First Blood (1982) of course features Sylvester "Sly" Stallone, not the psychedelic funk-soul musician Sly Stone. It's not Stallone's first movie, either, though it's the one that introduces his iconic character John Rambo. (Rocky would have been more relevant, I would have thought, if we're going to be conflating the actor with someone named Stone.)
I know essentially nothing about Sly and the Family Stone. My mother has mentioned a few times that she used to listen to them back in the day, but I believe it was her brother Eli who was the big fan and owned all the records. There were no Family Stone albums in the house when I was growing up, and prior to doing the preliminary research occasioned by this dream I wouldn't have been able to name a single one of their albums or songs or to have recognized Sly in a police lineup.
Since I obviously should have been searching the Internet for Sly Stone's first album, not his first movie, I went ahead and did that. The band's debut album, released in 1967, was A Whole New Thing. I thought I might get a picture of the album cover and one of the First Blood poster and put them together as an illustration for this post. Looking up A Whole New Thing on Wikipedia, though, I found that there were two different covers to choose from. The caption accompanying the second of these caught my eye:
Rose Stone, for those who have been -- or rather, for those who haven't been living under that particular Rock -- is the name of the central MacGuffin in the story being developed by Bill Wright, a 30-pound red stone which is a palantir-like object and has lots of important information and stories stored on it. (I suppose the title of this post suggests that "all" is contained within the Stone.) Bill has also been insisting lately that adjectives like cunning and wily can have a positive meaning, so sly fits right in.
Another interesting coincidence is that Sly Stone (who died just last month, it turns out) happens to share my birthday, the Ides of March.
Note added: After posting this, I had a vague memory of having seen a T-shirt in Taiwan that said something like "I would never try to stab you. If he'd stop being so shady, he could find a nice young lady. You don't have to die before you live." I had googled the text and found that most of it (minus the stabbing bit) was from a Sly and the Family Stone song. I don’t think I photographed the shirt, or if I did I can’t find the photo, but repeating the search confirms that the source is indeed Sly Stone, the song "Life."
"You don't have to die before you live" is directly relevant to my last post, in which I wrote, "You can't really reincarnate without dying first, but people somehow tend to overlook that."
4 comments:
My guess is that the name First Blood as it relates to Sly Stone is extremely relevant.
Blood is a word that is also used, per Etymonline, to refer to family: "person of one's family, race, kindred; offspring, one who inherits the blood of another".
So, you can take First Blood with that alternative meaning and see where you go from there.
Blood being the color of Red also symbolically factors in, would be another good guess in my view.
Also, I have to say, I love the continuation of the "Everybody knows!" theme your dream guide employed. That phrase seems to point back to the Jay Leno dream. My guess is it wasn't accidental.
Lastly, on your update thought, it could be the "You don't have to die before you live" links to two very different, opposite, yet connected events separated by quite a lot of time. The first is the Numenorean story. "You don't have to die before you live" was the message that Sauron fooled Pharazon into believing, and it is exactly what caused the assault on Eressea and Valinor.
That event was a twisted version of the true story of people travelling to Heaven without dying. Although some people like the Bountiful Disciples and others have done this, the larger event that Pharazon's failed attempt points to has yet to occur. In my story, the Rose Stone will play a major role in providing a way for this to happen. Human Beings will make a seemingly impossible journey in their current bodies, as part of the Wheat being gathered home, like Calves to the Stall.
The last name of Stallone means "Cow Stable", by the way.
Viewing Blood as having to do with Family (and even the mention of a Family Stone) ties very well into a message I received in early 2021 relating what the Rose Stone is about. I shared it on my own blog, and maybe in the comments here also (I can't remember):
"The story on the stone is the story of our family. It is meant for our family, to cause them all to shine. It is a story of love, of our love undying and unending, even in a void. To bring forth, even in this nothing-place, love's power - our family's power.
You came powerless, as did others, with hope in a promise. The story is the promise, and the power.
And the void, now de-void it own power, recedes; what WAS NOT now becoming IS."
A Family Stone and a Whole New Thing, for sure.
Rambo was named after the poet Rimbaud, who has his own “first blood” connection, as his synaesthetic poem Voyelles identifies the vowel I (Roman numeral 1) with the color red.
You may remember Rimbaud as the “drunken railer” who indirectly prompted your intercessory post on my behalf.
William,
Another "Stone" song is from the 1970's band
Earth, Wind and Fire titled; In the Stone,
lyrics by EWF's leader Maurie White.
In the Stone was one of EWF's 'message' songs,
which the core of EWT was to awaken and transform
the Black community' to spirituality as
opposed to disco.
I found this wording in the lyrics very interesting
given my last comment about staying
true to our beliefs.
Copy and paste:
"Do you believe, my friend, in what you claim?
People of the world all doubt the same
Bringing questions of their own, yeah
Truth is, truth is written in the stone
(Look in the stone)
In the stone, you'll find the meaning
You're not standing tall
('Cause in the stone)
In the stone, the light is shining
Ever touching all
Deep inside your heart for you to keep
Lies a spark of light that never sleeps
Greatest love you've ever known
Love is, love is written in the stone'
~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Stone---Earth Wind and Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlavfQHFnPw
https://genius.com/Earth-wind-and-fire-in-the-stone-lyrics
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