Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics, Routines

by Bill Hicks

Book Overview

Love All the People, a collection of controversial comedian Bill Hicks' stand-up routines, notebooks, journals, and letters, traces his evolution from brilliant conventional stand-up to something far... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932360654
• ISBN13: 9781932360653
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Captures the genius of a legend who died before his time.

Bill Hicks, in the short time he had here on this planet, was a stand-up comedian that truly stood out among the rest. He was never afraid to say what was on his mind, and he didn't care if that islolated his audience or brought them closer. He never sold out for commercialism, and was always himself. This book, has transcripts of his famous routines, his lyrics, and his writings are all here in this book. This book does cover a lot of issues that are more relevent today than when he was talking about them over 10 years ago. In these transcripts and his audio recordings, you can hear a deep hate for the present condition of the world, and the way it is run. But underneath all of the hate, lies a deep love for humanity, and a very spiritual individual just trying to make sense of a mixed-up world. If you have heard any of Bill's recordings buy this book. It might give you a little more insight into the man he was, (and still is.)

Excellent tribute to an inspirational genius

A superb collection of live transcripts, interviews, letters and writings from the late great stand-up comedian and confrontational visionary extraordinaire. The spirit of Bill Hicks lives on. Over ten years after his death, some may feel that we need his vision, sanity and humour more than ever. This book is a great reminder of just how brilliant and hysterically funny he was. Several recordings of live performances are also available on c.d. Relentlessly, Bill rips into the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of much of so-called civilization with astonishing wit and intelligence. "I am available for children's parties", quips Bill after another story involving topics such as pornography or drugs. Other targets include religion ("God, I pray the Christians get the message soon"), America ("There is freedom of speech to the highest bidder"), and global economics and poverty ("Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defence each year, and instead spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world"). But however political or controversial Bill gets, you sense that here is a loving but troubled soul with an open mind and an open heart. A man who desperately wanted to see more truth, laughter, love, compassion and understanding in the world. God bless the Spirit of Bill Hicks.

Has it been ten years?

I never say that Bill Hicks was one of the greatest comics of all-time. He was "the" greatest comic of all-time. However, the term comic never seemed right when talking about Bill. Bill Hicks was a satirist, a political scientist, a social observer, a malcontent, a genius. He did not do the "dick jokes" that he would always promise were on the way when his material started to get too deep. He was like a profane prophet, trying to awake the world up to the reality of what was happening around them. I have always thought he was one of the deepest people the aliens have put out there. The beauty of this new book, is that you get so much different material, which shows that brilliance. Moreover, you get to read the transcripts of so many great shows. As I read the transcripts, I saw Bill and I heard him delivering the lines. I own everything associated with Bill Hicks and this book is a worthy addition to the mix. Bill, God Bless you, wherever you are.

Insightful and inspiring

my expectations for this book were low. released on the 10th anniversary of his death, i was expecting it to be just a collection of transcripts of material already made public. however, this is not the case. in fact, because some of the material is drawn from his early days (early 80s), it was a surprise to me to see he had already pierced the social construction of reality at such an early age. i had mistakenly assumed that this didn't happen until the later in the decade (assumed mostly because of his growing up in the monolithic culture that he did). this book is a great reminder of how genuine a person bill was.