Allen Ginsberg – First Blues: Rags, Ballads and Harmonium Songs album art
Othmar Motter’s Tektura, set tight-not-touching with a fortunate distribution of its ascending and descending glyphs, for an album by Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), released in 1981 by Folkway Records:
Legendary Beat poet Allen Ginsberg explores the fusion of poetry and music in this rare 1970s recording. Called a “venerated bard of resistance” Ginsberg sought “how the raw mind actually works” through poetry. This collection of fun ditties spouts against capitalism, among other things, and is an amusing and enjoyable listen. Ginsberg accompanies himself with a small hand-pumped harmonium from India, occasionally adding his own guttural rhythms reminiscent of Dadaist sound-poetry (see for example “Put Down Your Cigarette Rag” and “Prayer Blues”), while other songs, such as “Bus Ride Ballad Road to Suva”, echo folk ballads from yesteryear. Ginsberg prefaces each song himself. Liner notes include an introduction from Ginsberg.
The copy digitized by the Internet Archive has slightly different colors.
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See also Music of the Bhutan for another cover designed by Ronald Clyne using Motter Tektura and Helvetica: