[Item #5472] First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs 1971-74 with: First Blues LP. Allen Ginsberg.
First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs 1971-74 with: First Blues LP
First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs 1971-74 with: First Blues LP

First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs 1971-74 with: First Blues LP

New York, NY: Full Court Press; Ginsberg Recordings, 1975; 2012. Second Printing; First Edition Thus. Softcover; LP. “Although I studied Piano & Violin unsuccessfully a year in the ‘thirties, and sang in bathrooms and on bridges solitary in the next decades, I did not begin chanting until visit to India and Japan in 1963, where impressed by Prajnaparamita Sutra & Hare Krishna Mantra, I borrowed Peter Orlovsky’s tiny Benares Harmonium and began singing these magical formulae in invariable C chord. I practiced that monochordal mantra all through the ‘sixties at poetry readings, explaining that it was related to Poetry in measuring the breath through vocalization. Robert Duncan reminded me at Vancouver Poetry Conference 1963 that I used my body’s inspiration more deeply in chanting Hare Krishna than I did in reciting my poetry” (from “Explanation of First Blues,” pg. i). So reads another of Allen Ginsberg’s thought-provoking introductory notes, this time to [1] 1975’s “First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs 1971-74,” published by Anne Waldman & Ron Padgett’s Full Court Press in 1975. [ISBN: 0-916190-04-8]. This bundle is of course distinguished not by the inclusion of a copy of First Blues, but by [2] the sealed “LP” referred to in the listing’s title. Effectually a “First Edition Thus” (if we are to use bookseller’s terminology), this “Ginsberg Recordings” reissue dates back to 2012, and appears to be greatly abridged (keeping only the prime cuts, perhaps?) version in comparison to the John Hammond-produced double album of 1983. Especially delightful for the completist, we surmise that few sealed copies (of the undoubtedly small-batch 2012 reissue) remain. [1] First Trade Softcover Edition, though not explicated as such on copyright page; Second Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. [2] “First Edition Thus” / 2012 Limited Edition Reissue from the ambiguously helmed “Ginsberg Recordings”; presumed “First Pressing” (again, within initial, unstated, small-batch limitation). From the collection of Allen Tobias, former assistant to Allen Ginsberg, archivist, essayist, venerable man-of-letters & our esteemed colleague at the European Beat Studies Network (ebsn.eu). [1] In strong Very Good condition with only slightest shelf-wear, bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; a few scattered, minute exhibits of rubbing to same; lone, circular “$6” price sticker from previous bookseller near top left-hand corner of back cover near leftmost fine-edge; as is typical with many of these fragile, low-budget Full Court Press productions (especially the softcovers), binder’s glue slightly emergent along leftmost fine-edge of interior flyleaf—the recto side of which is blank, and the verso side containing the famous photograph of Ginsberg & Bob Dylan seated on the grave of Jack Kerouac; else pristine. Very Good; Sealed / As New. [Item #5472]

Price: $60.00