Gregory Corso “A Bed’s Lament”
Americana Highways presents this premiere of poet Gregory Corso’s spoken word performance of the poem “A Bed’s Lament,” from his forthcoming reissued album Die On Me. This album was originally produced by Hal Willner with new re-mastering by Kramer.
Gregory Corso was the youngest of the Beat Generation poets. The album is spoken word poetry by Gregory Corso, though it also features readings with Marianne Faithfull (1946 – 2025), Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997) and Hal Willner (1956 – 2020). Gregory Corso also passed away in 2001 in the final stages of recording Die On Me.
We had a chance to chat with Kramer about this project by Shimmy-Disc. The premiere appears just beneath the interview.
Americana Highways: What does preserving and re-releasing Gregory Corso’s work through DIE ON ME mean to Shimmy-Disc and to you personally—as both a creative producer and someone entrusted with his legacy?
Kramer: Firstly, it must be stated that Hal Willner was the producer of this LP, most of which was recorded in 2001 in the days prior to Corso’s passing. I know that it meant everything to him at the time of its creation, and now, having re-edited and remastered it for its first vinyl release, it means everything to me, and to Shimmy-Disc. Preserving and expanding the legacy of the great American word artists like Allen Ginsberg, Edgar Allan Poe, and Gregory, is an integral part of Shimmy-Disc’s activities. Poetry belongs in the ears of new listeners, So we will always focus on introducing the great American wordsmiths to a new audience.
AH: This collection doesn’t just showcase Corso’s poetry, but also intimate conversations with figures like Allen Ginsberg and Marianne Faithfull. What do these moments reveal about Corso that readers of his work might not otherwise see?
Kramer: Within the structure of the LP, we find not simply the poet’s words, but the poet himself. This is uncommon amongst poetry on vinyl, and offers – perhaps not a deeper understanding – but a deeper emotional connection to Corso. We find him here not simply in conversation with Ginsberg at the library of Congress in their respective primes, but also in the days just prior to Corso’s passing, when mortality was racing toward him. We feel his embrace of the inevitable, and through the sound of his living voice. We experience the manner in which he accepts his dying process with words both old and new. I’m aware of nothing else quite like it in the annals of recorded poetry. Hal Willner was a genius and perhaps no other record that he ever made is a greater testament to that fact.
Thanks very much for chatting with us, Kramer. Enjoy the twisted and turns of the dark poem: “now I stand in a dank room with shaky legs a bony back.”
You can order a/presave the album here: Die On Me https://shimmy.jyfl.link/x0xvp
and find “A Bed’s Lament” here: https://shimmy.jyfl.link/Mv1MK
