Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was an American Beat poet, raconteur, activist, and thinker; he was also a prolific collector, meticulously saving letters, postcards, draft notes, manuscripts, photographs, appearance bills and rally broadsheets featuring him and fellow poets, along with friends and agitators. Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg (2023) featured a sample of this previously unpublished historical paperwork selected from hundreds of thousands of items archived at Stanford University’s Ginsberg collection. The book was edited by counterculture historian and archival music producer Pat Thomas.
Pat Thomas has now also compiled this accompanying soundtrack with assistance from the executor of Ginsberg’s estate, Peter Hale. Thomas is well qualified to put this audio collection together. As well as having edited the book, he was the producer of the 2016 3CD The Last Word On First Blues (Omnivore) which gathered Ginsberg’s 1971-1984 rock, blues and folk singing/song-writing and the 2017 2CD The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake, tuned by Allen Ginsberg (Omnivore), an album of Blake poems set to music and sung by Ginsberg with additional recordings of the era including Buddhist mantras.
Thomas acknowledges in the excellent liner notes that this new CD draws from and adds to the “bible of bop prosody” Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Songs & Poems 1949-1993 (Rhino Records, assembled by Hal Willner). The release also draws from other Ginsberg audio projects from over the years.
Collectors should be pleased to hear that three out of the 15 tracks on this CD are previously unreleased. There’s the devotional chant of “Raghupati Raghava” (recorded in 1971 at the Record Plant), which was planned for release on an Apple Records LP and features Ginsberg on vocals and harmonium with Arthur Russell on cello and other assorted musicians. It has a spirited atmosphere, with (probably) Peter Orlovsky and Anne Waldman contributing backing vocals, on a mantra that was used by Gandhi to unify competing factions.
Also previously unreleased and included here are “Hum Bom” (recorded in 1984) with drummer Elvin Jones, which is a rhythmic rally for peace pulsating with fun as Ginsberg implores us to “stop the bom(b)”. There’s also “First Party At Ken Kesey’s With Hell’s Angels”, an evocative reading of a 1965 poem ay the Knitting Factory 30 years on, recalling “3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakers/hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles/Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths/dancing to the vibration thru the floor” (Thomas gives further background in the liner notes).
Ginsberg was a renowned poet, and his poetry is well represented on this collection. There’s an impassioned excerpt from a reading of his 1955 masterpiece “Howl” recorded in Stockholm in 1983 and only previously released in Sweden. The excerpt of “America” is a warm and humorous performance (“when can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?”) much appreciated by the 1956 Berkeley audience. Also included is an empathetic 1964 delivery of “Kaddish, for Naomi Ginsberg 1894-1956” at Brandeis University, and he reads tenderly about Beat hero Neal Cassady (immortalised in Kerouac’s On the Road and elsewhere) in “On Neal’s Ashes”.
Ginsberg’s musical ”side-career” gets some deserved attention; his foray into music may not be for everyone, but the notable individuals he worked with should spark music fans interest (those interested in the Beats’ role and influence on popular music should seek out Simon Warner’s 2013 Text and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: the Beats and Rock Culture).
“The Ballad Of The Skeletons” (1996) is a collaboration with Paul McCartney (who wrote the music with Ginsberg and Philip Glass) originally released as a CD single; the band also included Lenny Kaye, Marc Ribot and David Mansfield and it’s a strong performance all round.
There are also two tracks with Bob Dylan: the jazzy “Going to San Diego” (recorded in 1971) and “Do the Meditation Rock” (recorded in 1982), the latter extolling the virtues of meditation. “Put Down Yr Cigarette Rag (Don’t Smoke)” (1976) comically assists those trying to stop smoking cigarettes by setting out the downsides of the addiction with the bigger capitalist considerations, as well as Ginsberg’s method for giving up the evil weed. “Gospel Noble Truths” is a waltzing country song recorded live in front of an audience at Folk City 1984 outlining the three marks of existence and the four noble truths.
Ginsberg’s activism is also brought to life. “Birdbrain” (with The Gluons) is an entertaining dose of poetic punk railing against world idiocy, released as a 7” single in 1981 (backed with “Sue Your Parents”). There’s an alternate take of “Grey Monk” (Songs of Innocence and Experience, 1970), which Ginsberg first performed in Chicago’s Lincoln Park for an anti-Vietnam protest. Also of note is “Prayer For John Sinclair”, a tone poem for the imprisoned White Panther leader and MC5 manager, with Ginsberg on harmonium and Peter Orlovsky proclaiming the bankruptcy of the middle class. We concur.
Label: Real Gone Music
Release Date: 09 FEB 2024
Poetic Justice 