Refrain
December 28, 2014
More Lion For Real amplification.  More early Ginsberg lyrics  – today’s offering – Refrain To hear his 1989 version, see here Sleeve note:  “Among the earliest writings in this suite, echoing late Yeats‘[…]
Complaint Of The Skeleton to Time
December 27, 2014
Continuing with our re-visit and amplification of the Willner-Minzer  Lion For Real – see here, here, here and here                 – here‘s another early (1949) lyric – “Complaint Of The Skeleton To Time” Sleeve note – “1949 lyric influenced by Thomas Wyatt’s “My Lute, Awake!“[…]
Ginsberg – Scribble
December 21, 2014
                    Here‘s the very first poem that opens “The Lion For Real”  (published in Reality Sandwiches) – Kenneth Rexroth and Edith Piaf – a brief but poignant lyric, Scribble      Steve Swallow‘ s on piano, Michael Blair on guitar,[…]
The Shrouded Stranger (Three Renditions)
December 20, 2014
Last weekend we featured two tracks from the Michael Minzer-Hal Willner-produced Lion For Real – “To Aunt Rose” and “Lion For Real”, this weekend, a couple more –  First, the very early lyric (from 1949) –  “The Shrouded Stranger” The Shrouded Stranger Bare skin is my wrinkled sack When hot Apollo humps[…]
The Lion For Real – (Three Renditions)
December 14, 2014
Another from Michael Minzer and Hal Willner’s The Lion For Real – the title track. The musicians on this one – Arto Lindsay, guitar, Michael Blair, guitar (& glockenspiel), Gary Windo, tenor sax,  Rob Wasserman, bass, Beaver Harris, drums – sound effects by Richard Fussco. Allen’s sleeve note:  [“Soyez muette pour moi,[…]
To Aunt Rose – (Three Renditions)
December 13, 2014
 One of Allen’s most accomplished early poems is our spotlight today – “To Aunt Rose” –   “A memory flash 1958 Paris. My favorite Aunt Rose (1900-1940) took care of me weekends when my mother was ill – Books named are my late father Louis Ginsberg‘s. It was a big event to[…]
Allen Ginsberg Reads Terry Southern
November 20, 2013
Terry Southern reading from “Flash and Filagree” – “The Clinic” (included on the album, “Give Me Your Hump! The Unspeakable Terry Southern Record” released in 2001 by Michael Minzer on his pioneering Paris Records. See here and here and here for other Paris Records gems  Terry is joined on this track by[…]
Made Up in Texas – 2 – (The Garland Symphony Orchestra)
October 29, 2013
A second cut from Michael Minzer‘s debut recording on Paris Records, Made Up In Texas. Allen with The Garland Symphony Orchestra, scored and conducted by Steven Taylor, recorded in the Fall of 1985 in Dallas, Texas. “(This) was Allen’s test, Minzer has been quoted as saying, “I think he decided that he[…]
Made Up in Texas – 1
October 28, 2013
    Here’s yet another version of Allen’s delightful bitter-sweet Airplane Blues (see our earlier posting about that particular composition here). This one, with Bugs Henderson and Friends, recorded in Dallas, Texas in the Fall of 1985, is one of two cuts by Allen featured on the extraordinary (and extraordinarily hard-to-find!) compilation[…]
More Vintage Corso
July 6, 2013
More Vintage Gregory Corso (culled from Michael Minzer/Hal Willner’s two Corso recordings – Die On Me and Lieders) – (We’ve already featured Marianne Faithfull, in collaboration with Gregory, a week or so back). Here’s Gregory and Allen (and Peter) and Studs Terkel, in January of 1959, in Chicago, on The “Studs Terkel[…]