have stayed in the field of Systems Analysis and Electronic Data Processing after being Military Immersion trained by Honeywell Corporation in 1982. If I stayed in that field I would be worth a fortune today. C’est la vie.

What happened is I won  CASBY award for most promising male recording artist. My ambitions inflated, I chose to focus on music.

So Director Tibor Takacs invited me to L.A. His house was on North Arden about a block away from Hollywood and Vine. There was a guest house in the back where Tibor had a home office and a couch for me to sleep.

I left my apartment in London and headed for Toronto. There I stayed at my brother’s apartment near where my parents Clissold Road Etobicoke house. My mother was in a tizzy because working for him at his chiropractic clinic and office of International X-Ray Company Limited, she became suspicious of my father and investigated him.

My mother had discovered that my father had been leading a double life, and for years had a relationship with a woman named Carmen Turdgeon. We will explore that rabbit hole later.

My mother was quite upset and wanted to divorce my father. She should have. She told him he would never see the kids ( my brother and I) again if she left him.

To which my father wept. All of this traumatized me and I calmly told my father that he had ruined my life. That was in 1992 and this is 2024. It could be said that my words were oddly prophetic all these years later, yours truly now 68.

So after notifying Dear Old Dad he had ruined my life, I went to the bank and grabbed $US5000.00 for travelling money and boarded a train bound for Los Angeles. From Toronto you take a train to Chicago and stay overnight, then board an AMTRACK train that takes you to Los Angeles.

At the border the train stopped and the customs officers bordered the train.

(I’ll finish this story in a bit…)

More Than This: Kidnapped in Toronto 2002

 This video is not exactly Apocalypse Now Redux, shot on my iPhone and an angle, I’m yet to invest in a tripod. It’s 25 minutes long and I describe play by play the occurrence on Yorkville Avenue July 2 2002 Toronto Canada.

I ask the question: What was the rationale behind my kidnapping and attempted murder?

Consider that my mother had just died and I was the sole heir to the family fortune. Was it a random act of violent crime? Was it a thwarted hit? Was it to scare and intimidate me? Was my father behind it? Were the police behind it? How does this occurrence fit into the larger conspiracy I was unwittingly in the middle of?

Spoiler alert: If you have read salient points within this blog, I may have in a roundabout fashion disclosed that I was defrauded out of everything including my inheritance that I earned after working for and with my mother and father Dr. Robert Goddard Young and Margaret Isobel Young (Peace). I didn’t get a nickel out of my late mother’s estate. I would have been entitled to a portion if not all. My father made sure I received nothing and he got it all. My father died in 2012 and I wasn’t even notified and some slovenly Colombian “Caregiver “ got everything. My father actually “married” her and I have a copy of the marriage certificate. Hindsight being 20/20, I figure he actually registered his “marriage with the government to make it infeasible to contest his so called will. One of many after my mother died.

My brother William Robert Stuart Young 1963-1996. A tragedy one never recovers from. I’m literally scarred for life. Photo thanks to Richard Spee.

After the premiere of Gambling Gods and LSD in September 2002, I determined that living at my home at 34 Clissold Road was unsafe in anyway because of my father. After Fred Levitt, LL.B and Kathy Gillespie of Levitt Lightman Dewar and Graham LLP made my father “sole beneficiary “ of my mother’s estate, my father started calling the Toronto Police Service falsely claiming that I assaulted him. The first time he did was the day everything went into his name. I had all his paperwork intercepted unbeknownst to my father.

Even. My nemesis Stan Weismann, LL.B., another one of my father’s greasy lawyers complimented me on the quality of my information.

What I was getting at is that after the premiere of Gods Gambling and LSD I fled Toronto and my home at 34 Clissold Road and went to see Jeff Levinson’s friend Michael L.Sefton who lived in Fenelon Falls, Ontario. I stayed for a few days and attempted to go back home. I somehow entered the house without being seen and when I went downstairs to the basement where I supposedly lived I found two of a seemingly endless supply of low life caregivers, Jack and Sandy Blake loading EVERYTHING I owned into green garbage bags! What I didn’t know was that there was an unlawful warrant for my arrest out for John Paul Young for allegedly assaulting and threatening my father.

My friend Catharine Maguire said to me:”That’s like being raped! And indeed it was. Master tapes, scripts, computer equipment, thousands of photographs, thousands of priceless things…books…the loss is unbelievable.

Club David’s New Years Eve 1977

 

Our first real gig was at gay disco-tech Club David’s on Halloween night 1977. This gig was at Club David’s on New Years Eve 1977, supporting The Ugly and The Viletones. The line up was Paul O’Connell on bass, Vince Carlucci on guitar, Richard Miller on Drums and yours truly John Paul Young on vocals.

That night David’s burned to the ground including our P.A.

I wonder why Liz Worth excluded us from her otherwise great book on the Toronto punk scene 1977-1983. (Treat Me Like Dirt).

Maybe because I was in jail or in seclusion. Hee hee.

THE BOULEVARDS OF HOPE (1980)

 

THIS is a great track from The Life of Ermie Scub (1980). 

I wrote it with the apocalypse in mind, as is most of the album. You should listen with headphones. Maybe SCUB is semi-autobiographical but the coming apocalypse is the main theme. On “Surrender To the Void” you hear a sound bite stating “The horses are on the track…”. 

That’s a not so subtle reference to the four horseman of the apocalypse.

If you don’t have a copy of my 1980 LP, you can get one on Discogs currently for about $CDN30.00 plus shipping. I don’t make any money off of it, but I like to spread the word.

Here is the entire album on YouTube:

Someday I would like to release new material and a sequel to this Life of Ermie Scub. If I win the lottery I will do just that.

CARDBOARD BRAINS (1978)

 Live at The Horseshoe Tavern in 1978. 

I think this is “Can Stress Kill” from the 1977 Cardboard Brains White EP.

OFF THE GRID

 It’s been awhile Dear Friends.There hasn’t been a lot to report. 

Went to the cabin near Bridgewater which is completely off the grid. 

It’s about a KM into the secluded woods and you really need a Toyota Land Cruiser to get in there. It’s entirely built piece by piece by hand by an old German gentleman named Horst. No power, with the exception of solar power for charging batteries. No running water but a hand pump. No internet so doomscrolling is out. 

The ideal place for contemplation.

I’ll be turning 68 this July 16 and it sort of scares me. If I’m going to start a revolution or write a manifesto I had better do it now.

I wonder if I will ever get around to doing music again. I’ve wanted to for years but life got in the way.

For now I’m concentrating on my YouTube channel. I enjoy the feedback I get and I find it a joy. Please visit and subscribe. Here is the link:

www.YouTube.com/@johnpaulyoung1956

Thanks!

April 2024

Haven’t posted in a long time. Stayed for a while at an Air BnB in Chester, Nova Scotia. 

Basically living the life and chilling. I’ll post again soon. 

Thanks everyone.

THE LAST POGO JUMPS AGAIN (2013)

 Clip on (the) Cardboard Brains from Colin Brunton and Kire Papputs’ The Last Pogo Jumps Again. (2013).

I’m glad they got Nardwaur the Human Serviette to substitute for a noticeably absent John Paul Young.

I WANT TO BE A YANK WITH LYRICS

 

I Want To Be A Yank

This of course is the 1977 iconic CARDBOARD BRAINS White EP with I Want To Be A Yank, Living Inside My Head, Can Stress Kill, and of course our pre-pistols cover of the Monkees (I’m not your) Stepping Stone. The Canadian punk outfit FUCKED UP did a successful cover of I Want To Be A Yank, however the lyrics aren’t correct. So I would like to take this opportunity to present them in their full glory.

“WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT MAGGIE T.?

I’M REALLY SICK OF THE CBC.

THE KIDS ARE ROTTING AT U. Of T.

JUST TO WORK FOR THE U.I.C.

RENE LEVESQUE’S THE MISSING LINK

CBC TV PROGRAMS REALLY STINK

YOUR MONEYS ALL DOWN THE DRINK

I WISH I DIDN’T HAVE TO THINK.

U.S. THEY GOT TAINTED HAM

U.S. THEY GOT SON OF SAM

U.S. THEY GOT SIRHAN SIRHAN

U.S. THEY GOT VIETNAM

I WANT TO BE A YANK!

WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT MAGGIE T.?

I’M REALLY SICK OF THE CBC

THE KIDS ARE ROTTING AT U.of T.

JUST TO WORK FOR THE U.I.C.

U.S. THEY GOT JIMMY CARTER

U.S. YOU CAN BE A MARTYR

U.S. THEY GOT WORLD SERIES

U.S. I CAN LIVE ON TV

I WANT TO BE A YANK!

Maybe the Canadian punk band FUCKED UP didn’t want to use the real lyrics at the risk of offending the CBC (they CBC aired a segment on them featuring the song, but I think The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation would see the ironic humour inherent.

That version of CARDBOARD BRAINS 1977-1978 should have put out an LP instead of an EP. The band comprised Paul O’Connell on bass, a Brit by the name of Rich Miller on Drums, Vince Carlucci and John Paul Young on Vocals and lyrics.