ALLEN GINSBERG - Father Death Blues (FSCD version) - 1978
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- "My father died while I was out here. So I flew black... back, and on the way I wrote a blues: Father Death Blues."
Hey Father Death, I'm flying home
Hey old man, you're all alone
Hey old daddy, I know where I'm going
Father Death, don't cry any more
Mama's there underneath the floor
Brother Death, please mind the store
Old Aunty Death, don't hide your bones
Old Uncle Death, I hear your groans
O Sister Death, how sweet your moans
O Children Deaths, go breathe your breaths
Sobbing breasts'll ease your deaths
Pain is gone, tears take the rest
Genius Death, your art is done
Lover Death, your body's gone
Father Death, I'm coming home
Guru Death, your words are true
Teacher Death, I do thank you
For inspiring me to sing this blues
Buddha Death, I wake with you
Dharma Death, your mind is true
Sangha Death, we'll work it through
Suffering is what was born
Ignorance made me forlorn
Tearful truths I cannot scorn
Father Breath, once more farewell
Birth you gave was no thing ill
My heart is still, as time will tell.
July 8, 1976 (Over Lake Michigan)
Scene from the Costanzo Allione film Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds (1978)
I remember he performed this on a populer Irish chat show in the early 90's.I was watching it with my grandmother and she said why did they bring that depressing man on ?
This is the best version of Father Death Blues. The tempo is slower than most of the other recordings, and I feel like those lingering, drawn out notes really add another meloncholy level to the already meloncholy song, as though it's saying that no matter how fast we run from it, death will always be just behind us, slowly creeping yet somehow always gaining ground.
Also, Ginsberg slips up and says, "black" in front of a about a hundred black people. That's just funny. :)
This is unbearably moving; not only near the deathly knuckle, it faces death unflinchingly and even celebrates our greatest teacher, which so often seems like our greatest enemy.I am in awe at the truth of this song, so direct and so profound.
i sob every time
While a shruti box is similar (in terms of having a hand-pump move air through reeds), a shruti doesn't have a keyboard to change notes. It has little switches/flaps so you can set your notes before starting a song, but a shruti is used to play a constant drone, the same harmonizing notes throughout a song. Ginsberg is playing a harmonium with an actual keyboard, and is (slowly) changing chords through the song.
dear god. such beauty
so beautiful
This is a beautiful song - thanks for posting :)
That's a deep heart soul song by a great Hu brew wise man. Thank you. Love Always Hu Ra-kalam
I saw Allen read about a year before he left the body. The world is poorer for his leaving and richer for his having been with us...
Love this blues.
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It's a harmonium, just a smaller version of it.
And the chords are:
A
D
A, E, A
Oh wow... thank you so much for uploading this.
Adembenemend Thanks VPRO !
sublime
@S2Cents thanks for your 2 cents of supposition
He's such an inspired poet. I just think though that his occasional vulgarity doesn't do to his own work the justice it deserves.
so much
i wish he was still around....
We are our bodies and nothing more. Death is real.
@cdylan He will always be with us in spirit!
"Indian lap organs" are called "harmoniums" as well. Harmonium refers to reed-organs (vice pipe-organs) powered by pumped air. Europeans tend to be familiar with the big foot-pumped ones, while in India the locals adopted the small lap-size portable harmoniums that missionaries used and brought them into Indian music. Check out the Wikipedia "Harmonium" article.
@goaitsenvandervliet yes also called a shruti box i believe
a Harmonium can be either big and foot pedaled, or small and hand bellowed, it's the same concept, same name. check the Wikipedia article.
We call them harmoniums as well :)
I have a harmonium without pedals, which is larger than his. Operated by bellows, but far too large for the lap.
Excuse me? I am not criticising Alan Ginsberg here. I really like this performance. And children are children and they need lots of sleep. Besides that, if you had taken the trouble to view some of my U2b-page, you would know I am a creator myself indeed. And so what? Are only creators allowed to criticize? Wake up, mister.
Anybody know what that instrument is? I want to say it's a harmonium..?
Oddio, ma quella era Nanda fra il pubblico? Nanda... spero tu sia con Ginsberg ora, e Fabrizio ovviamente... un abbraccio a tutti voi, amici.
A harmonium is much bigger and has pedals, to be pushed by feet, not by hands.
Me guzta mutxo alen ginber xd xd LOL
Harmonium
@inauspiciousominous This is not "odd." That which is "odd" is by definition, "out of the ordinary." But we must understand that "ordinary," being used to define what should/should not be done in a moment of grief is far too blanket of a theorem. Death is the great black manifestation that none of us know anything about. How then can we grieve appropriately of that which we know nothing about?
It's an Indian lap organ.
Disrespectful for the children you mean?
Why disrespectful? You know that Ginsberg narrated the film, yes? Your comment's superficial and for want of a better word, .......