VARIOUS – Allen Ginsberg’s The Fall Of America Vol II – LP – Vinyl [NOV 24]

LP – Black Vinyl.Includes bonus download card of the full 15 tracks of the CD version, plus extra track: DJ Spooky feat. Antoine Drye – Beginning of a Poem of These States.

Various artists musically interpret poems from Allen Ginsberg‘s “The Fall of America: Poems of these States1965-1971” on this second volume – to benefit Pen America. Fall of America Poems, published by City Lights Books in San Francisco, covers the years 1965- 1971 when Allen is crisscrossing the country, exploring a system of composition by narrating into the portable reel to reel Uher that Bob Dylan had gifted him. Musical interpretations of Ginbergs poems are performed by Ai Weiwei, Philip Glass, Thurston Moorewith Saul Williams, Anne Waldman, Miho Hatori, Jack Dangers, Devendra Banhart, Kai Campos & Cj Mirra, and more.

“In 1965, Ginsberg began planning an ambitious project, a book of thematically connected poems, a collection that “discovered” America in poetry similar to the way Kerouac’s On the Road had explored the country in prose. The Vietnam War would be a constant presence overhanging Ginsberg’s travel writings like a darkening shadow affecting daily life in the country. It would be a study of contrasts: natural beauty slammed up against an ugliness that rose out of the tensions of violence. The public’ s polarized dialogue over Vietnam and, earlier in the decade, the civil rights movement, convinced Ginsberg that America was teetering on the precipice of a fall.”

– Michael Schumacher, from introduction to The Fall of America Journals 1965-1971

Tracklist:

Side A
1. Ai Weiwei with O Future & Aliah Rosenthal – Hum Bom!
2. Anne Waldman/Fast Speaking Music -Pentagon Exorcism
3. Thurston Moore feat. Saul Williams– A Prophecy
4. Kai Campos and CJ Mirra – Bixby Canyon
5. Jack Dangers -Holy Ghost on the Nod Over the Body of Bliss
6. System 7 – Sonora Desert Edge (The Abyss)

Side B
1. WHY? – Death on All Fronts
2. Seb Taylor – Over Denver Again
3. Ashes (Bill Laswell, Eraldo Bernocchi & Reeno) – September on Jessore Road
4. Miho Hatori – Iron Horse (The Universe is Empty)
5. Philip Glass – Have You Seen This Movie?

* Vinyl includes bonus download card of the full 15 tracks of the CD version, plus extra track: DJ Spooky feat. Antoine Drye – Beginning of a Poem of These States