BZOO Poetry & Music Radio 'On-Demand' Allen Ginsberg - Father Death Blues

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Father Death Blues - Beat Poetry - Allen Ginsberg Official Website

Allen's Notes: "Father Death Blues" was written within 20 hours of hearing of my father's passing. A message from my Tibetan meditation teacher the Ven. Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, said: "I extend my thought that your father enter Dharmakaya. Please let him go, and continue your celebration." I was on the plane home with my harmonium on my lap and wrote it word for word, note for note, like "Jessore Road". One of the rare occasions when both words and music -- the vowels and their tones and pitch -- were conceived simultaneously in the depth of feeling, realization of death. The voice on it is a voice located in the heart area, that is, it resonates in the breast. That's the quality of voice that I heard in Blake vision back in 1948. I never consciously actualized that voice in poem or song of my own until "Father Death Blues". Physical energy diminishes as you get older, but supposedly there's a deepening of wisdom. It seems to me "Father Death Blues" has as much weight and will be as lasting as anything I've done. This recording is '81, after five years' experience singing it with Steven Taylor.

Credits: © 2002 Allen Ginsberg Trust; Allen Ginsberg: vocal; Arthur Russell: cello; David Amram: French horn, flute, recorder, high hat, piano; Jon Sholle: bass, mandolin, banjo, electric guitar, harmonizer; Steven Taylor: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars; from Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Poems and Songs 1949-1993 Rhino R2 71693; originally from the album First Blues, John Hammond Records #37673, 1983

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