Allen Ginsberg With Paul McCartney “Ballad of The Skeletons” “Ballad of the Skeletons” with music by Philip Glass and Paul McCartney playing guitar. The recording was a follow up to Ginsberg’s “Ballad of the Skeletons.” Allen Ginsberg: “I had a gig at Albert Hall in London. A reading. I had been talking quite a bit to (Paul) McCartney, visiting him and bringing him poetry and haiku, and looking at Linda McCartney’s photographs and giving him some photos I’d taken of them. So, McCartney liked it and filmed me doing “(The Ballad of The) Skeletons” in a little 8 millimeter home thing. And then I had this reading at (the) Albert Hall, and I asked (him) if he could recommend a young guitarist who was a quick study. So he gave me a few names but (then) he said, “If you’re not fixed up with a guitarist, why don’t you try me? I love the poem”. So I said, “It’s a date”. It was last November [November 1995]. We went to Paul’s house and spent an afternoon rehearsing. He came to the sound check and we did a little rehearsal there, again. And then he went up to his box with his family. It was a benefit for literary things. There were 15 other poets (on the bill). We didn’t tell anybody that McCartney was going to play. And we (had) developed that riff really nicely. In fact, Linda (had) made a little tape of our rehearsal. So then, we went on stage and knocked it out. There’s a photo of us on the CD. It was a very lively and he was into it”
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:09:51 +0000
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