In 2016, Omnivore and producer
Pat Thomas delivered the definitive issue of
Allen Ginsberg's landmark
First Blues album under the title
The Last Word on First Blues. It coupled the original tracks with 11 previously unreleased cuts from at least two recording sessions that took place years apart. The same path is followed on this double-disc package. Much of the music on
Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience: William Blake Tuned by Allen Ginsberg pre-dates that on
First Blues by almost three years.
Ginsberg began working on setting the visionary English poet's famous collection to music on a pump organ in upstate New York in the aftermath of the Democratic National Convention in 1968 "Tear Gas Chicago." Nineteen of the 21 recordings on disc one took place in June and July of 1969 in New York City. Produced by
Barry Miles, the sessions included
Ginsberg on harmonium, finger cymbals, and piano,
Peter Orlovsky,
Elvin Jones,
Don Cherry,
Herman Wright, John Scholle,
Bob Dorough,
Julius Watkins, and others. In his atonal, old-angel midnight voice,
Ginsberg and accompanists fearlessly render
Blake's poems with a musicality that that not only suits them, but fits them like a glove. You can hear the spirit of
Blake bleating these out naked in his backyard. This disc also contains a pair of unissued bonus tracks -- an alternate take of "The Grey Monk" and the wonderfully bawdy "Brothels of Paris." While the original album appeared several times during the LP era, this is the first time it's been issued in another physical format.