Saturday 22 February 2020

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 1979Sadly,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


7 comments:

Wolfgang said...

Hi Jonny, I have a request: Can you get hold of Saralunden's box set?

https://www.discogs.com/de/Saralunden-SARALUNDEN-BOX-SET/release/11860495

A majority of their songs can be found for free on http://www.saralunden.com/songbook.htm and others on Soundcloud. But that box contains a lot of songs I cannot find anywhere.

You would make an old man very happy! I am sucker for her Wittgenstein intonations sung in German, above all "Schwarzen Spiegel" and "Rot".

Jonny Zchivago said...

Sorry Wolfgang, it may surprise you to hear this, but I've never heards or heard of,her,until this moment. She seems to have a very intimate methoid of singing which i find very...er...intimate. Maybe someone else has this record?

Wolfgang said...

Yes, she is often very intimate sounding, that's right. But not always, listen to this for example: http://www.saralunden.com/This%20Is%20Not%20Desire.mp3. But that may be too "pop" for your taste.

Thought it might interest you because this is absolute diy music and with minimal instrumentation. And what speaks against having an intimate relationship with a woman, if only via one's ears? ;)

So I hope anybody else will read this who could contribute! Think of the happiness you could evoke in a person far away from and completely unknown to you!

chuck said...

This has been a long and interesting path since Robert Ashely. As always, thanks for the education. chuck

parmalee said...

@ Wolfgang--you totally had me at "Wittgenstein intonations." Thank you for the suggestion! Searching the interwebs now...

@Jonny--I actually had a dream about this one before you even posted it. Weird how Burroughs infects deeply.

Anonymous said...

“Honey, did you sign us up for a new phone service? A couple of guys are here to install something called Dial-A-Poem.”

Wolfgang said...

@parmalee: The pleasure is all mine :)