Libbygate (and Aquafinagate, Dasanigate!)
Shootergate! (and the RIAA’s War On Terror)
Always liked this song on the rare moments it gets played on the oldies stations—I thought it was a one-hit wonder. Turns out it’s the same guys who did “Sugar Shack” (a #1 smash from 1963), which I never liked that much, but maybe the four ‘dry’ years with no top 40 hits helped get some more soul in these guys. Anyway, “Bottle of Wine” is for the ages….
Well, the film makes the poem seem more dated than it might otherwise, but an early pioneer of the “poetry video” format, which may soon be sweeping you-tube, but I still think Jean Luc Godard does it better in part because he’s not really trying
“I’ve been livin’ in the city/ that swallows ‘fore it chews”; check out www.myspace.com/miriamjacobson
Not to single this out; but check out his Myspace page for more info(www.myspace.com/mandeepsethi)
One of the guys who comes around here by the warehouse who I’ve had the pleasure of jamming with lately. One of the best drummers I’ve worked with, plays with power and appreciates and is adept at a wide range of styles, came closest to the sound I hear ‘in my head’ in doing my songs, even better….
A new song! First heard on KPOO radio 89.5; Swamp Dog specifically asked that this song be debuted on March 6th, 2007. Beautiful Stax Volt feel on the verses with passionate righteous, but never cloying, testimonial vocals before its more hip-hop chorus kicks in.
So, who do you like better? Ed Sanders or Tuli Kupferberg?
It’s a painting at the Esteban Sabar Gallery in Oakland. I loved it before I learned its name (it’s apparently a portrait of the gallery owner, but one that borrows from the best of 20th century abstract art, and yes, he’s still got “Litter Beach” by Guy Colwell up there too.
Because sometimes you just have to…
When people talk about people known primarily as poets who tried their hand at musical collaboration, Anne Sexton is not generally talked about—partially because her performances and recordings with her late 1960s and early 1970s band have never been officially released. I discovered them back in 2001, when Rebecca Wolff and Caroline Crumpacker, who at the time were responsible for organizing events, and were trying to change the somewhat staid image of The Poetry Society of America, asked me to form a recreation of this band for a tribute. Even 30 years later, the rock band still had a disturbing power for the Sexton-on-the-page purists, but it’s definitely worth a listen, and certainly no worse than much of Allen Ginsberg’s more known forays into musical collaboration. In fact, Sexton was going whole hog with it before Ginsberg was, and it’s possible (though I can’t prove it) that some of what Sexton did with her band could very well have been an unacknowledged influence on, say, Patti Smith among others.
