Word: blakes
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What makes this more than just another chapter in someone's Allen Ginsberg case history, however, is that though Blake had been in the habit of actually singing his Songs Of Innocence and Experience to his human acquaintances, nobody thought much of them at the time, and so the melodies had been lost to many a generation of Music grad students. When Allen Ginsberg heard Blake's poems, Blake was singing them with what Ginsberg assumed to be the same melodies he had sung them with two hundred years before. So Ginsberg sung to himself the songs he had heard...
INSTEAD he waited for twenty years-until the success of "Howl," the final death of the Beat Generation, and the birth of the "Chicago Teargas Convention." Not until then did Ginsberg finally get around to recording half of Blake's songs of Innocence and Experience to his and Blake's music. He probably thought that with Apocalypse staring us in the face from any or all directions that the rest of us could probably use them. Ginsberg puts it this...
...soul of the Planet is Wakening, the time of dissolution of Material Forms is here, our generation's trapped in Imperial Satanic Cities and Nations, and only the prophetic priestly consciousness of the Bard-Blake, Whitman or our own new selves-can steady our gaze into the Fiery eyes of the Tygers of the Wrath to come...
...words to at least two-thirds of all the Beatles' songs, and probably about half of Dylan's. We are flooded with pop music pouring out from our radios and stereos, and gladly immerse ourselves in it. Now, thanks to Ginsberg, we can bathe in the light of Blake's poetry as sung by Ginsberg and his friend Peter Orlovsky, and accompanied on harpsichord, guitar, laughter, and other instruments. The range of musical styles is amazing-from the madrigal-like version of "The Blossom" to the country and western sound of "The Garden of Love." Buy the record, listen...
Ginsberg and friend sing the "Introduction" with mad abandon accompanied by guitar and flute. The melody is so natural and tailored to the poem that it becomes easier to believe that Blake did sing this happy song into Ginsberg's ear, except that Ginsberg claims this particular tune for his own musical talents...