Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
okay.
  

    
Love your ethereal messages Wayne. Re: the William Blake/Lord B
connection. Not sure if Buckley read any Blake per say but his
admiration and quick/hip adaptation of Joyce Cary's "Horse's Mouth"
indicates to me that he was at least exposed to Blake. Gulley Jimson is
the penniless artist hero of Cary's novel (itself adapted into a late
'50s film starring Alec Guiness in the lead) whose penury forces him to
find oddball surfaces around London to paint on. Blake is one of
Jimson's passions and he is constantly quoting him through the novel
(an excellent, now semi-obscure must-read mini-masterpiece) in much the
same way Buckleyheads, Deadheads, Dylan freaks or who/whatever find
just the right quote to fit the situation. Anyhow, the book is steeped
in Blakeisms and that Buckley acknowledges on recording that he had
read the book, it is fair to assume that he absorbed some of William
B's pixie dust too.
  

    

From Wayne McGinnis:


Thanks for your reply to my #143, Oliver---it is veriest juice of the
perceptive & right on the mark.  I've read "Horse's Mouth" but forgot the
Blake connection---& you're right about what a neglected book it is.

There's been nothing ethereal about your answers throughout  this
conference!   I dig your wig, if I may say so!  You've done a splendid job,
Oliver.

May the bust of Pallas sit by your chamber door & inspire you Ever-more!

Yours,
Wayne McGinnis
  

    
<suddenly realizing why my Blake professor in grad school was incessantly
quoting Horse's Mouth>
  

    
heh,

and thanks for inspiring me to dig out and dig my lord buckley in concert
lp..
  

    
are you there?
  

    
Here!  Talk to us!
  

    

Hi Oliver!  Speak up!
  

    
You're coming in loud and clear!
  

    
We can dig you in this fish!
  

    
No, no. He means, are you THERE!
  

    
Oh, no... still in transit, if you put it that way...
  

    
or was that "are YOU there?"

Any way you wish to accent the phrase, it was by lord b as a kind of
zen hipster's "what is the sound of one hand clapping" koan.

Any youse guys finish the book yet? This mill needs some more grist
before I leap back on that cyber stump and begin preachin'

David G: Michael M is working on the CD for the show.
  

    
Excellent!
  

    
LORD BUCKLEY FIELD TRIP REPORT

About six weeks ago I got an email from a fellow named Matt Sohn,
archivist of the Louis Armstrong collection at Queens. Seems, in his
tape-by-tape transferring from magentic to digital, he came across a
tape Lord Buckley and a few fellow musicians made for Louis...kind of a
group letter on a tape. Matt figured that there must be somebody out
there who'd like to hear it so he got online, quickly found
lordbuckley.com and nearly just as quickly found me and invited me to
pay a visit. What a guy!

So yesterday at 8:30 am, I found myself strutting across the Queens
Collge campus (site of a 1970<?> Grateful Dead show at Colden Hall) and
into the library where the Armstrong collection is kept.

For those out of the loop, Pops was an awesome pack rat. Not only did
he save everything [retty carefully, he made hundreds of hos own tapes,
took photographs, wrote prolifically. Virtually his entire collections
was bequeathed to Queens College and is administered by a group of
enthusiastic caretakers, curators and the like. Louis lived in Queens
at a house in Corona which is being rehabbed for public visits. For
more, check out www.satchmo.net.

Anyway, after a customoary meet and greet, Matt sat me down with the
CD he had burned and let me be. The tape was almost exatly hour long,
recorded on 9/17/53 in Boston, Mass. though I would have guessed a few
years later based on very cicumstantial, nuanced hints in Buckley's
style and choice of material.

The general flow of the tape consists of Lord B and his friends paying
verbal tributes to Louis interspersed with performances by Buckley
("The Nazz," the very rare and fab "Golden Ass," "Nobody Knows the
Trouble I've Seen," "I Love Louis" sung to the tune of "I Love Paris,"
"Myrtle the Turtle"), some augmented with participation by the
musicians, and a codified bawdy comment or three...no doubt for Pops's
pleasure.

Sometimes it almost sounded as if the group, especially Buckley, were
using the opportunity to audition for Louis. Other times it felt like a
stoned, spontaneous goof. Either way, a wonderful little audio
Poloroid of a 49-year old scene of extreme hipsterism.

My general impression of the tape was to be reminded of what a strong
influence Armstrong had on Buckley, arguable more than any other single
individual. The way in which Buckley and his friends extoll Pops is to
hear men truly taken and shekn to the core, profoundly humbled by the
genius that remain Louis Armstrong. Truly, they speak to him as if they
were speaking to a deity. A very cool deity, but a deity nonetheless.

When the disc-spinning session was complete, Matt gave me a lil ol'
twenty-five and a half cent tour of the collection. Highlights included
boxes of photographs and a look at Louis' tape collection which, btw,
he hand-decorated: each box is adored with photographs and/or drawings,
scribblings etc. just like you or I might visually embellish a casette
case. As such they reprsented a nice touch of Louis' folkartist
instincts.

But the creme-de-la-creme, the shining moment, the mariscino cherry on
top of the whip cream on top of the vanilla ice cream on top of the
Victoria's Secret model, came when when he brought out a huge case. He
opened the case. Four of Pops' trumpets! I got to hold them! Better
than Garcia's Wolf or Bird's white plastic alto. One in particular
(presented to him by the King of England) was engraved with an
intricate floral design over over square milimeter of its surface. A
truly extraordinary object even without its very significant history.
Those few minutes with the instruments were scary. I was getting wobbly
legged and even a little teary...like holdin' the Pope's yarmulke or
somethin'.

For the record, the archive is not allowed to make copies of any of
their audio material so the possibility of ever receing a copy our
archives is extremely remote...so let's just drop that subject now.
However, anybody wishing to listen to the tape could probably set up an
appointment with Matt for a listening session...but don't quote me on
that.

Also, Matt will be out of work when the transfer of the arhive is
complete, probably in about two years. Anybody with any ideas or
connections for his next gig? The Dylan archives? The Moondog Archives?
The Sun Ra archives? The Famin' Groovies' Archive? He is also a
mix-wiz. He gave me a WILD, very trippy mix of Lord B's "Subconscious
Mind" and other sounds that can do some serious pyschic spiking
especially when listened to over morning coffee.

As I found my way back to Manhattan later, I was again struck as to
what an amazing adventure the Lord B. flash has sent me on and reminded
me that people are the true flowers of life.
  

    
Curious as to who the other musicians on the tape are. 

As for Moondog, all his stuff, as far as I know, is still in Germany
with his widow? girlfriend? I'm quite sure she's taking care of it,
since they lived in Munster, and there's a big university there. But
your friend might want to see if he has any contacts at the university
in Munster. 

That said, it's a deadly town, duller 'n' dishwater. 
  

    
Yes, I wanted to mention the musicians: Barry Swartz, Dick Leslie and
at least two Jones brothers (Max & Herbie) not to be confused with
Elvin, Thad & Hank.
  

    
What an extraordinary find, Oliver. So glad you got to have that experience!
  

    

Wish I could have been the fly on the wall!
  

    

Cool, Oliver!
  

    
Wow, that's amazing!  Thanks for telling us about it.
  

    



Matt Sohn writes:



Greetings, Matt Sohn here, wishing to thank Oliver for his fab
write-up, and I would also like to extend an invitation to any and all
to come and visit us here at the Louis Armstrong Archives.  We ARE open
to the general public, not just researchers, and if you are a trumpet
player, you can even play one of Louis' trumpets.  Hours and directions
are available on our website:  http://www.Satchmo.net

Matthew Sohn
Audio Preservationist
Louis Armstrong House and Archives
  

    
Latest (good) news from Lord Buckleyland:
Poet mover and shaker Bob Holman (see this week's Village Voice to
learn about his Poetry Cafe on NYC's Bowery) is teaching Buckley (and
"Dig Infinity!") as part of a contemporary poetry class at Bard College
in Rhinebeck, NY.
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>
  

    

TONIGHT: Oliver Trager will be my guest (by phone) on KPFA 94.1 fm in
Berkeley (webcast at http://www.kpfa.org and http://www.kfcf.org), 9:00 to
10:00 p.m. Pacific time.

We'll be talking about "Dig Infinity!" and listening to some of the more
famous and more hard-to-find of Lord Buckley's recordings.