Allen Ginsberg — internationally renowned, visionary American Beat Poet — was a figurehead of the global youth movement in the late 1960s, a teacher and scholar, inspiring generations of young poets. He was a racial activist, pacifist, one of the most politically engaged poets for decades, using his voice and international platform as a campaigner for human rights, gay liberation, ecology, and free speech.
Nearly all his books remain in print to this day.
In celebration of his legacy, Shimmy-Disc has announced a remixed and remastered reissue of Allen Ginsberg’s 1989 album of spoken-word pieces, entitled The Lion For Real, Re-born.
Following the LP announcement and the release of ‘To Aunt Rose”‘in September, Shimmy-Disc is sharing a new track from the EP today, titled, ‘The End’, complete with a new Ambient-Cinema video crafted by Kramer.
The surreal, self-indulgent, sexual poem is classic Ginsberg, the video a selection of images of the poet in different states. ‘Come Poet. shut up eat my word, and taste my mouth in your ear’ indeed.
Ginsberg wrote of The End in the record’s original liner notes: ‘A psychedelic condensation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, scary & somewhat theistic in conception, in continuous rhythm as if there were a great being like Father Fisheye at the end or bottom of the 1960 Universe. Marc Ribot’s music’s appropriately eerie.‘
This forthcoming LP release, due November 3, finds Allen Ginsberg — the voice of a generation, fierce, gentle, profound and profane — paired with music created especially for his work, by some of the guiding lights of Jazz in the modern era: Mark Bingham, Bill Frisell, Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot, and others. All masterfully coordinated and produced by the mad scientist of collaborations, Hal Willner.
First released as The Lion For Real in 1989, this time capsule surges forth into the now with 8 additional tracks never included on the original release. These are timeless works, a garden of eden on vinyl to wander through repeatedly, guided by the founding father of Beat Poetry. Graced by an irresistible coda co-written with Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer, his lyrical mantra of ‘Don’t Grow Old.’
The Lion For Real, Re-born – TRACKLISTING
01. The Lion For Real
02. **Bricklayer
03. Refrain
04. **Cosmopolitan Greeting
05. **Night Gleam
06. **Squeal
07. Cleveland, The Flats
08. Complaint of the Skeleton to Time
09. The Shrouded Stranger
10. Stanzas – Written at Night in Radio City
11. Guru
12. Gregory Corso’s Story
13. **Pull My Daisy
14. The End
15. **Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox
16. Xmas Gift
17. Sunset
18. To Aunt Rose
19. Scribble
20. Hum Bom!
21. Kral Majales
22. **Bai Juyi – Part 7
23. **Don’t Grow Old
24. C’mon Jack (X-Rated Version) [Digital Download Only]
25. C’mon Jack (Radio-Friendly Version) [Digital Download Only]
26. Ode to Failure [Digital Download Only]
| Feature image Photo Credit: Macioce (1984, Ginsberg at his East Village NYC Home) |
