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

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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

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"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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Laurie Anderson ‎– "It's Not The Bullet That Kills You - It's The Hole"(expanded version) (Holly Solomon Gallery ‎– 004) 1977

Think of saxophones in rock and someone always mentions Jazz.Think of violins in minimalism and you think Tony Conrad and Henry Flynt.
Yeah, Laurie Anderson was a minimalist performance artist who played the Violin,rather more in keeping with the Henry Flynt angle than any Tony Conrad one note symphonies;but blending that with minimal electronics and darkly humourous spoken word passages,not unlike Robert Ashley's work around the same time,and this is a record of that time....see what i did?
Being charmingly eccentric looking,and a lady(oh what a novelty,a lady allowed to show intelligence!?),she managed to score one of thee most unlikely top ten hits in the UK charts,with "O'Superman".An Avant Garde work at number two in the charts was,and still is, a rare beast,but i think 'the public' approached it more as a Novelty record than anything weird.After all,you don't get much weirder than a Novelty record.
This unexpected sucess allowed her be more ambitious,and an audience would actually turn up for her huge "United States" multi-media opera.The centerpiece of the show is Laurie's digital aria "O Superman". The William Burroughs inspired "Language is a virus" preceded by "Difficult Listening Hour" where Laurie speaks through a filter that gives her voice a deep Burroughesque edge. Laurie plays with language, objectivity, experimentation and,typically feminine, with logic.
Of course in her early days,before becoming Mrs Lou Reed, poor cow,he used to hang out with Burroughs,Giorno,Ginsberg and all those 'Dial-a-Poem poets in New York and appeared on a few compilations before John Peel in the UK discovered her "o'Superman" single,and success,a 'second album' with a budget,and Peter bloody Gabriel beckoned. Not content with exploiting the indiginous peoples of the third world,our second favourite public schoolboy The first place goes to Joe Strummer of course!) wanted to bland out the avant garde too.
This is Laurie Anderson unsoiled by fame and popular acceptance,the two most terrible blights any artist could be set upon by.

Tracklisting:

1.Self Playing Violin (1974 From The Record Of The Time)(0:55)
2.Is Anybody Home (1976 From Airwaves) (4:19)
3.It's Not The Bullet That Kills You, It's The Hole (1976 From Airwaves) (3:47)

4.Two Songs For Tape Bow Violin (1977 From Airwaves) (4:02)

5.New York Social Life (1977 From New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media)(3:31)

6.Time To Go (For Diego) (1977 From New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media) (2:54)

7.Sh (1977 From The Record Of The Time) (1:13)

8.Tape Bow Trio (Say Yes) (1978 From The Record Of The Time)(2:01)

9.Three Expediences (1978 From Big Ego) (3:01)

10.Songs From America On The Move (1978 From The Nova Convention) (6:59)

11.Dr Miller (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With) (4:18)

12.It Was Up In The Mountains (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With)(2:12)

13.Drums (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With) (0:33)

14.Closed Circuits (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With) (7:25)

15.Born Never Asked (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With)(4:34)

16.For Electronic Dogs (1981 From You're The Guy I Want To Shar (4:07)

17.Walk The Dog (1981 From O Superman 7'')(6:43)

DOWNLOAD like a bullet HERE!

Robert Ashley ‎– "Wolfman" (Alga Marghen ‎– plana-A 20NMN.048) (2003)

Ok then, who invented Harsh Noise as entertainment?...I thought it was AMM,but turns out Robert Ashley, he of catatonic spoken word operas fame, beat them to it by a couple of years. The track "Wolfman (1964) could have been a early Merzbow out-take!? A fucked up mess of tape,voice and feedback that should have scared the living bejeezuz out of any Beatles fans.
Then he had a go at very early 'Ambient',with his 40 minute long tape collage "The Bottleman". This was the best part of 20 years before his dialogue operas for TV started taking shape.
The the late fifties and early sixties this was an extraordinary glance into an unimaginable musical,or non-musical future.
Now every fucker does this for home entertainment with their Granny on the effects table.

Tracklist:

1.The Fox (1957) electronic music and voice
characters adapted from a folk song by Burl Ives (5:15)

2.The Wolfman (1964) tape, voice and feedback
produced at the University of California at Davis by Composer-Performer Edition
first performed at Charlotte Moorman's "Festival of the Avant-Garde", New York, fall 1964 (18:10)

3.The Wolfman Tape (1964) tape-speed manipulation and mixes of many layers of "found" sounds
used as "sound environment" by Bob James for a jazz improvisation (ESP Records, 1965) (6:01)

4.The Bottleman (1960) tape composition with contact microphones, loudspeaker, vocal and other "found" sounds
composed for a George Manupelli film of the same title; single-projection version (43:30)

DOWNLOAD like a silver bullet HERE!

Robert Ashley ‎– "Private Parts" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– LML 1001) 1978

This is like listening to an out of body experience as described by a semi-catatonic Robert Ashley floating above the scene like a distant drone, recording and listening to everything thats happening, or not happening, beneath the clouds below.
This would later serve as the foundation for the composer’s seven-part televised opera 'Perfect Lives', and he mumbles at length the inner workings of two characters, a man and a woman, anonymous to us and probably also to each other. Words circling meaning like gliding albatross' at altitude but never arriving at a conclusion,which are always disappointing. What’s explored by these drawling monologues, seems to be everything that isn’t happening....an inversion that skulks and slithers among the shadows,remaining as elusive as a not-quite-remembered dream.The foundations, like life are built on emptiness but also its interesting just how riveting that emptiness can be.Emptiness can fill any hole.
Tracklist:

A1 The Park 21:32
B1 The Backyard 23:56

DOWNLOAD robert's private parts HERE!

Robert Ashley ‎– "Automatic Writing" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– VR 1002) 1979

The only album I know of that uses Tourettes syndrome to compose music,involuntarily, or automatically as the title suggests.
Ashley used his own involuntary speech that results from his mild form of Tourette's Syndrome as one of the voices in the music. Ashley was rightly intrigued by his involuntary speech, and the idea of composing music that was unconscious;the unconscious verses the Conscious.It took five years apparently to get enough speech that he felt was truly involuntary,but with enough control so as to make the piece coherent.Satisfied that the recorded speech was unconscious enough ,this was then translated into French and performed alongside the recorded voice of Ashley.
In the background there seems to be the muffled music of a party in another room,which kind of suggests how Tourettes can put the sufferer outside of society.Not so much outsider music, but music about outsiders.
The two Bonus tracks are worth the price of admission alone.Taken from a couple of compilations that Ashley donated work to."Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon" describes ambiguously consensual oral sex with the thousand-yard stare delivery of a trauma survivor. Which is...dare i say...a bit Rude!
Great,great,Stuff.

Tracklisting:

1.Automatic Writing (46:01)

Bonus tracks:
2.Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon (10:15)
3.She Was a Visitor (5:56)

DOWNLOAD automatically HERE!

Robert Ashley ‎– "In Sara, Mencken, Christ And Beethoven There Were Men And Women" (Cramps Records ‎– CRSLP 6103) 1974

A minimalist electronic exploration of the music and sound of Language, is I guess how yer average avant-gardist would explain this one away.

A member of the 'Sonic Arts Union',along with Alvin Lucier and others,Robert Ashley specialized in using dialogue as an instrument.Clearly an influence on Laurie Anderson.

Bob just keeps babbling on for the entire length of the album name-dropping various historical figures and frequently inserting words like "ironically" and "very titanically" against a backdrop of bubbling synths sounds.A great album to clear out parties!

I like most anything with weird talky bits in it,so as this is full to the brim of weird talky bits,so i must like it? If this came on at aparty in an attempt to get rid of me,it wouldn't work....i'd be there for a further 40 minutes,then drunkenly demand that we play "I Am Sitting In A Room" by Alvin Lucier; after that, i may leave,unless I had drifted into a coma by then,discovering inner space?

DOWNLOAD titanically HERE!

Alvin Lucier ‎– "I Am Sitting In A Room" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– VR 1013) 1981

Hey i'm sitting in a room too, different from the one you're sitting in,and different to the one Alvin sat in.Wow! my mind is blown. Is this thee Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks?
I won't explain the concept of this piece of electroacoutic music,because Alvin tells us over and over again in that room,different to the room you're in,and different to my room i'm currently sitting in.He records this explanation and plays it back into the room repeatedly,and records it until the acoustic properties of the room take over and Luciers voice disappears into the resonant noise of the room.
I'm no longer sitting in this room, i'm lying down ,and if i had a flotation chamber i'd probably deposit myself in there,as this is a very hypnotic piece,if not a trifle spooky. Where did this noise come from? Is it the sound of the missing elements that stop the universe from expanding infinitely,or in this case,collapsing.
Forty minutes in, and i'm starting to see dead people, how's 'bout you kats?....grandmother is that you?....she's telling me to move away from the light...it isn't my time yet.
Scheech, this record opened a portal into the after life, and from what i could make out, it looks fucking BORING!
Whatever you do DON'T kill yourself...you will regret it! ....and I ain't talkin' Hell here!


Tracklist:

1. I am Sitting In A Room (45:24)

DOWNLOAD while you are sitting in a room HERE!

Alvin Lucier ‎– "Bird And Person Dyning" (Cramps Records ‎– CRSLP 6111) 1976

Heavy Cage and Tudor influence again with this one.,especially with the processed voice on "the Duke Of York", which sound like a man trapped in a circuit fried computer which is slowly being shut down, like HAL in "2001", except this time the rhyme is "The Duke Of York" rather than "Daisy Daisy". Its basically the cry of the trapped human soul imprisoned in a cacophonus sarcophagus of flesh,the death of the soft computer....I suppose this is where the idea of downloading the human essence into a hard drive to escape death rears its unattractive features once again? It's a most haunting piece of work.
The "Bird and Person Dyning", not dying, side, could be the start of electronics emulating something else? Its basically processed feedback and an oscillator chirping like a bird for 25 minutes.
Like a Nightingales song as heard by a person with raging tinnitus before the fatal shock wave hits.

Tracklist:

1.The Duke Of York (1971) 20:33
2.Bird And Person Dyning (1975) 24:00

DOWNLOAD in bird and person HERE!

David Tudor ‎– "Pulsers / Untitled" (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– VR 1601) 1984

Tudor's circuit bending classic was the future from the past,now!Finally captured on tape and released at a time when electronic music meant trying to make your synth sound like a trumpet. If you want to sound like a trumpet, get a Trumpet.....better still, don't sound like a Trumpet,unless your name is Miles davis,its awful!Make your electronic instrument sound like electronics? Now there's a novel idea?
This album sounds like fizzing frying pulsing electronic circuitary being made to do something they'd rather not,if they had a personality that is? Which ,of course, electrical circuits don't have...yet.
That's where humans come in,and its another pointer towards both a future,and the present. Together we could achieve greatness,apart we are just a biological machine with a limited lifespan, and a bunch of silicon based hardware that needs its mummy.
Nowadays, this solid state chicanery is common place,as der yoof have finally realised that electronics should sound like electronics, unstable and full of cliches barely beyond our control.
In the future we won't just be downloading illegal sound files onto a laptop,we'll probably be downloading our personalities onto a distant machine or circuitboard, to either escape death, or travel to distant stars as a stream of data.But,if you do this in the future,DO NOT forget to back up your files!!! 
This idea horrifies most humans,but that's denying evolution,which often produces horrific answers to specific problems. Like denying David Tudor the right to evolve music in the fifties when he,and a handful of others started making this ground-reinventing method of alien sounding music production.
As an unknown yoof commented on a well known music listing site :
"This album is sick. Way before its time. Love the circuit bent flavor." (Unknown Youth 2014)

Tracklist:

A Pulsers (1970) 20:29
B Untitled (1972) 19:45

DOWNLOAD from ye olde tudor times HERE!

John Cage / David Tudor ‎– "Indeterminacy: New Aspect Of Form In Instrumental And Electronic Music" (Folkways Records ‎– FT 3704) 1959

So we have this pair to thank for Cornelius Cardew's first big reactionary tantrum do we?
The first recorded showcase for the musical theory of "Indeterminacy",as dreamed up, nay made up by avant-garde experimentalist numero uno, John Cage.
Which is a composing approach in which some aspects of a musical work are left open to chance or to the interpreter's free choice. John Cage, a pioneer of indeterminacy, defined it as "the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways". Not quite 'free' music, but a substantial step in that direction.

Basically this is a spoken word piece backed up by the sparse electronics,voice processing and piano of David Tudor doing the random parts. I could listen to stuff like this all day.

I'm certain that such works have little trouble getting the desired reaction from the 'ordinary' average joe upon encountering this music from outer-space, as it would have seemed in 1959.Rather challenging,and would most likely end in bursts of anger,or troubled incomprehension. This is what ,dare I say, Art(?) should achieve,and this stuff would probably gain the same reaction if played to the same Henry and Henrietta Normals of today,as we have now passed the peak of the new enlightenment and a speedy dumbing down of the world populous is continuing apace.

Averaged out, we really haven't advanced intellectually at all in the ensuing 60 years.We're leaving all that thinking stuff to machines,which of course have little intellectual sophistication,and the glaring illogic of any of John Cage's works would send their A.I. into spasms of sparks and fumes as their lithium batteries burst into flames,screaming in a robot voice, "Illogical,Illogical,must self-destruct,must sterilize,does not compute,Error,Error!".....like the hybrid robot which uses the advanced dangling on a string drive to move in that Star Trek episode called 'Nomad'.(Click here to learn how to handle rogue robots)!Nomad also had the same problem understanding the concept of 'music',which he handles by wiping the mind of Uhura....(Click Here to see how Nomad deals with 'Music'....our future lies here!)

Meanwhile, Henry and Henrietta indulge themselves in their version of Technology,watching pornography,online dating and gossiping on social media.....in many cases talking 'dirty' with an online 'Bot'.

We're Fucked!

Tracklist:

1. Part One (23:06)

2. Part Two (23:03)

3. Part Three (22:14)

4. Part Four (22:03)

Determined to DOWNLOAD? Click HERE!

AMM ‎– "The Crypt - 12th June 1968" (Matchless Recordings ‎– MR5) 1968/1981

As ones first exposure to pure unadulterated Noise outside of the 'Rock' idiom,except mabe a couple of early come organisation platters, among which this mysterious box was hiding,This was the deep end.
AMM were likely the first precursors of the Harsh Noise fad that has swept the bedrooms and tabletops of the planet,and caused the sales of effects pedals to go through the roof.The difference is that when AMM began emptying rooms in 1966,there was nobody doing this kind of abrasive ear-bleeding cacophony. They even supported The Pink Floyd in the Floyds Free rock days at the famed UFO club one evening in '67.It would certainly have been interesting to see the faces of those tripping flower children when AMM started their set.Although I am assured that they built up from a quiet beginning before anything truly noisey entered those hippy shell-likes,so they probably didn't even notice. The prospect of a naked body-painted Hippy princess dancing to AMM on LSD is quite a tantilising thought?
 As these two discs cost me the best part of a tenner I had to persevere through the full 80 minutes of dense close miked scraping harsh electronics, shortwave radio interference,clattering percussion,and distorted free jazz elements. This made Throbbing Gristle sound like just a creepier version of Abba.
By the end of side three I was immersed, I now understood. It is for these moments that one searches for among the vast annals of unpopular music.Easy listening it ain't,which is,nearly always a sign of something rewarding waiting after enduring the transition period involved.One is never quite the same again afterwards.
Being a member of AMM is basically what Cornelius Cardew should be best remembered for,no mention of politics,no terrible poetry,and most importantly,no written directions.
Also involved was one of the worlds greatest guitarists Keith Rowe,who famously, has never tuned his guitar.
Nuff said.

Tracklist:

A 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 1:4 19:45
B 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 2:4 21:58
C 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 3:4 23:57
D 'The Crypt - 12th June 1968' 4:4 21:37

DOWNLOAD from the crypt HERE!

Cornelius Cardew & The Scratch Orchestra ‎– "The Great Learning(Expanded Edition)" (Deutsche Grammophon/Cortical Foundation ‎– organ of Corti 21) 1971

When Cornelius Cardew wasn't wasting his time preaching marxist philosophy to the converted ,or more likely, unconverting the converted with his terrible Pinko Pop music; he was following his interest in Indeterminacy, having rejected serialism after witnessing a John Cage and David Tudor concert.
He was soon to reject the avant-garde and turn to Rock music and being a political bore. Its not as easy as it sounds to just decide to make popular music,as he found out,and its slightly arrogant for any trained classical musician to assume that they could, It may sound simple,but Rock and Pop is far more sophisticated than these self-elevated intellectual giants seem to think it is. I've written years of blog posts on the issue,and still don't fully understand it myself.The key is to bypass the 'Thinking' process,something I think, there I go again(!)...something that Cardew did far too much of.He certainly had a terrible thinking problem.
However, I do admire the brevity of his "Scratch Orchestra Constitution", which suggests a lessening of the rules of music, and increases the inclusivity to non-musicians,in a loosely controlled form of musical anarchy.
After the  greatness of this solitary Scratch Orchestra album,which i have expanded with other existing Scratch recordings, he appeared to lose his mental faculties,labelling virtually everybody but himself a 'Fascist', including David Bowie, and the whole of Punk Rock in an article for some dull Communist journal called "punk Rock is Fascist",denouncing The Clash as reactionary.....well spotted,slightly hypocritical, but again written by someone who didn't understand Rock or the people he wanted to 'Liberate',he also looked unerringly like Joe Strummer with a rubbish haircut and bad clothes.
I saw another article entitled rather provocativly, "Cornelius Cardew; Visionary or Twat?"....hmmmmm,good question.
Again,this is an occassion when one must elevate the 'Art' above the man, like Gary Glitter, and concentrate on his Scratch Orchestra and AMM moments.
"The Great Learning" is a lengthy, droning,free drumming experience with the choir from the Omen soundtrack but played at 16rpm.
It sounds like an after death experience,with snatches of birdsong and the odd,very odd, referees whistle interjection......always a recommendation I find.
We just need VAR (Video Action Replay system used in Football) to determine whether he was either Visionary or Twat?

Tracklist:

1.Paragraph 1 22:10
2.Paragraph 2 21:49
3.Paragraph 7 20:21

4.November 1969, Hampstead Town Hall, London (Part 1)

5.November 1969, Hampstead Town Hall, London (Part 2)

Paragraph 1
Recorded at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on May 16, 1982.
Composed in 1968.

Paragraph 2 and 7
Recorded at Chappell Studios, London, on February 15/16, 1971.
Composed in 1969.

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Cornelius Cardew and the Peoples Liberation Music Band ‎– "Consciously" (Musicnow ‎– MNCD009) 2006

Nothing frightens me more than the prospect of being ruled by.... "The People"!!!
The horrors that can be unleashed when you let the animals take over the farm are well documented in George Orwell novels and in history.
Its almost as fightening a prospect as being patronised by the righteous leftist propaganda as clearly enunciated by Cornelius Cardew and his irritating pinko chums in the Peoples Liberation Music Band.
Of course they're right?....aren't they? It's just that 99% of the world don't want what they're preaching;but does that stop them ?....Nah!...'they (as in 'we')will come round to our way of thinking ,one way or another!?'
"The People" may be stupid,but not so stupid as to want to be ruled by themselves.....it would be a sadistic, bitter, bloodbath of revenge and prejudice,and likely lead to the end of civilisation as we know it.
Its interesting to know if Cardew and comrades,who seem obsessed about the 'workers',whether they actually worked in these terrible jobs themselves,or at all? I know that Cardew at least had the hardest of cruel enslavements, that of.....gulp!....'neo-classical composer'. Its hard to believe that he had the time and energy left to volunteer to help rescue us simple folk from beneath the yoke of capitalism.We most certainly are NOT worthy and thank you from the very bottom of this scumbags working class heart,you shouldn't have....no,you REALLY, shouldn't have!
What a waste of a fine musician.
He was already changing the world through his groundbreaking music with Scratch Orchestra and AMM,before all this awful soapbox rock nonsense.Did he really think that anyone who didn't already think this way was gonna be converted by, never mind listen to, this cringingly preachy insipid muzak?...The Pop Group this was not.
This is also definitive proof that MI5 or the CIA never bumped him off, because he was doing them a fine service in turning the Communist message into a joke.Maybe he was a double agent,like most public schoolboys were in the Cold War era.It was more likely the Soviets killed him than our own despicable bunch of posh hitmen. The bookies have now stopped taking bets on  the 'Hit and Run' option.
Having said that,this second album of Liberation Music is of a rather higher quality than the "We Only Want The Earth" disc before this. Its still jaw droppingly funny,and awwwww,it has something adorable about it that i can't quite put my finger on.....the eject button maybe?

Tracklist:

1 Consciously
2 The Spirit Of Cable Street
3 We People
4 Solidarity Song
5 Bold Fenian Men
6 Join In The Fight
7 Take Up The Fight
8 Himno De Riego
9 We're Not Afraid
10 Golden Mountain In Beijing
11 The Blackleg Miner
12 Mr. Media Man
13 Fight The Cuts
14 The Lords Of Labour
15 Crippin' Blows
16 The Worker's Song
17 Hammer Of The Working Class
18 People Of St. Pauls, Bristol
19 In Imperialist Wars
20 Song For The British Working Class
21 The Workers Of Ontario
22 Montreal Textile Worker
23 The Dream Of The Generation
24 There You Will Find My Bones
25 Song Of The Cyub
26 Founding Of The Party
27 We Sing For The Future

DOWNLOAD consciously unconscious HERE!

Cornelius Cardew and the Peoples Liberation Music Band ‎– "We Only Want The Earth" (Musicnow ‎– MNCDx004) 2001

As UK avant-garde legend ,Cornelius Cardew, actually came up with the idea of democratising music with his 'Scratch Orchestra Constutution',he should be credited as the inspiration behind The Portsmouth Sinfonia.He had already put this into action with his Scratch Orchestra performances,a couple of years before his chum Gavin Bryars nicked the idea. So it makes complete sense that Cardew would invade the world of Rock music just before the Sinfonia made their own Classic Rock covers album.
For Cardew, it was a result of his very hard left Political views that caused him to reject the Avant garde as elitest and embrace the far more inclusive world of Rock and Pop. No matter how out of place he looked.
So he started the 'Peoples Liberation Music' project,which was more or less a collective rather than a band.Anyone could play in it if they had half an idea how to make a musical note. It also provided a stage for his tiresome Political ideas,which were ruthlessly rammed down the listeners throat.
There's a reason why Classical Musicians,or communists, shouldn't be let anywhere near a Rock group,and this is a fine example.Another one was that truly awful Classical/Rock fusion group from the eighties 'Sky',which makes this stuff sound like The Sex Pistols.
The dreadfully anemic tunes seem to be there as an afterthought, to play behind those cringe-laden lyrics.Plenty of shite like "Will Of The People"....where have we heard that before?....Hitler,Brexit,Trump.....not a marxist among them. There also seems to be an inexplicable obsession with Ireland too.
It sounds not unlike one of those Christian Rock ensembles that released bucket loads of terrible records in the 60's and 70's. I suppose Communism isn't that far from being a religion,so the likeness is inescapable.
However,I have to say that, I find this album a weirdly charming, and very, very funny experience.I can't stop playing it!? 
Some of the Irish tunes have a folky edge that may have influenced professional Irish Cockney and drunk, Shane MacGowen(Who,incidently was indeed a public schoolboy at Westminster school,and is therefore also Posh!). However, Cardew's singing voice has a clearer intonation than MacGowens spittle soaked expectorations,which figures, because he's so obviously very Posh.Of course he was,with a name like Cornelius Cardew for fucks sake!
In my decades living on a council estate in the midlands,I didn't meet one single Cornelious, luckily for him he didn't exist, or he would have got a daily kicking.The real working class that Cardew was so keen to liberate.....he obviously never met any.
I was daily under threat of violence after I qualified for Grammer School. No longer was i called by my given name. It was now the affectionately charming 'Posh Cunt!'. "Here's that Posh Cunt! Who does he think he is?...Fooking Posh Cooooont!" (Punch Kick Hurt)
They obviously didn't want anybody to be liberated,if it wasn't themselves.The underclass conspire to keep each other down, nevermind the fucking Bosses!?
This album is the sound of bourgeois guilt,and the cluelessness of what working class people actually want.Trump and Brexit is their kind of language......fuck 'em.
Cardew fans think that singing about Smashing the Social Contract,Irish Peat Bogs, and Imperialism was enough for MI5 to do Cardew in.So when he got run over after walking in the middle of the road after Midnight in 1981,he was obviously assasinated and absolutley NOT a victim of a 'Hit and Run' driver.
As with any famous person's death in the realm of the conspiracy theory,they are nearly always murdered and never die of natural causes or accidents.
In this case it was almost certainly an accident.....but at least it stopped Cardew from making this god-awful rock music ever again!

Meanwhile a tatooed mother clad in knocked off sports gear, shouts through her facial piercings into the street,to inform her son that dinner is served....."Cornelius, get in 'ere, yer fooking chicken nugget's are in the bastard microwave !!!"

Tracklist:

1 El Pueblo 4:17
2 Will Of The People 2:36
3 Hail Ireland's Glorious Martyrs 4:19
4 Peat Bog Soldiers 3:39
5 Men Behind The Wire 2:23
6 Give Ireland Back To The Irish 2:06
7 Revolution Is The Main Trend 2:59
8 Nothing To Lose But Our Chains 4:10
9 School Days 2:20
10 Watkinsons' Thirteens 4:08
11 Smash The Social Contract 4:53
12 Law Of History 6:16
13 Thälmann Song 1:32
14 Freiheit 2:25
15 United Front Song 2:06
16 De Madregada 3:33
17 4 Principles On Ireland 5:02
18 British Imperialism 3:01
19 We Only Want The Earth 4:41

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