Songs of Innocence and Experience (Allen Ginsberg album)

Songs of Innocence and Experience
Studio album by Allen Ginsberg
Released 1970
Label MGM, Verve Forecast
Producer Miles Associates
Allen Ginsberg chronology
Ginsberg's Thing
(1969)		 Songs of Innocence and Experience
(1970)		 America Today! (The World's Greatest Poets Vol. I)
(1971)

Songs of Innocence and Experience is a 1970 album by American beat poet Allen Ginsberg, in which he set to music and sang the poetry of William Blake's poetry collection of the same name.[1] The record was released by MGM Records and Verve Forecast Records, and has since been out of print.

Background

In 1948, Ginsberg experienced a religious vision of Blake appearing in his East Harlem apartment and reciting poetry to Ginsberg.[2] He was profoundly moved by this experience and inspired to set Blake's poetry to music.[3] Ginsberg sang and played piano for the recording, with accompanists on drums.[4] He had invited jazz bassist Charles Mingus to perform on the album, but Mingus declined.[5]

Release and reception

Songs of Innocence and Experience was released by MGM Records and Verve Forecast Records, and credited as "by William Blake, tuned by Allen Ginsberg", while its production was credited to "Miles Associates".[6] In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the record an "A" and hailed it as "a collaboration of genius", crediting Ginsberg for singing in the manner of Blake's writing—"crude, human, touching, and superb"—and enhancing the source material with his musicians, a feat Christgau found seemingly impossible.[7] Rolling Stone magazine's Lester Bangs was impressed by Ginsberg's lithe, high-toned voice and found the record effortless and unpretentious, "like a labor of love, a salute from a young visionary to an ancient sage, executed with delicacy and charm in a vocal style reminiscent of an Anglo-American muezzin."[8] John G. Simon from The Harvard Crimson said the music demonstrated a range of styles and was not the most accessible but unforgettable nonetheless, offering listeners a way to remember the words to Blake's poetry as they would know the lyrics to popular music songs.[9]

Ginsberg later considered buying the rights to Songs of Innocence and Experience back from MGM so that he could record the remainder of Blake's poems from said book, and release the work as a double-album.[10] The album has since been out of print.[11]

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Tim Lawrence (1 January 2009). Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992. Duke University Press. pp. 37–. ISBN 0-8223-9085-X.
  2. ↑ James Campbell (1999). This is the Beat Generation: New York, San Francisco, Paris. University of California Press. pp. 86–. ISBN 978-0-520-23033-0.
  3. ↑ William Lawlor (1 January 2005). Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons, and Impact. ABC-CLIO. pp. 155–. ISBN 978-1-85109-400-4.
  4. ↑ William Blake. Songs of Innocence, and Songs of Experience (Annotated). Bronson Tweed Publishing. pp. 43–. GGKEY:JGWKQCR3EYJ.
  5. ↑ Scott Saul (30 June 2009). Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties. Harvard University Press. pp. 324–. ISBN 978-0-674-04310-7.
  6. ↑ Morgan, Bill (1995). The Works of Allen Ginsberg, 1941-1994: A Descriptive Bibliography. ABC-CLIO. p. 360. ISBN 0313293899. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ Christgau, Robert (April 23, 1970). "Consumer Guide (9)". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  8. ↑ Bangs, Lester (June 11, 1970). Rolling Stone. New York: 60.
  9. ↑ Simon, John G. (September 21, 1970). "'The Spirit of a Man is Raised'-Allen Ginsberg Singing Blake". The Harvard Crimson. Cambridge. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  10. ↑ Barry Miles (1 September 2011). In The Seventies: Adventures in the Counter-Culture. Profile Books. pp. 69–. ISBN 1-84765-494-0.
  11. ↑ Anthony DeCurtis; James Henke; Holly George-Warren, eds. (1992). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 283. ISBN 0679737294.
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