John Giorno ‎– "Raspberry / Pornographic Poem" (The Intravenus Mind ‎– LP-501) 1967

John Giorno did an album of his own in the consumer of love in '67,although '69 would have been more appropriate considering the awfully rude content of this poetry.....erotic i think they call it.
Really its about wanking under the guise of 'Its Art Maaaan'.
I must admit it give me a bit of a twitcher at times,even the gay side!
Either way, it would certainly rub the members of the establishment up the wrong way as well as your own member....if you should be that way inclined.
Is he exploring the over-explored and tiresome concept of sexuality, or just trying to send ripples...not nipples...across the millpond of sixties society.
One big recommendation is that we don't get to hear the dulcet tones of Giorno's throaty croaking,as the poems are read by sveral of John's artzy fartzy chums,including rather famous Pop Artist type Robert Rauschenberg himself.Never one to avoid name-dropping,Rauschenberg's name is promenently displayed on the cover,just so you know that John's got famous artist friends and you haven't.....lucky that, because we don't want famous friends here at Die or DIY?...in fact its bordering on the not having ANY friends at all kind of doomsday bunker mentality scenario.
If you played this at your chess club's annual darts evening and clam-dip soirée,you almost certainly wouldn't have any friends left come half-past ten;and the ones that stayed i'm not sure you'd want to remain your friends much past eleven.....'Time for bed' said Zebedee.....ALONE!!!!!
No doubt there be perv's out there who think this is their favourite record of the sixties,an act of revolution in an age of sexual liberation; which is just fancy talk for you're just a Loner with a Boner.
Phwoooooaaaar missus!
....But, nonetheless, Giorno's best album,especially as he's not on it,and nice and lite on those bloody echo effects that came to symbolise his later work. 


Tracklist:

A Raspberry (19:10)

Featuring – Peter Schjeldahl, Robert Rauschenberg, Yvonne Rainer

B Pornographic Poem (17:45)

Featuring – Alan Sarret, Ann Ware, Bryce Marden*, Henry Geldzahler, John Perreault, Lee Crabtree, Michael McClanathan, Nina Thurman, Patti Oldenberg, Peter Schjeldahl, Robert Rauschenberg, Sarah Dalton, Tod Berrigan, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer

DOWNLOAD some very rude poetry HERE! 

Various Artists ‎– "The Nova Convention" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 014-015) 1979

Live recording at an historic "summit",'The Nova Convention',a kind of tribute forward slash benefit, for William.S, including alledged counter culture and avant garde performers in New York City in 1979. Sadly,the music section of this convention,which included Suicide, B-52's, Bobby Fripp isn't available,but.....
Frank Zappa IS the talking asshole, and there's a nice picture of him on the inner cover bathing in the light of William Burroughs' credibility ray. Of course we also have  Patti Smith....good isn't she(?),introduced as 'Great'...well as least she and a bunch of hack journalists thought she was.....waxing lyrical about similar asshole, Jim Morrison,with 'jokes' that fall as flat as her terrible adult orientated rock albums.
John Giorno places himself early in the tracklist once more,and everyone skips the needle forward,bouncing off the Patti Smith track like a skimming stone,to the safer ground of Glass,Cage Billy,and Brion,among others,aka the real thing.


Tracklist:

A1 –Terry Southern - Vingette Of Idealistic Life In South Texas 1:25
A2 –William S. Burroughs - Keynote Commentary & Roosevelt After Inauguration 5:52
A3 –John Giorno - Eating The Sky 13:30
A4 –Patti Smith - Poem For Jim Morrison & Bumblebee 11:45
B1 –William S. Burroughs - Benway 3:40
B2 –Philip Glass - Building, Excerpt From Einstein On The Beach By Robert Wilson & Philip Glass 3:04
B3 –Brion Gysin - Kick That Habit, Junk Is No Good Baby, Somebody Special & Blue Baboon 7:06
B4 –Frank Zappa - The Talking Asshole 5:25
B5 –William S. Burroughs - From The Gay Gun: "This Is Kim Carson" & "Just Like The Collapse Of Any Currency" & "The Whole Tamale" 13:27
C1 –William S. Burroughs - What The Nova Convention Is About 2:35
C2 –Ed Sanders - Hymn To Aphrodite From Sappho 8:50
C3 –John Cage - Writing For The Second Time Through Finnegans Wake 14:15
C4 –Anne Waldman - Plutonium Ode & Skin Meat Bones 6:35
D1 –Laurie Anderson & Julia Heyward - Song From America On The Move 12:50
D2 –Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky - Punk Rock, Old Pond; Feeding Them Raspberries To Grow, & Nurses Song 13:00
D3 –William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Les Levine & Robert Anton Wilson Conversations 7:10

DOWNLOAD at nova express speeds HERE!

The Dial-A-Poem Poets - "Biting Off The Tongue Of A Corpse" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 005) 1975

Yet another fine album title from Giorno Poetry Systems,which could apply to any organisation or person applying any form of censorship on the already dead forms of media in the internet age. We've been done up like a kipper, as 'real' cockney Dick Van Dyke would have said in a Disney movie set in victorian London.I'm not even sure this is me writing this, that's how confused they've got us.I use the word 'They' advisedly, from the much peddled paranoia angle that 'They' or 'Us' have unleashed on the information portals. The most likely culprit, as ever, is ourselves....."We've dunnit to oowr selves Mawry", said Dick Van Dyke as 'Bert' the jolly chimmney sweep with a heart of gold.......cue a bakers dozen of Clog wearing cocker-ney pearly Kings and Queens having a jolly-old knees-up, singing the Oscar winning tune penned by Oscar winning songsmith Sir Elton John called 'We Dunnit To Ouwrselves Guv'nr (Cor Strike-a-light)"
In fact this is Sir Elton John writing this confused bullshit for you all,aided by award winning lyricist, Bernie Taupin,as I can't read or write.......Oh Yeah, and 'Queen of Hearts', Princess Diana, is hiding in my cellar after faking her own death to escape the paparazzi and MI5......honest Guv'nr.
Now i'll revert to my real music luvin' alter-ego of Reg Dwight(Who isn't knighted) to tell you how ruddy marvellous all that poetry stuff is,and about this allegedly 'uncensored' collection of left-field poets.
Of course its got yet more of W.S. Burroughs'(The guy who predicted this information vacuum) greatest hits, enhanced by the odd gem, like "Cheerless Junkie Song" by Scottish actress,and unlikely junkie, Helen Adam,and Charles Stein's "Seed Poem".Cage is also worth the entrance money as always, but we do have to endure John Giorno again,doing his over-used multivoiced delay style once more.Probably a device employed so we can't hear the words and find out what a shite poet he really was; 'performance poet'and self publicist is a more accurate description of Mr Giono's talents,or lack of, therein.Very talented at hanging out with famous artists however,i'll grant him that;but,If it wasn't on his own label I doubt he'd be on this album.......what d'you think Lady Diana?..wot?..No, there's no Duran Duran on there,mores the pity?
Altogether now......
"Lets 'ave a jolly 'oliday wiv Mauryyyyy"...sung to the tune of "The Union Of The Snake"(subtitled 'Is it me or is everything SHIT!), as penned by the Bard of Brum, Simon Le Bon,or 'Lob On' as we call him.
Oh go on then Diana, tell the non-english public what a 'Lob-On' is.
Princess Di: "Its an Erect prick Sir Elton sir,I repeat....an eeeerect prrrriccccck-uh!.".....close in a small drop of drool running along Sir Eltons quvering lower lip.
"David Darling, rush and get me a hanky, and a nice bottle of Chianti"....(i dunno how to spell,phonetically, that sound Hannibal Lecter made in the 'Silence Of The Lambs'.....but ,I, Sir Elton John, just did it then).......pS this is all TRUE!.


Tracklist:

A1 –Gary Snyder - Anasazi / The Wild Mushroom / Avocado / One Should Not Speak To A Skilled Hunter / No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service 6:00
A2 –John Giorno - Excerpt From Subduing Demons In America 7:08
A3 –William S. Burroughs - A Top Level Conference Is In Progress 6:00
A4 –Charles Olson - Maximus Of Gloucester (Only My Written Work) 1:15
A5 –Ted Berrigan - Excerpts From Memorial Day 3:53
A6 –Ed Sanders - The Struggle 4:50
B1 –Edwin Denby - The Shoulder / The Subway / Over Manhattan Island / Disorder Mental Strikes Me / Suppose There's A Cranky Woman Inside Me 5:34
B2 –Helen Adam - Cheerless Junkie Song 2:45
B3 –Diane Di Prima - Ave 4:27
B4 –John Wieners - In Public 0:55
B5 –Robert Duncan - To Speak My Mind, We Convivial In What Is Ours 2:40
B6 –John Cage - Mureau 4:06
B7 –Denise Levertov - Life At War 3:15
B8 –Frank O'Hara - Having A Coke With You From "The Love Poems" 2:03
B9 –Kenneth Koch - Spring 1:33
B10 –John Ashbery - A Blessing In Disguise 1:20
B11 –Charles Stein - Seed Poem 1:44

DOWNLOAD the wagging tongue of a self-diagnosed poet HERE!

The Dial-A-Poem Poets - "Disconnected" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 003) 1974

As album covers go,this must be one of the worst ever?...or one of the best ever? Maybe even thee Best ever?
A disco shirt clad John Giorno,knealing on a beach in the surf as if bathing in a sea of his own bodily fluids.Then we're treated to an inset of a very creepy looking Giorno in his hotel room,prostrate,legs akimbo, like a sex tourist on his unmade bed after deflowering an underage native rentboy. Looking at the other bed in the room,which seems unused,he must have paid the single persons supplement,unless the person unknown, who took these candid photographs, is sharing the room with him.Perhaps he got that severely abused native boy to take them as part of his fee?
How these images connect with the album title I can only imagine?...maybe that's it,the poetry,cover and artists are all disconnected from each other and that's the concept?
Whatever is going on in Giorno's mind,this double album has some rather good spoken word pieces on it,and is thankfully light on Rock stars wanting to be associated with Mr. Burroughs. There's little or no music to ruin the words.Interestingly,or not, I understand that one Robert Zimmerman makes an appearence on one of the Ginsberg tracks,alongside very over-rated and now dead cellist, Arthur Russell.


Tracklist:

1-1 –Allen Ginsberg - I'm A Victim Of Telephones 1:30
1-2 –Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche - Cynical Letter, A Letter To Marpa, Sound Cycle (Aham) 7:05
1-3 –John Giorno - Suicide Sutra 7:17
1-4 –William S. Burroughs - What Washington, What Orders, From Exterminator 7:01
1-5 –Charles Plymell - 100 Flies On An Airplane Flying Around The World, From The Thrashing Of America 2:54
1-6 –Michael Brownstein - Monologue From The Top, From Brainstorms 1:46
1-7 –John Cage - Excerpt From Silence 1:55
2-1 –Anne Waldman - Fast Speaking Woman 5:32
2-2 –Diane Di Prima - Excerpt From Loba 2:18
2-3 –Bernadette Mayer - Excerpt From Studying Hunger 3:31
2-4 –Robert Creeley - The Name 1:14
2-5 –Diane Wakoski - Exorcism 2:25
2-6 –Lorenzo Thomas - High Heel Jesus 1:22
2-7 –Gregory Corso - Marriage 7:20
2-8 –Maureen Owen - Body Rush 0:52
2-9 –Ed Sanders - Stand By My Side, Oh Lord 2:13
2-10 –Charles Olson - The Ridge 2:42
3-1 –Allen Ginsberg - Jimmy Bearman 4:04
3-2 –Joe Brainard - Excerpt From More I Remember More 6:33
3-3 –John Wieners - Excerpt From Memories In A Small Apartment 4:35
3-4 –Gerard Malanga - A Last Poem (Tentative Title) 0:40
3-5 –John Perreault - Nude Death 1:38
3-6 –Jack Spicer - Excerpt From Billy The Kid 3:43
3-7 –Jim Carroll - From The Busterball Diaries,Spring 1965 3:43
3-8 –Peter Orlovsky - All Around The Garden 4:32
4-1 –Imamu Amiri Baraka - Our Nation Is Like Ourselves 4:42
4-2 –Michael McClure - Lion Poem 2:08
4-3 –Ed Dorn - Recollections Of Grande Apacharia 4:28
4-4 –Frank Lima - The Hunter 1:35
4-5 –Frank O'Hara - Adieu Norman,Bonjour To Joan And Jean Paul, From Lunch Poems 3:07
4-6 –Bill Berkson - Stanky 0:16
4-7 –Larry Fagin - A Play 0:18
4-8 –Tom Clark - Little Aria 0:38
4-9 –Paul Blackburn - The Once-Over, From Brooklyn Manhattan Trancit 1:13
4-10 –Philip Whelan - If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich 1:56
4-11 –Ron Padgett - June 17, 1942 4:18
4-12 –John Ashbery - The Tennis Court Oath 1:56
4-13 –Clark Coolidge - Excerpt From Dews (8 Channel) 1:07
4-14 –Charles Amirkhanian - Radii 2:05

DOWNLOAD before you're disconnected HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Life Is A Killer" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 027) 1982

Mutant Disco was the big thing downtown,and Giorno wanted a piece of it. The irritating ranting through a delay effect has now gone, and been replaced by irritating ranting in front of a group of session musicians yawning out some over-produced elevator disco. Who said Giorno was a poet anyway?...oh yes...himself!
Even Brion Gysin gets in on the dance poetry act,with some afro-beat nonsense,which drowns out Bri's thoughts on 'Junk'....nothing like a diversity of subject matter in a lifes work is there?
There are other mutant disco poetry attempts,namely the Jayne Cortez track, which features the truly awful trendy instrument of 1982,the dreadful Fretless Bass. If the motive was to get the public to listen to the words, which apparently they can't unless one puts a disco beat behind everything;then adding some fretless makes this member of the public skip to the next track.
There's some ironic country and western,about Gay Cowboys which is...uhm... bearable.But the piece de restistence is the 'you can not be serious' moment by the 'Four Horsemen'. It's this kind of stuff that reafirms the public view of artists as lazy out-of-touch elitest piss-takers. Imagine stumbling into a primal scream therapy session with a middle income household in the suburbs(what you're doing there?I Dunno? Burgling the place maybe?).They break off from the screaming and ecstatic dancing to welcome you aboard.
"Come and Join us", says the one in the ethnicly inspired shawl invitingly.
Being of a polite dispostion, you accept the invitation and start waving your arms in the air awkwardly and emit a repressed,and slightly embarassed yell.They welcome you with eye contact and one of those insipid smiles Jehovah Witnesses have,then invade your personal space with....gulp!..body contact.....ugh!...(shudder)!
After the six hour session,you hand out your fake telephone number and e-mail address and leave.....never to mention this to anyone!..The kind of thing you do when you wake up hung over after a wild night of dancing in a mutant disco,in bed next to a morbidly obese balding shemale,with a memory lapse and your bottom hurts?Maybe the same goes for this album, except for the Billy Burroughs track of course,who can never do any wrong.


Tracklist:

A1 –John Giorno - Everyone Says What They Do Is Right 5:11
A2 –William S. Burroughs - The Mummy Piece 3:55
A3 –Amiri Baraka - Wailers 4:45
A4 –Jim Carroll - Just Visiting 6:30
B1 –Jayne Cortez - I See Chano Pozo 6:20
B2 –Ned Sublette - Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly 4:49
B3 –Brion Gysin - Junk 3:21
B4 –Rose Lesniak - She's So 4:35
B5 –Four Horsemen - The Dream Remain 2:35

DOWNLOADing is a killer but not as much as uploading the Fucker,get it HERE!

John Giorno & Anne Waldman ‎– ( Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 010-011) 1977

Boy, Anne looks fuuuuuming in the stark black and white photo inside the gatefold sleeve.Seething at her plight as a woman in a mans world no doubt.

Who would want to own this slowly suffocating planet i'd really like to understand? Of course i refer to the highly contagious disease of humanity rather than the creatures lower down the food chain,who seem to be just waiting for us to destroy ourselves so they can get back to business as usual.A man's world it is not,and women are just as responsible for this mess as those vile possessors of the Y chromosome.

It's 1977 and we're back at the birth of identity politics for those whose newly-manufactured identities needed shoring up a bit. John Giorno applies multi-tracking and echo-delay to banal statements in order to replicate the confused state of everyday consciousness,it says here.It was also good for business to be seen sharing stuff with a promient feminist.....although i notice his name comes first,and as always,in sex and poetry alike,the lady always comes second....if at all.

Anne Waldman is more ideological in her statements about being a woman.If she had worn a shirt and tie,and displayed her armpit hair, we might never have had Patti Smith inflicted upon us.Patti had a better hairstyle,or armpit hairstyle, I suppose? It's an example of which people with heads full of theories give self-expression to their frustration at being unable to find a contented place in daily existence. Ever one for a good title or two,as John Giorno says; Everyone is, indeed everything,is,ultimately a complete disappointment,mainly to ourselves.However,the cosmos couldn't give a shit,which is something we could all learn from.We are how we are because we are...get over it.What the bloody fucking hell do we expect???? The world is not your oyster, an oyster is your oyster,so make it last 'cause its the only one you're gonna get.

Tracklist:

A –John Giorno - Everyone Is A Complete Disappointment 26:15
B –John Giorno - Drinking The Blood Of Every Woman's Period 27:47
C –Anne Waldman - For The Voice Of Montserrat Caballe, Error, Sisters, Plutonium Poem, Billy Work Peyote, Sun The Blonde Out, Shaman Hisses You Slide Back Into The Night 25:10
D1 –Anne Waldman - Fast Speaking Woman 9:30
D2 –Anne Waldman - White Eyes 13:45
D3 –Anne Waldman - Musical Garden 3:45

DOWNLOAD some downtown poetic identity politics HERE!

The Dial-A-Poem Poets – "Totally Corrupt" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 008-009) 1976

Don't you just love these album covers?
On this one we got Giorno, Burroughs, Waldman, Allen Ginsberg, and John Cage sitting in business attire at a boardroom-style table.Like a tongue firmly in cheek version of the 'Boards and Goverments of the World concluding their filthy deals to sell out the unborn forever',as Burroughs wrote in the classic poem "Last Words of Hassan Sabbah".
Except the deal isn't quite as filthy,other than the frequently 'filthy' language that some of this subversive poetry sends forth into the ether.
This comes from a golden age when the world was fresh from the virtual censorship of the fifties,to an age where you could say virtually anything you wanted. This freedom is gradually being reversed from both a liberal and a conservative angle.The liberal side of this nu-censorship,and the most insideous,is the constant drive to 'not offend'.Just today Mark CockZuckerberg said there must be "rules on harmful content" on the internet....is this Hologram,and or his clones,(I'm sure he's a fake human,with fake emotions running a fake personal information gathering corporation) taking the piss? There's nothing more harmful than the tsunami of Lies allowed to stand as fact on his/its anti-freedom through a falsely percieved conceptual freedom digital sewer of a web address. Should be shut down in the morning and a not for profit alternative set up the next day......without compensation. Then we have the problem of who fact checks the fact checker?......in two words,it's "TOTALLY CORRUPT!".
Then tere's the argument that this liberalism is in fact a deliberately proffered Inverted conservatism,which one can't rule out.We live in an era where we can't tell our arse from a hole in the ground.I can't tell if that's a deliberate strategy to divide any possible opposition or not, because...I Can't tell the difference between my arse and a hole in the ground.
Again I'm not in a position to argue this case,which is becoming similar to arguing for or against the existence of God, but i'm almost certain,and thats as good as it gets, that God doesn't exist, and that the new era of repression by information cancelling alternative truths probably does exist.Its a classic Burroughsian data Control scenario.Like playing recordings of Gunshots in a riot as a cop witnesses his buddy go down. As agent provocateurs rile up the crowds."They're firing at us!"
Result....we get Trump, we get Brexit,we get democratically elected Dictators.
The sad thing this isn't paranoia,it's just that we've all been spammed into a new dark age of Ignorance!And it's this new 'Freedom' thats done it to us.
We should have listened to the Dial-A-Poem Poets the first time around.....now its too late.Its just nostalgia.
"TOTALLY CORRUPT!".


Tracklist:

A1 –Charles Bukowski - Cloud Nine, I Live In A Neighborhood Of Murderers, Two Horse Collars 3:09
A2 –Ed Dorn - Excerpts From "Gunslinger, Book 4" 3:48
A3 –William S. Burroughs - When Did I Stop Wanting To Be President 7:07
A4 –Sylvia Plath - Daddy 3:43
A5 –John Giorno - Excerpts From "Shit, Piss, Blood, Pus & Brains" 8:03
A6 –Michael McClure - Jaguar Sky : There's Cruelty In Every Jewel 0:44
A7 –Michael Brownstein - Jet Set Melodrama 2:36
A8 –Jackie Curtis - You Are My Lucky Star 2:18
B1 –Ed Sanders - This Is The Age Of Investigation Poetry And Every Citizen Must Investigate 5:50
B2 –Charles Bukowski - Christ, You'll Never Know, The Closing Of The Topless And Bottomless Bars 4:45
B3 –Anne Waldman - Some Small Fires 4:06
B4 –Imamu Amiri Baraka - Hard Facts: Rockefeller's Your Vice-President And Your Mama Don't Wear No Draws, A New Reality Is Better Than A New Movie 3:37
B5 –Erica Huggins - For A Woman 0:59
B6 –Ken Kesey - A Brief Discourse 5:04
B7 –Jackson Mac Low Excerpt From "Guru, Guru, Gate" 2:05
B8 –Charles Amirkhanian - Mushrooms (For John Cage) 4:58
C1 –William Carlos Williams - The Yellow Flower (From Pictures From Brueghel And Other Poems) 3:02
C2 –Allen Ginsberg - Please Master 4:40
C3 –Imamu Amiri Baraka - Hard Facts: New York Is Everywhere Big 1:58
C4 –Frank O'Hara - To The Film Industry In Crisis
Piano – Jane Freilicher, John Gruen - 3:50
C5 –Taylor Mead - I Was In A Drugstore 3:33
C6 –Jackie Curtis - The All-American Vampire Or How The Bee Sucks 3:36
C7 –Jack Spicer - The Holy Grail: The Boof Of The Death Of Arthur 5:14
C8 –John Cage - Song, Derived From The Joiurnal Of Henry David Thoreau 6:30
D1 –Tom Weatherly - Mud Water Shango, Blues For Frank Swooton 1:42
D2 –Joanne Kyger - In All This Everyday 3:31
D3 –Charles Olson - Letter 27: Maximus To Gloucester 3:15
D4 –W. S. Merwin - Fear 5:23
D5 –Maureen Owen - When You're Down And Under 1:02
D6 –Jerome Rothenberg - The Opening Of The Horse Song, Number Eleven, A Total Translation From The Navajo 2:10
D7 –Ted Berrigan - Today In Ann Arbor 2:59
D8 –Susan Howe - There Is No Good On Earth And Sin Is But A Name 1:00
D9 –Rochelle Owens - Excerpt From "The Joe Chronicles, Part 2" 2:25
D10 –Bill Knott - Corpse And Beans 0:30
D11 –Tony Towle - New York Letters 1:25
D12 –Bernard Heidsieck - Stratimelo 2:00
D13 –Peter Orlovsky - Compost Piles 3:49

DOWNLOAD with no corrupted files HERE!

The Dial-A-Poem Poets ‎– "Sugar, Alcohol, & Meat " (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 018/019) 1980

I don't know which one is Sugar,Alcohol,or Meat,but the writers pictured on the cover are ready for a cosy evening of Poetry Roulette. Set your MP3 player to shuffle and see what pops up. Some you win, some you lose,but unlike a real gambling establishment you win more than you lose.One turn you get Patti Smith.....lose.....the next you get Kathy Acker.....a win.
I suppose ,if one was to assign each poet one of the three coping mechanisms for modern livin',John Ashbery,bottom right,would be Alcohol,as he looks like an alcoholic;Giorno would be Sugar,because there's far too much of it;and lastly, Burroughs would be the Meat,for obvious reasons,as thats what he writes about.The meat on your fork and where it came from and where it's going.
The modern epidemic of crypto veganism is,of course very concerned with the subject of Meat,but in a very different way to the Burroughsian slant.For the modern 'Vegan',in inverted commas,seem to be more concerned with moral oneupmanship,than actually giving a shit about animals in general,outside of the cute and cuddly pet angle. The latest thing is how they are, in fact, saving the planet.
Not eating meat means less cows farting out greenhouse gases,means more room for the blight of Soya crops for Human consumption.....which is virtually organic tarmacing,and doesn't recognise the mass extinction problem that the globe faces;and they still drive,fly,buy tofu in plastic packages,and fart more because of their veggie diet.
So the Vegan's Naked Lunch,is the moment that they realise whats on the end of their fork,and the facts that they are Iron deficient,B12 lacking,essential Amino Acid less Extinction enabling fellow polluters,who are desperate to justify their,admittedly, free choice to be on a higher plain,looking down on vegetarians,omnivores(humans),and Carnivores (their animal chums),and proclaim this at every opportunity and puff out their chests with pride and superiority. Then they don't understand why they get such bad press? 
As a shunned Vegetarian/Flexitarian,i have no problem with Veganism,just do it quietly and stop kidding yourselves that you're now saving the planet.....we should all be sooooo grateful,Thank you all.
PS we're DOOOOMED anyway.

Tracklist:

A1 –Peter Gordon - Extract From "External Niceties"
A2 –John Giorno - I Resign Myself To Being Here
A3-I –John Cage - Alex & Gretchen Corazzo
A3-II –John Cage - The 6th Patriach Of Zen Buddhism
A3-III –John Cage - Once I Was Visiting My Aunt Marge
A3-IV –John Cage - Dorothy Invited Me
A3-V –John Cage - One Of Suzuki's
A4 –Tom Carey - Good Night Irene
A5-I –Andreí Vosnesensky - I Am Goya
A5-II –Andreí Vosnesensky - Song Of Moscow Ancient Church Bells
B1 –Miguel Pinero - New York City Hard Times Blues
B2 –Miguel Algarin - Setenta Y Cinco Abriles
B3 –Mitchelle Kreigman - In The Bathtub
B4 –William S. Burroughs - The Intolerable Kid On The Nova Lark (From Nova Express)
B5 –William S. Burroughs Jr. - Translucent Boy, An Excellent Time, & For Neal Cassidy
B6 –Charlie Morrow - O Yeh - Don't Die
B7 –Ted Berrigan - To Jack Kerouac
C1 –Charlotte Carter - Six Months In Brooklyn
C2 –Patti Smith - Parade
C3 –Cliff Fyman - Coffee
C4 –Robin Messing - 3 Subway Poems (From "Temporary Worker")
C5 –Paul Violi - Whalefeathers
C6 –Bob Holman - Rap It Up
C7 –Allen Ginsberg - C.I.A. Dope Calypso
C8 –Anne Waldman - Lady Tactics
C9 –John Ashbery - Litany
C10 –Beth Anderson - I Can't Stand It
C11 –Rene Ricard - Rene Ricard Famous At 20
D1 –Barbara Barg - Chicks
D2 –Ned Sublette - Nice Young Mormons
D3 –Kathy Acker - I Was Walking Down The Street
D4 –Eileen Myles - Lorna & Vicki
D5 –Barbara Barg - So Fine, With Chassler
D6 –Didi Susan Dubelyew - Who Needs Exercise
D7 –Rochelle Kraut - New Born Sleep
D8 –Gary Snyder - What You Should Know To Be A Poet
D9 –Daniela Gioseffi - Eggs
D10 –Regina Beck - Message From Confucius
D11 –Bernard Heidsieck - Canal Street
D12 –Charles Bernstein - Wall As
D13 –Steve McCaffery - Viking Log (Part 2)
D14 –Ron Padgett Zzzzz

DOWNLOAD the meat of the poetry HERE!

"William S. Burroughs & John Giorno" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 006-007) 1975

The only Americans that ever came near to matching Dr. Feelgood for sartorial elegance had to be John Giorno and William Burroughs. A fine example of their peerless fashion sense is proudly displayed on this great cover shot on their shared double album on Giorno Poetry Systems. They look like a couple of characters who might have known Frank Booth from Lynch's 'Blue Velvet'. "So Fucking Suave",says Frank as he checks out Giorno's inelegant taste by-pass apparel.
As for Burroughs, I reckon he came out of the womb looking like an old bloke.....he'd be known as 'the Old Man' in a David Lynch movie,sitting stoically at the head of a table drooling and barking unintelligible orders while eating a cut of fly-infested unidentified meat,that suggests human flesh.
Giorno contributes his usual,confusing rants,with the same words echoing from each side of the stereo spectrum. One of the tracks is 30 minutes long, which would even test the patience of Buddah....and certainly empty most any pub or party,and isn't recommended for depression councilling.
Bill gives us yet another chance to hear his greatest hits, Ah Pook ,Green Nuns, and the classic 'lets get us some civvies' monologue from Exterminator....after all, "What the bloody fucking hell are civilians for?".....by the audience noise on the live parts,its to sit in reverence to listen and laugh at readings they've heard hundreds of times before.
Happy Valentines day?

Tracklist:

A1 –W.S. Burroughs From "The Wild Boys", The Chief Smiles 6:50
A2 –W.S. Burroughs From "The Wild Boys", The Green Nun 3:32
A3 –W.S. Burroughs From "Ah Pook Is Here" 12:00
A4 –W.S. Burroughs From "Cities Of The Red Night" 10:00
B1 –W.S. Burroughs From "Junkie", 103rd Street Boys 7:29
B2 –W.S. Burroughs From "Naked Lunch" 20:28
B3 –W.S. Burroughs From "Exterminator",From Here To Eternity 3:40
C1 –John Giorno - Suicide Sutra 10:29
C2 –John Giorno - Eating Human Meat 18:57
D1 –John Giorno - Subduing Demons In America 30:51

DOWNLOAD and lets get us some poets HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "Big Ego" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 012-013) 1978

Is it Ironic that an album called 'Big Ego' is opened by Patti Smith?....HeHeee,i'm like a dog with a bone here..... Seven minutes and fifty seconds of literary references,beat talk,and unaccompanied caterwauling.Truly horrible;but at least she didn't have that awful adult orientated rock group backing her up. I still haven't recovered from buying and then playing 'Horses',it just sounded so...er...'old'!? In fact most of those new york bohemian bands struck me in the same way...including The Ramones(Ironic bubblegum Rock?). The striking exception were 'Talking Heads',something genuinely new with no obvious roots, and to a certain extent, 'Television';mainly because they both dressed straight. But,Like The Ramones and Smith, punk they were not.
Cleveland seemed to have far more 'punk' cred to these ears.
At least we've got some early Philip Glass (yeah that's him,the funny looking one on the cover!?) to raise the bar,followed by lots of interesting and confrontational poetry of course;all this and a Robert Ashley track to get the weird level up a tad.
A evening of Poetry anyone? Shut up and listen for a couple of hours surrounded by an audience with applause hair-triggers, who laugh at the slightest hint of anything 'Clever';an action inferring that they are 'clever' too.The same problem occurs when a singer pronounces his lyrics clearly so you can hear the words,which naturally suggests that he,forward slash,she, must be saying something sickeningly meaningful.Its pop music, get over it! I'm sure whoever's reading this don't give several shades of shite what I think about anything,as much as I could not care less what a pop vocalists view is on any political situation or dogma.I still have no idea what Joe Strummer was going on about,but from what I understand, it was some pseudo-lefty hypocrisy with rhymes kinda stuff.Trying their level best to put the 'Y' in Nihilism.
No other such event demonstrates the manifestation of the human 'Hive Mind' than a poetry performance. The best way to experience it is buy,or download,the record of the event,hitting the pause button to get another smoothie from the fridge,or most likely go to bed.
No...its good really....its just that the punk priestess as played by hippie Smith just pissed me off a tad.

Tracklist:

A1 –Patti Smith - The Histories Of The Universe 7:46
A2 –Philip Glass - A Secret Solo 2:17
A3 –John Giorno - Grasping At Emptiness 9:45
A4 –Laurie Anderson - Three Expediences 3:00
A5 –Robert Wilson & Christopher Knowles - A Letter To Queen 8:00
B1 –Meredith Monk - Education Of The Girlchild, 1972: Biography 8:00
B2 –Michael Lally - All Of The Above (Excerpt) 6:17
B3 –Robert Lowell - Ulysses & Circe (Excerpt) 9:40
B4 –Larry Wendt - How To Cook A Duck 4:44
B5 –Jackie Curtis - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 2:27
C1 –Ed Sanders - The Fugs: A Monologue 2:12
C2 –William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch(Excerpt) 2:14
C3 –Harris Schiff - 15 Years Passes / Dollar Bill 1:45
C4 –Otis Brown - Boneless Chicken 1:43
C5 –Joel Oppenheimer - Cities, This City 2:45
C6 –The Fugs - Saran Wrap 1:15
C7 –Claes Oldenburg - June Was / Panodramdra 1:15
C8 –Denise Levertov - Homage To Pavese: Woman Alone 3:33
C9 –Ted Greenwald - Friends 2:08
C10 –Anthony J. Gnazzo - Hisnia & Hernia 4:44
C11 –Steve Tropp & Gloria Tropp - Snow White 1:03
C12 –Jim Brodey - Homeward Bound 1:52
C13 –Robert Ashley - Interiors With Flash 3:07
D1 –Eileen Myles - Tuesday Brightness 0:50
D2 –Helen Adam - Apartment On Twin Peaks 5:42
D3 –Anne Waldman - Light & Shadow 6:10
D4 –Joe Johnson - Fly Ho 0:37
D5 –Lorenzo Thomas - Wonders 1:50
D6 –Ishmael Reed - Sky Diving 2:19
D7 –Kenward Elmslie - The Woolworth Song 2:30
D8 –Mona DaVinci - The Last Supper Of Mona DaVinci (Excerpt) 2:50
D9 –Bernard Heidsieck - Canal Street No. 19 2:25
D10 –Steve Hamilton - Promise 3:25
D11 –Frank O'Hara - Poem / Poem 1:45
D12 –Ron Padgett No Title 1:28

DOWNLOAD a infinitely compressed mass of ego's HERE!

Various ‎Artists – "The Dial-A-Poem Poets" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 001) 1972

The first of the dial-a-poem albums by the Dial-A-Poem Poets. Which thankfully doesn't include any rock stars.Just a bunch of post-beat, post-hippie wordsmiths who can string more than a few words together......hang on...isn't that the too clever by half front-man from the Fugs?.....Oh God...there's Jim Carroll too!.....apart from that, you're safe.....and No Patti Smith,which can only be a good thing.Although Anne Waldman sounds exactly like Smith would sound when the praise started to be chucked in her direction like so much shit at a wall.
Bobby Seales' (the official Token Black on this predominantly white  Album) speech about 'Racism' is a particular low point. If only for the sound of the wild applause and cheering from the ,almost certainly, 'White' audience when he explains why he hates white people. "Woooo Yeaaaah,I hate White people too", screams the dressed -down stockbroker at the terminally hip 'Filmore,East' venue.If this terror ranter asked these middle class fools to shoot themselves,they may well have done it with an eagerness last seen in Jonestown.Just to prove they're not racists.....,by any means necessary......shit, I hate White People too,for different reasons.Can't say the same for Blacks,(although why should they be exempted from contempt?),or i'll be pulled up as racist by the same type of 'whites' who applauded so enthusiastically at the prospect of their own extinction. A rare example of Mass Jesus Christ syndrome in all its narcissistic glory.....Also displayed by 'White Panther'and MC5 guru idiot, John Sinclair.......sure we're ALL racist, but postive discrimination is still...er...discrimination......innit? And I can say this, because i'm a person of colour too...Pink.
"Everybody's Coloured or you wouldn't be able to see 'um." (Don Van Vliet,1972).

Wait!Isn't that Robin Williams of Mork and Mindy fame grinning in the background on the cover,or Jesus Christ?
That's obviously me in the foreground,on my way for afternoon creme tea and scones with Richard Hell at The Ritz.


Tracklist:

A1 –Allen Ginsberg - Vajra Mantra 2:00
A2 –Diane Di Prima - Revolutionary Letters Nos. 7, 13, 16, 49 7:07
A3 –William Burroughs - Excerpts From The Wild Boys 6:53
A4 –Anne Waldman - Pressure 4:00
A5 –John Giorno - Vajra Kisses 8:20
B1 –Emmett Williams - Duet 1:50
B2 –Ed Sanders - Cemetery Hill 4:08
B3 –Taylor Mead - Motorcycles 1:52
B4 –Allen Ginsberg - Green Automobile 1953 6:30
B5 –Robert Creeley - The Messenger For Allen Ginsberg, I Know A Man 1:17
B6 –Harris Schiff - Poems 3:53
B7 –Lenore Kandel - Kali 2:20
B8 –Aram Saroyan - Not A Cricket 0:09
B9 –Philip Whalen - Excerpt From Scenes Of Life At The Capitol 3:07
B10 –Ted Berrigan - Excerpt From The Sonnets 2:35
C1 –Frank O'Hara - Ode To Joy, To Hell With It 4:52
C2 –Joe Brainard - Excerpt From I Remember 4:03
C3 –Clark Coolidge - Small Inventions: Suite V (Plurals) Secante, Suite IV 2:07
C4 –Jim Carroll - Excerpts From The Basketball Diaries 3:33
C5 –John Cage - Mushroom Haiku 4:55
C6 –Bernadette Mayer - These Stories About After The Revolution 1:50
C7 –Michael Brownstein - Geography 6:40
D1 –Brion Gysin - I Am That I Am 2:45
D2 –John Sinclair - The Destruction Of America 5:38
D3 –Anne Waldman - Holy City 2:05
D4 –Heathcote Williams - I Will Not Pay Taxes Until 4:50
D5 –David Henderson - The Louisiana Weekly No. 1 Ruckus Poem Part 1 2:00
D6 –Bobby Seale - Excerpt From Fillmore East Speech 3:10
D7 –Kathleen Cleaver - Excerpt From Fillmore East Speech 3:10
D8 –Allen Ginsberg - Blake Song: Merrily We Welcome In The Year 4:30

DOWNLOAD at faster than dial up speeds HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "Better An Old Demon Than A New God" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 033) 1984

Fuck me!Is that Sting and Andy Summers of the Police getting a Photo Opportunity with Burroughs?...I think i'm gonna be sick!.....and a boringly and thoroughly Mardy Lou reed.....i know how he felt.

Christ!
There's a few persons in that cover photo who would love to be a New God.Attention seeking wannabes always have to ruin things don't they?
Just look at those absurd alternative pop stars straining at the leash to cosey up to counter-culture icons Giorno and Burroughs.....Jim Carroll????? What? How can you respect anyone who names their group after themselves?
Then there that dick'ead from a Glam Rock group who thought they were the Rolling Stones,flexing his counter-culture cod-piece. I was always on the side of Whispering Bob Harris after he called them Mock Rock when they played on UK TV.
Awww,poor lickle child runaway Lydia Lunch looks unhappy at that big bad old world,like a sulkier Toyah Wilcox grafted onto the body of Kevin the Teenager...bless her.
Richard Hell's on this too, the poundland Bowie as if Bowie only had a small ego, with his spikey hair cut, and someone else's torn clothes....so he invented Punk Rock according to himself in the third person,and now he wants his ball back. Dickie Meyers always regarded oneself as a poet,but at least he had the common sense not to turn up for the photoshoot....probably off his pretty face on paracetamol and codine writing his next experimental pamphlet.
Yeah, I don't like these twats...is it that obvious? Don't get me started on Psychic TV!?
Dickhead pop non-Stars aside, there are a few,very few, great tracks on this flawed compilation,not the least Anne Waldman's "Oh-ho- Plutonium",which could have been a Disco Dancing classic on the "Desperately Seeking Susan" soundtrack that one. Whereas this album should have been called "Desperately Seeking William" as in W.S.Burroughs, and bathe in his art-cred radiation.
The worst track has to be Richard Hells cringworthy counter-culture by numbers irony bypass and naked application to join the NYC art elite;during which he reveals what we all suspected.....he just don't posess either a sense of humour or self-irony at all.Its track number 9 for a reason.
Then we've got Lou Reed looking like he's at someone elses party on the inner sleeve.
Its grovelling shit like these offending tracks that makes me wonder why I listen to rock music at all.Just cock a lazy eye at that party that the art-rock elite are invited to,but you ain't! This is entertainment kids!?
I suppose one could also accuse the actual poets, or artists, on here of using the silly alt-pop stars for similar reasons.....but...Nah!...they deserve at least a small percentage of the spotlight......if thats what they wanted.Mainly to shift some units I suspect?


Tracklist:

1 –David Johansen - Imaginatin' Cocktail 2:43
2 –John Giorno - Exiled In Domestic Life 4:06
3 –William S. Burroughs - Dinosaurs 5:52
4 –Psychic TV - Unclean 5:48
5 –Lydia Lunch - What It Is 1:30
6 –Meredith Monk - Candy Bullets And Moon 4:12
7 –Jim Carroll - A Peculiar-Looking Girl 6:22
8 –Anne Waldman - Uh-Oh Plutonium 3:39
9 –Richard Hell - The Rev. Hell Gets Confused 2:21
10 –Arto Lindsay - Alisa 2:30

DOWNLOAD these new god wannabe's HERE!

Laurie Anderson / John Giorno / William S. Burroughs ‎– "You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 020-021) 1981

Ahaaa, 'Poets'.don't cha just love 'em?
I sense a ruthless vitriolic attack coming on...but,wait....No,I say. That would be too obvious.That's just what you expect me to do,because I'm clearly a bitter and frustrated failed Poet myself.
Not true children, Not true....I like these poets, and most of the poets,slash,writers who exist within the Giorno Poetry Systems stable.There ain't nothing poncy about this bunch of  vicious malcontents, who use their words like razor blades sectioning major arteries as if they were chilli peppers,scraping out the seeds and throwing away the husks for the dogs to fight over.
Laurie Anderson is ,obviously, 'the nice one' of this particular trio,teetering on the cliff edge of fame and impending chart success.
Whereas the imfamous William Burroughs,had different kind of fame,being the censorship baiting voice of the post hippy generation.Laden with the job of describing the real world as we chose not to see it.
John Giorno was a kind of proto-ranter,whose no-holds barred descriptions of the seedier underbelly of modern existence are delivered with an unappealing nasally whine through a delay echo to increase the uncomfortable nature of his poems,slash, rants to the point of sticking ones fingers in ones ears.Almost as if one didn't wanna hear what Giorno was saying during these relentless verbal barrages.I have to say, Giorno's poems are much better heard when someone else reads them out,just like I thought Bob Dylans songs were better when someone else did them.I now know both of these preferences to be very wrong.
I love the cover art of all these Giorno Poetry Systems albums,with their sharply focused glossy magazine style photography and graphics.Its as in your face and intelligent as the acidic words on this shared double album.

Tracklist:

1 –Laurie Anderson - Born, Never Asked 4:31
2 –Laurie Anderson - Closed Circuits 7:27

3 –Laurie Anderson - Dr. Miller 4:22
4 –Laurie Anderson - It Was Up In The Mountains 2:13
5 –Laurie Anderson - For Electronic Dogs 3:08
6 –Laurie Anderson - Structuralist Filmmaking 1:10
7 –Laurie Anderson - Drums 0:34
8 –William S. Burroughs - Introducing John Stanley Hart; He Entered The Bar With The Best Intentions 2:23
9 –William S. Burroughs - Twilight's Last Gleamings 2:51
10 –William S. Burroughs - My Protagonist Kim Carson 4:56
11 –William S. Burroughs - Salt Chunk Mary; Like Mr. Hart, Kim Has A Dark Side To His Character 4:13
12 –William S. Burroughs - Progressive Education 7:13
13 –William S. Burroughs - The Wild Fruits 2:26
14 –William S. Burroughs - The Unworthy Vessel 2:45
15 –William S. Burroughs - The Name Is Clem Snide 2:03
16 –William S. Burroughs - Mr. Hart Couldn't Hear The Word Death 2:54
17 –John Giorno - I Don't Need It, I Don't Want It, And You Cheated Me Out Of It 10:40
18 –John Giorno - Completely Attached To Delusion 7:47

DOWNLOAD because You're the guy i wanna share my poetry collection with HERE!

Glenn Branca / John Giorno ‎– "Who You Staring At ?" (Giorno Poetry Systems ‎– GPS 025) 1982

You gotta love this album sleeve!?

Branca and Giorno looking hard on the cover has to be one of the better album covers. “Who You Staring At?”

“You!” we reply, knowing that one of these tuff guys is a poet,and the other a composer, “Now wotcha gonna doo about it?”

The answer is play an atonal ballet score for a modern dance troupe, and whine out some experimental poetry; guaranteed to make any sane tough guy turn and run.

The Branca piece is up to his usual high 1980's standards changing pace and intensity like a rollercoaster into tomorrows weather.

John Giorno bleats out some of his irritating poetry over a cool mud club house band backing track, with his trademark strained throaty whine. It would have been better if he rapped over a couple of Glenn Branca compositions instead,which is what I expected before I played this LP! It very rarely works, blending rock with poetry,it forces the complicated rhythms of the spoken word to be forces into a four/four time frame. The best example of this process of ruining a poet is John Cooper Clarke being forced to slow down his machine gun delivery to the speed of a pea shooter to fit in with the Invisible Girls medium paced funk. Still kinda like it though,especially when compared to the moronic garbage spewed out by the vast majority of so-called rappers,like that complete CUNT Kanye West,or that idiot Jay Zee (shit isn't that my initials?).

Tracklist:

A1	–Glenn Branca	Music For The Dance Bad Smells	16:25
B1	–John Giorno	Stretching It Wider	6:44
B2	–John Giorno	We Got Here Yesterday, We're Here Now, And I Can't Wait To Leave Tomorrow	10:30

Are you staring at me? I'm, the only one here!Oh and the NSA!Watching what we're DOWNLOADing!