Allen Ginsberg Reads Kaddish  A 20th Centutry American Ecstatic Narrative Poem   Atlantic Records Verbum Series  (1966)  Front Cover shot by Richard Avedon  Back cover is some of Ginsberg’s handwritten manuscript of “Kaddish” and features a photograph of the poet with his mother at the New York World’s Fair in 1939.  Two-page statement by Ginsberg entitled: “How Kaddish Happened” printed inside gatefold sleeve.   Ginsberg wrote the poem about his mother Naomi after her death in 1956, who struggled with mental problems throughout her life. Naomi suffered many psychotic episodes both before Allen was born and while he was growing up.  She went in and out of mental hospitals and was treated with medication, insulin shock therapy, and electroshock therapy. She died in an asylum in 1956.

The title Kaddish refers to the mourning prayer or blessing in Judaism.   This long poem was Ginsberg’s attempt to mourn his mother, Naomi, but also reflects his sense of loss at his estrangement from his born religion. The traditional Kaddish contains no references to death, whereas Ginsberg’s poem is riddled with thoughts and questionings of death.  After her death, a rabbi would not allow the traditional Kaddish to be read with Ginsberg’s Christian and Atheist friends, so he rebelled and wrote a Kaddish of his own. Ginsberg began writing the poem in the Beat Hotel in Paris in December 1957 and completed it in New York in 1959.

Below is an advert for the album.

(36 votes, average: 3.28 out of 5)

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Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup  Delmark Records “Look On Yonder’s Wall, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane”  (1969).  The human voice has rarely been as movingly rich as that of Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup nor has the human experience been so thoroughly mirrored as in the simple blues poetry of this big and gentle man from Mississippi.  Some have commented that Crudup’s voice sounds similar to that of Elvis Presley but the truth is the other way around; Crudup wrote several of Presley’s hits and seems to have been an early Presley idol.  – Delmark Records  His last few gigs were with Bonnie Raitt.  He passed away in 1974.  You can see here in the design, the melding of blues legends into popular music and the youth culture of the sixties.

(40 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)

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K.C. Douglas  “The Country Boy”  Arhoolie Records  (1974)

(47 votes, average: 4.06 out of 5)

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A rare one on the Kubaney label  Manuel Caballero’s “Gigantes y Cabezudos”  Many Spanish festivals include costumed figures known as gigantes y cabezudos, roughly, “Giants and Big-Heads” . The main feature of these figures is typically their papier mache heads; bodies are covered in clothing matching the costume’s theme.  These figures are particularly common in festivals of Basque Country or Catalonia, where many cities and towns have their own figures.  FREAKY great cover.

Bonus pic:

(40 votes, average: 3.85 out of 5)

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Italian EP by Franco Trincale on Fonola Records  (1972)  I just found this on YouTube.  Crazy.  What is he singing about?  I’m afraid to know.

(35 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)

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Johnny Ray “I Cry For You”  This pressing is from Australia on Coronet Records but it’s from the Columbia Records “House Party” Series  (Seems more like a “pity party” though)

(42 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Music by the Four Fingers  NVRC Records (China)

(32 votes, average: 3.19 out of 5)

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Samba e Bom Assim (No.2)   Moacyr Silva  Copacabana Records (Brazil)

(42 votes, average: 3.19 out of 5)

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HOW TO:  “Stop Smoking by Cole”  An exhilarating technique!  Check out the smoking skull!  Looks more like an exorcism.

(46 votes, average: 2.93 out of 5)

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