Words & Music, Book One

Description

About 40 years ago, in a record store on Long Island, during a weekend visit to his parents, there was a double vinyl that made Kramer feel like he absolutely had to buy it. It was called Big Ego by Dial-a-Poem. On the cover, there was a photo of John Giorno (a great poet that Ed Sanders had introduced him to) on a New York rooftop with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, and two children. It cost $2. Kramer bought it and rushed to his parents' house, where he still had his old turntable in the basement, not far from his Jimi Hendrix and Zappa Crappa posters. Listening to it, he almost lost his mind. The next day, he went back to the same record store looking for other Dial-A-Poem vinyls. He found two. One of them had a long list of names on the back, some famous, others he didn't know. He bought both records and an hour later, for the first time in his life, he discovered the art of Laurie Anderson, whom he had never heard of before. It was 1978. Her contribution was a piece called "Time To Go". It changed his life. Or at least, that's how he remembers it. He was young, and there were many moments like that back then. Nowadays, these moments can be experienced in seconds, with a simple click. That evening, he promised himself that one day, somehow, he would embark on a "Words & Music" project that could move people the same way he was moved when he first discovered Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson, Christopher Knowles, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Anne Waldman, John Ashbery, the great Charles Olson, and so many others. Words, for the very first time, had exerted the same power as music. It was visceral. Just like music. It was profound. John Giorno died in 2019, but he kept poetry alive like no one else. Kramer was lucky enough to spend some time with him in the early 1980s, when he was briefly a member of the band The Fugs and often found himself surrounded by those Ginsberg called the greatest minds of his generation. Ed Sanders (who had brought Kramer into that circle) once told him that when he came to New York, it was easy to go to a café or St. Mark's Church and hear Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg, and all the greats read their poetry. He said that even if you were just a bum on the street, you could approach them and start a conversation. They were totally accessible, if they were in a good mood at that moment. It took Kramer four decades, but better late than never, he finally realized Words & Music, Book One.