I Was Bullied By Facebook Fans.

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Yes, I was. And I let them do it.

My Groovy Reflections page (my other biz) posts a lot of music videos in celebration of 60’s/70’s music and pop culture.

Among the things we post are birthdays. It was Gary Glitter’s birthday. If you don't know, Mr. Glitter had some major troubles including taking advantage of children (to put it mildly). He was caught (thankfully). He has paid his dues and is still doing so. While I certainly don't endorse his actions, I hope he can live up to his wrongdoing and find peace. Oh yes and he had a big hit with Rock & Roll Part 2 in 1972. My post said: 

“Happy Birthday to Gary Glitter, born in 1944. We celebrate his big hit from 1972. Hey…”

A few likes showed up and then some negative comments including a very irate fan that used very colorful language. That sam fan also sent a message. It read: “gary glitter is a convicted kiddie fiddler please remove this”

Now I admit I have a lot of fight in me. However, the comments and the message hit me at a bad time. So I wimped out and removed the post and posted an apology.

One of my Groovy Reflections team members woke me up. He messaged to me: “You cannot let them bully you.”

Alas. it was already too late. I deleted the post. Shortly afterwards I posted a question to the fans as to whether or not we should continue posting anything related to Phil Spector, since he is a convicted murderer. No one replied. Hmmm.

That GR team member took the issue a step further and made several posts in celebration of those who are “notorious”.

Here are a few examples:

• Jim Morrison exposed himself on stage once but we are posting his 1969 hit anyway.
• This 1965 smash (and many other "Wall of Sound" hits that we love so much), was produced by convicted murderer Phil Spector, but we are posting it anyway.
• Imagine that a fellow was busted in England for drug possession.....then later, that same fellow was being deported from the USA because of Nixon, the FBI and the CIA. Imagine that after five years of court battles, this criminal got to stay in the USA.....Imagine if we posted his music anyway.

Wow! We listen to music by Jim Morrison (The Doors), great tunes produced by Phil Spector, and John Lennon! And they are all bad boys! Imagine that! 

And his final post before handing “the wheel” over to the next GR team member (admin):

• This 1972 hit is played at sporting events all over the world. It was Top 10 in its day and most of us liked or loved it. Unfortunately, Gary Glitter (born Paul Francis Gadd) is not that great of a human being. However, he has paid for his crimes. We are posting his song. If you do not like it, do not listen to it. ALSO, walk out of any sporting or other event IMMEDIATELY when you hear it........as you can see from the past six posts, if we only posted stuff by angels we would be pretty limited.

Since I'm not a big sports enthusiast, I had no idea that Gary Glitter’s hit song was played at major events. I can just imagine the crowd screaming out their "hey...eh..hey...eh's" at my local sports arena.

Joe, thank you. You proved your point! To steal a phrase (and title) from a Tom Petty song “I won't back down” in the future. Not sure what happened to my "Jersey"!

So, here we go. I’m posting this song. Here. Right now. If you don't like it don't listen to it! I like the song. It reminds me of a certain period in my life. And as I stated above, I hope Paul Francis Gadd (Gary Glitter) finds peace in his life. And as one fan commented “forgive his soul but not his actions”. Well said.

This is the world of social media. Advice for you? Stick to your convictions. I promise I will stick to mine and I won't let anyone bully me in a social media situation again. 

This tune was a 1972 #2 in the UK and #7 in the U.S. (see below). And tune into great tunes at the brand new radion station, Groovy Reflections Radio! 

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