Allen Ginsberg Reading in Baltimore -1969

December 3, 2016Simon Pettet

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Allen Ginsberg at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, November 1969

A few weeks back, we featured Allen, in 1973, reading at the Maryland Institute. Here’s another recording, from 1969, four years previously, where he presents a little mantra, a little William Blake and a substantial selection (some still in early draft) of his epic “poem of these states”, later incorporated in  “The Fall of America”

The reading begins with a very brief introduction, welcoming Allen back (sic)  ( “It seems to me most appropriate because this reading comes between All Saints Day and … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round Up – 293

November 18, 2016Simon Pettet

Bob Dylan, The Mann Center, Philadelphia, July 13, 2016. via Bill’s Music Blog

So Bob Dylan won’t be heading over to Sweden to pick up his Nobel Prize for Literature on December the 10th. The Swedish Academy said Wednesday that Dylan told them he “wishes he could receive the prize personally, but other commitments made it unfortunately impossible”. He is still, however, required to give a Nobel lecture some time between now and next June.

Rolling Stone announces it here, The Guardian here, here in the New York Times.

More Dylan news – and a must-read – (in … Read More

Allen and Bob – part 2

May 25, 2011admin

[Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg, San Francisco, 1965, photo c. Larry Keenan]
In 1965 Allen arranged for and fellow student photographer Dale Smith to photograph him and Michael McClure and Robbie Robertson and Bob Dylan in the alleyway behind City Lights Bookstore (originally for possible use on the Blonde on Blonde album cover). The images were never used (tho’ some have turned up in subsequent Dylan projects).

As Keenan, on the Empty Mirror website, recalls:

[Michael McClure, Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg, San Francisco, 1965, photo c. Larry Keenan]
“This session was arranged the night before at a party
… Read More

Robbie Robertson reads Allen Ginsberg

May 23, 2011admin

Clare Ann Matz has put together an interesting tape – “Poetry of the Western World Read By Celebrities and Collected by Clare Ann Matz”, a miscellaneous collection of poetry reading (and attempted poetry reading!) by an odd mix of artists, among them filmmaker Wim Wenders, The Band’s Robbie Robertson, and footage of Allen himself (“Father Death Blues”, mis-captioned here as “Blues For A Dead Father” – that particular reading starts about eight and a quarter minutes in – but the whole tape is worth watching).
It begins with Kiowa singer and educator, Ralph Zotigh (of the … Read More