“Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?” – Wendy Erdman, begins with a Bob Dylan song – from her rare eponymous 1970 album
Allen on classical Greek prosody (metrics). continues from last week
AG: …I have the analyses and examples from Greek. Analyses of the variations within the possibilities.
Student: What are the vertical lines?
AG: (They show) breaking between the feet. I didn’t mean to get so hung up on this for such a long time, but it got interesting.
We were going to go on to sing “Songs of Experience”, (beginning on page eighteen)
Oh, something funny. I got this in the mail yesterday: An advertisement for Songwriters’ Concert Series in Folk City, in New York City, 130 West 3rd Street, 3rd Street and 6th Avenue. Songwriters’ Concert Series, Wendy Erdman. That’s (Blake scholar David) Erdman’s daughter. Little Wendy Erdman is a folksinger. That’s what happened to the second generation. Okay.
to be continued
I knew Wendy Erdman at the time, and studied with her father, David.
And so, in London in lateSpring/early summer 1967, David approached me to photograph some work by William Blake’s, his illuminated manuscript pages from Young’s Night Thoughts, at the British Museum. I’d been about a year, literary secretary/assistant to Allen Ginsberg, and all in all, was thrilled to see and touch the work of a great artist, and so assigned. I worked with Tim Street-Porter, at the time much superior a photographer than I, in shooting numerous color slides.
What became of these, I’ve never known. Were they published, ever? I’d love to know.
Wendy was, prior to her folk singing and solo album career, engaged in study, headed for career in the grand opera.