Jim Sampas and producer extraordinaire David Greenberg (Duplex Planet) got together to right an unforgivable wrong in the beat poet discography. Before this release, there was no complete CD album of
Ferlinghetti's 30-poem cycle, The Coney Island of the Mind. Musical accompaniment to the beat bard's spoken word is the surviving members of
Morphine. Dana Colley is on the horns, and Billy Conway is on drums accompany the master wordsmith, with other musicians. Each piece has its own backing music, seeking affinity with its mood.
Ferlinghetti similarly varies his voice for each short poem. At once he is a self-assured New "Yawker," then an austere commentator with a papery voice. It is natural to contrast
Ferlinghetti's Coney Island with Ginsberg's Howl.
Ferlinghetti's signature piece is also a perfect example of the beat literature. It is a union of sexual imagery and introspection into the soul of youthful America. Where Ginsberg is an evangelist, a visionary for his cause,
Ferlinghetti effortlessly and without drama summons up his observations. While Ginsberg views a soulless and decadent America from a tenement rooftop,
Ferlinghetti sees as far from a bus stop, from an afternoon delight in a Central Park bush. Five other pieces follow the complete cycle. ~ Tom Schulte