Allen Ginsberg in London 1965

                ["Allen Ginsberg Reading At Better Books", LP cover, 1965 - Illustration by Alan Aldridge]

A rare and important Allen Ginsberg reading in London - his famous reading in the basement of Miles'  Better Books bookshop - in the Spring of 1965

"Recorded on a Ferrograph (reel-to-reel tape-recorder) by Ian Sommerville"

"The reading originated after Ed Sanders provided Ginsberg with Miles' name as manager of Better Books, a connection he followed up on his arrival in London from Prague in May 1965. The impromptu reading, though unannounced, was packed (the audience included Donovan, (who provided the pre-reading entertainment) and Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga and Edie Sedgwick, (in town on their way to Rome), and its success provided the catalyst for the upcoming International Poetry Incarnation  (Albert Hall poetry reading)." 

From the sleeve-notes (of the limited edition LP, released 1965 - from which the following recordings were taken);

"Many of the poems Allen Ginsberg read at Better Books were introduced by him with comments on their nature. He introduced the reading by saying; "What I will be reading here tonight, since most everybody here is an editor of a little magazine or a friend, is caviar in a sense, which is to say writing which is not published, and which I do not know whether or not to publish because I do not know whether or not they are concerned. Also some poems written in the last five years and some written in the last few months in Czechoslovakia and Poland."

"The first four selections on side one  ["Who Will Take Over The Universe?" - "From Journals" - "Women" - "From Journals"] - "Most of these I'll be reading are writings from journals and so are not poems. they are writings, with the faults of writings rather than the perfection of poesy"]  

"From Journals" continues ("Now I am brooding on a pillow with my arm resting on my head..") -  "Vulture Peak" ["Vulture Peak is in India near where Buddha pronounced The Diamond Sutra and the Flower Sermon"]   - "Poem Around The Greek Jukeboxes" [Paerama is a small village outside of Piraeus, near Athens with a great many jukeboxes and Greek boys dancing to the jukeboxes, mostly Bazouki music, which is the contemporary music of Greece"] - "The Olympics" ["There's a bugbeat group in Prague called The Olympics…in Czechoslovakia, like in London, there are young beautiful blonde kids, with long, long hair down to their shoulders and gangs of screaming twelve-year-old teenagers that come to theaters in the centre of Prague, and whistle and shriek and go into fainting ecstasies listening to them. This is a poem written listening to the Olympics, which also means Olympians or Gods, as you know."]



[Side two - "Mantra"- "Music of the Spheres" - "Morning"- "Why is God Love. Jack?" - "The Moment Return" -  ["The tracks (here) on side two had no introductions except the Mantra that opened the second half of the reading. This Allen called "an example of Tibetan concrete poetry""]  

Still to come - the last two tracks on side two - "The Spectre" and  (Kral Majales) "King of May" 

Philip Glass - 1

 

We celebrate tomorrow the actual birthday of Philip Glass, but here on the Ginsberg Project, a Philip Glass weekend

Here's how Philip brought in the New Year in New York earlier this month



& from the memoirs:

"Some years later when my sister Sheppie's husband, Morton Abramowitz was the Ambassador to Turkey, Allen Ginsberg came with me and some other friends on a tour of Greek theaters on the Ionian coast. I was interested in the acoustics and how they worked, so Allen would go on the stage and recite the famous W.B.Yeats poem "Sailing to Byzantium". The tourists who were around would sit down in the seats in the amphitheater and listen, because here's someone with a big head of hair who looks like a professor - I don't think anyone knew it was Allen Ginsberg - and the guards didn't stop him. He would walk to the center of the stage and recite, and it is amazing how beautiful and clear the poem would sound in that open environment."

       [Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass & company at Ephesus, Turkey, 1990 - Photograph by Allen Ginsberg, courtesy the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto]

"When Allen met Gelek Rimpoche soon after they immediately became close friends. From then on, he was at all the teaching sessions that would happen in New York and traveled frequently to Ann Arbor. During those years, Gelek Rimpoche's Jewel Heart organized two retreats a year - one in the winter and one in the summer - and Allen and I went to both every year. There were usually three of us sharing a room, the third person being either Stokes Howell, another writer friend of mine, or Kathy Laritz, Gelek Rimpoche's assistant at that time. During thr retreats, I often saw Allen wake up at night, turn on a flashlight, and begin writing poetry."

"One summer, Allen and his lifelong friend Peter Orlovsky came to visit me in Cape Breton. I remember many evenings after dinner when Allen would recite poetry. There was no TV near us and the radio offered very little of interest, but Allen knew volumes of poetry by heart. He could recite hours of poetry by Shakespeare, Blake and Tennyson, to list just a few."

                                                            [Philip Glass -Photograph by Allen Ginsberg]

"He told me that his father, Louis Ginsberg, himself a poet of some recognition had gotten him and his brother Eugene as children to memorize poetry. At times there were readings when both Allen and his brother read poems, a performance I found both moving and beautiful."

  [Philip Glass & his sister in Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, Turkey, 1990 - Photograph by Allen Ginsberg, courtesy the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto]

"Allen was outspoken and honest to a fault up to the very end of his life. From time to time I witnessed his encounters with people who knew him only by name, but had no idea what a warm and  spontaneous person he truly was. I remember a dinner in the 1990s at the house of Hank Luce, the publisher of Time and Fortune magazines. Hank was a big loud guy and part of the Luces - a powerhouse family in New York and throughout the country. Hank didn't really know Allen, but at dinner began poking around conversationally, clearly looking for trouble. But Allen, at that moment, was not interested in getting riled up. He answered Hank amiably enough. Finally Hank said, "I hear you write pornographic poetry?" - "I do" - "Let me hear some" - At that point Allen let loose with some real hair-curling pornographic poetry. Not only was it pornographic, it was really vulgar too. I could see that Hank was deeply impressed. Finally, when it looked as if Allen might be slowing down, he said, "Well, well, well…that certainly is pornographic. After that they fell into a friendly and very lively conversation . In fact Hank and Allen had a very good time together." 

to be continued