So what — “Penance.”
Samples by James “Pissing in a River” Nugent
Collaborations
1977: Mix Tape (Track 07)
“Palpitations” is about the sensation you get standing close to loudspeakers. The lows that reverberate in your chest. The drumming that realigns your heart beat.
Samples by James “Iggy” Nugent.
Packed Up And Ready To Go
The first 100 days of the Trump Regime were weird times for just about everyone. For me, Mom died the day before Inauguration Day. I spent a couple weeks in N.Y. helping my sisters take care of estate matters. There was a lot of sorting and dusting and quiet.
It was during these 100 days that I also started to write again.
This included 4-, 8-, and 12-line poems of the political. All written in the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, I compiled them as Ballads Under New Regime [Reprise] — a title I had used during the Bush Administration 10+ years earlier.
At the end of June, musician/poet/friend Jed Myers collaborated with me in a one-night session at Jack Straw Studios in Seattle. I read the poems and he underscored each with acoustic guitar, harmonica, or tambourine.
We’ll release all the ballads Oct. 5 for listening or free download on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Stand by. For now, here’s “Packed Up And Ready To Go” the opening track, talking about all the talk about moving-to-Canada talk.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 06)
“Spleen” is a riff on a Baudelaire line from “Good Dogs” in his Le Spleen de Paris.
I sing in praise of destitute dogs, under-dogs, whether those who wander all alone through the tortuous ravines and gullies of the vast metropolis, or those who have said to some old outcast, with a wink of their witty, spiritual eyes, ‘Take me along with you, then perhaps we can make some sort of happiness out of our two poverties!’
Samples by James “I Wanna Be Sedated” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 05)
“Monk Bought Lunch” is about aloneness. About singularity. About the numbers 1 and 11.
Words by John Burgess. Samples by James “Son of” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 03)
Wrote “Epicene” as an elegy for Lou Reed, who died in 2013. Issue Number 1 of Punk magazine called him “the original street punk turned fine artist.” Two reasons he still matters: Velvet Underground and Street Hassle.
Word by John Burgess. Samples by James “Velvet” Nugent.
1977: Mix Tape (Track 2)
“If I had more time I’d like to get to know you” is part of a suite, of sorts, for Sid Vicious; one thread that runs through my next book 1977.
Words by John Burgess. Samples by James “Screamer” Nugent.
Ballads Under New Regime
Recovered the collaboration between Jed and me. Ballads Under New Regime. I wrote and read the poetry. Jed (Myers) created the music.
Written during the George W. Bush administration, we recorded the tracks at Jack Straw Studios in 2007. The ballads are transcribed in A History of Guns in the Family from Ravenna Press (2008).
Listen and download here:
Ballads Under New Regime (Bandcamp)
Ballads Under New Regime (SoundCloud)
We’re working on a Reprise incited by the new administration. Will keep you posted on progress.
JB 