Starting the New Year with a little Ginsberg rarity, New Year Blues, (published by Bob Wilson‘s legendary Phoenix Bookshop,“Number 14 in the Phoenix Book Shop Oblong Octavo Series” – limited edition, 126 copies, 100 numbered and 26 lettered”)
Allen’s note included in the booklet:
“These are first experiment blues lyrics, one written waiting in turn in St Marks Church Xmas open reading, & the other midnite in Feenjon’s basement coffeeshop waiting do hour set backroom 1AM. Forms adapted from Richard Rabbit Brown’s James Alley Blues (C-F-G chords) as transcribed in The Blues Line, by Eric Sackheim, Grossman, NY 1969, & heard on Harry Smith’s Folkways American Folk Songs collection, NY 1952. A.G.”