| Songs of Innocence and Experience | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1970 | |||
| Recorded | June – July, December 1969 | |||
| Studio | Apostolic (New York) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 38:45 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | ||||
| Allen Ginsberg chronology | ||||
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Songs of Innocence and Experience is analbum by Americanbeat poet and writerAllen Ginsberg, recorded in 1969. For the recording, Ginsberg sang pieces from 18th-century English poetWilliam Blake'sillustrated poetry collection of the same name and set them to afolk-basedinstrumental idiom, featuring simple melodies and accompaniment performed with a host ofjazz musicians. Among the album's contributors were trumpeterDon Cherry, arranger/pianistBob Dorough, multi-instrumentalistJon Sholle, drummerElvin Jones, andPeter Orlovsky – Ginsberg's life-partner and fellow poet – who contributed vocals and helped produce the recording withBritish underground writerBarry Miles.
The album is one of the most famous attempts at setting lyrics from Blake'sSongs collection to music. Ginsberg, having studied the rhyme and meter of the poems, believed they were originally intended to be sung and that a Blakean musical performance could roughly be replicated. The themes explored in Blake's poems – childhood andabuse,organized religion,institutionalization, and poverty – connected with Ginsberg spiritually. He was inspired to undertake the project by areligious vision of Blake from decades earlier and his witnessing the1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity, as well asrock music ofthe era's counterculture, citing its qualities of poetry andconsciousness.
The album was first released in 1970 onLP byMGM Records andVerve Forecast Records, selling poorly but receiving critical acclaim. It soon wentout of print, while a follow-up release of more Blake recordings, planned withFantasy Records, never materialized. In 2017,Omnivore Recordings releasedThe Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience, a doubleCD featuring the original album and previously unreleased Blakean recordings by Ginsberg from 1971.
Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song.
In 1948, Ginsberg experienced what he described as areligious vision of 18th-century English poetWilliam Blake appearing in hisEast Harlem apartment and reciting poetry to him.[2] He was profoundly moved by this experience and inspired to set Blake's poetry to music.[3] According to art historianStephen F. Eisenman, "all at once, Ginsberg later said, he apprehended the unity of things material and spiritual, religious and carnal. Looking out the window, he saw 'into the depths of the universe' and understood that 'this was the moment that I was born for.'"[4] Ginsberg's interest in Blake resurfaced in the late 1960s when he began to research WesternGnosticism for philosophical reasons.[5]
Ginsberg came to believe that Blake's poems were originally composed for the purpose of being sung and that, by studying theirrhyme andmeter, such a performance could be roughly reproduced.[6] He planned to record musical adaptations of poems from Blake's illustratedSongs of Innocence and of Experience collection, which thematized the importance and sanctity of childhood, featuring critiques of systemicchild abuse ("The Chimney Sweeper"),organized religion ("The Garden of Love"), and "the institutionalized culture of benevolence that perpetuated poverty" ("Holy Thursday").[4] The poetry collection, Ginsberg said, "seemed the nearest thing to holymantra or holy prayer poetry that I could find in my own consciousness".[7]
Ginsberg was also inspired by therock music of1960s counterculture, citing acts likethe Beatles,the Rolling Stones,Bob Dylan,the Byrds,Grateful Dead,Jefferson Airplane,the Fugs,the Band, andDonovan. As Ginsberg recalled, "all the lovely youthful bands that have been wakening the conscience of the world, really, were approaching high poetry andcosmic consciousness in their content, so I was interested in seeing if Blake's highest poetry could be vocalised, tuned, and sung in the context of the Beatles' 'I Am the Walrus' or 'Day in the Life of' [sic] or in the context of 'Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowland' [sic] or 'John Wesley Harding' by Dylan." Ginsberg added that he wanted to present Blake in a way that would interest Dylan, who had disliked the poet.[7] Ginsberg's witness of the1968 Democratic National Convention protests and riot in Chicago provided an impetus to record the album.[8]
After leaving Chicago, Ginsberg went to upstate New York,[8] where he had bought a farm as a retreat with money earned from hispoetry readings.[5] There, he experimented setting Blake's poems to music on apump organ.[8] He toldPublishers Weekly in June 1969 that he was learning tonotate music while working on the Blake settings.[5] That same month, he began recording the album atApostolic Recording Studio in New York City'sLower Manhattan.[9]British underground writer and businessmanBarry Miles was enlisted to produce the recording, and Ginsberg helped set him up at the legendaryHotel Chelsea, paying for and negotiating a favorable rent from its manager Stanley Bard, who knew and respected the poet. By this time, Ginsberg had composed some of the music he would use as settings for Blake's poems.[10]
In studio, Ginsberg sang and played harmonium, piano, and finger cymbals forSongs of Innocence and Experience.[8] The harmonium, played before by Ginsberg at numerous poetry readings, was borrowed from his life-partner and fellow poetPeter Orlovsky, who had received the instrument as a souvenir fromBenares during the pair's visit to India in the early 1960s.[11] Orlovsky also contributed vocals to the recording[8] and assisted Miles with its production.[12]
Ginsberg was accompanied by a host ofjazz musicians during the recording sessions, including trumpeterDon Cherry, bassistHerman Wright, guitaristJon Sholle,French horn playerJulius Watkins, and arranger/vocalist/pianistBob Dorough.[8] DrummerElvin Jones was enlisted to play on the album's final track, "The Grey Monk".[13] Ginsberg also invited bassistCharles Mingus to perform on the album, but Mingus declined.[14] According to Miles, the recording also featured saxophonistArchie Shepp,[10] although he is not named in the album credits.[8]
The album's recording produced 19 tracks, nine of which were recorded during the sessions held from June to July 1969.[8] According to several scholarly sources,Songs of Innocence and Experience was completed later that year in December.[15][16][17]
...simple lyrics have great authority when employed to construct dreamlike or nightmarish images...
According to English scholar Jonathan Roberts, the resulting music sets Blake's poems to afolk music idiom.[18] The songs on the album average under two minutes in length.[13] Ginsberg's melodies and the accompanying instrumentation are noted for their simplicity,[19][20] with Peter Frank fromFanfare describing the accompaniment as "mantra-like".[11]
Vocally, Ginsberg demonstrates a lithe, high-toned delivery[21] and the dramatic character of whatInk 19 magazine's James Mann calls "a poet's voice". HisNew York accent is also said by Mann to make the stanzas "breathe".[1]Lester Bangs compares the poet's vocal style on the album to that of amu'azzin – amosque appointee who recitesthe call to prayer – but one who isAnglo-American.[21] In the opinion ofRelix magazine'sJeff Tamarkin, Ginsberg's "intonations and somewhat droning delivery" of Blake's words possess a grasp on their "inherent rhythms and melodies", pitted against contemporary "folk-rock/jazz-based forms".[13]
Songs of Innocence and Experience was released as anLP record in 1970 byMGM Records andVerve Forecast Records. The record was credited as being "by William Blake, tuned by Allen Ginsberg", while its production was credited to "Miles Associates".[22] Despite selling poorly,[20] it was one of the most famous musical adaptations of Blake'sSongs collection.[23]
Reviewing in April 1970 forThe Village Voice, music criticRobert Christgau gave the record an "A" and hailed it as "a collaboration of genius". He credited 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.[24] InRolling Stone, Bangs applauded Ginsberg's vocals 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".[21] John G. Simon fromThe Harvard Crimson said the music demonstrates a range of styles and is not the most accessible but still unforgettable, offering listeners a way to remember the words to Blake's poetry as they would know the lyrics to popular music songs.[25] InThe New Yorker,Ellen Willis said of the album, "It's a beautiful record, which makes me happy every time I hear it – but then most of what Ginsberg does has that effect on me. He should be persuaded to record a collection of mantras next."[10]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic (2017 CD) |   [8] |
| Christgau's Record Guide (1970 LP) | A−[19] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | B+[26] |
Ginsberg later considered buying the rights to the album back from MGM – through a deal he and Miles had arranged withFantasy Records – so that he could record the remainder of Blake'sSongs collection and release the recordings as adouble album. Fantasy offered them a five-album deal with anadvance and paid studio time tomaster the recordings, more than hundred of which Miles had already edited for a series of spoken-word and mantra records. According to Miles, the mastering was to be finished by June 1971, when Ginsberg was planning to leave for Australia. However, Ginsberg complicated the matter by having more tapes mailed to him from the various colleges where his poetry recitals had been recorded.[10] In August, Ginsberg sent the master tapes to Fantasy, along with a letter saying he wants to rerecord and remix some of the songs and that he has recorded 16 albums of poems. The letter also noted his desire to postpone contract negotiations until he finishes traveling with poetGary Snyder tothe Sierras and to India. The albums were never released.[6]
At the time, Ginsberg also considered making an album of Blake settings withDavid Axelrod, a Los Angeles-based producer and composer best known for his successful tenure atCapitol Records. Axelrod had released his own instrumental interpretations of Blake'sSongs collection on two albums –Song of Innocence (1968) andSongs of Experience (1969) – which fused sounds frompop, jazz, rock, andtheater music. Ginsberg and Axelrod discussed ideas for a project on several occasions, including an album of both Blake and Ginsberg poems, but it never materialized either due to other pursuits and priorities.[27]
The originalSongs of Innocence and Experience eventually wentout of print[28] and remained so until the release ofThe Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience byOmnivore Recordings on June 23, 2017. A double-CD reissue, the Omnivore set featured a second disc of previously unreleased recordings of Blake settings and other spiritually-themed performances, recorded by Ginsberg in San Francisco between July and August 1971. Reviewing the reissue forAllMusic, Thom Jurek said, "As much of a treasure as this document is, it's disc two that holds the greatest revelations. ... As a whole, they are an inspiring, provocative, and life-affirming chapter in his legacy."[8] In 2019,Gavin Edwards included the original album in a piece forRolling Stone covering 10 "weird" albums the magazine praised in the 1970s but "you've never heard", writing that Ginsberg's adaptation "was more literary than musical, but listening to him, one couldn't help but get caught up in the rush of words and images."[20]
All compositions are credited toAllen Ginsberg andWilliam Blake; production is credited toBarry Miles andPeter Orlovsky.[12]
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LP: Side one
LP: Side two
The 2017 two-CD reissue byOmnivore combines the LP sides as tracks 1–19 on one CD and adds the following:[8]
CD one: Bonus tracks
CD two: Blake Songs
CD two: Mantras
Credits for the 2017 CD, taken fromAllMusic:[8]
92. The reference is to William Blake,Songs of Innocence and Experience, tuned by Allen Ginsberg, New York, December 15, 1969
36. With the accompaniment of a pianist and percussionist, Ginsberg sang versions of all of Blake'sSongs of Innocence and Experience in December, 1969.
Recorded December 14th—15th, 1969.
