‘Don’t Grow Old’ by Allen Ginsberg | Double-LP Reissue ‘The Lion For Real, Re-Born’
Exclusive track premiere of ‘Don’t Grow Old’ taken from the Double-LP Reissue ‘The Lion For Real, Re-Born’ by Allen Ginsberg, out today via Shimmy-Disc.
Allen Ginsberg — internationally renowned, visionary American Beat Poet — was a figurehead of the global youth movement in the late 1960s, a devoted teacher and scholar, inspiring generations of young poets. He was a racial activist, pacifist, one of the most politically engaged poets for decades, using his voice and international platform as a campaigner for human rights, gay liberation, ecology, and free speech. Nearly all his books remain in print to this day.
In celebration of his legacy, Shimmy-Disc has announced a remixed and remastered reissue of Allen Ginsberg’s 1989 album of spoken-word pieces, entitled ‘The Lion For Real, Re-born’.
Today, the label shares the full LP, along with the a video for its focus track, “Don’t Grow Old”— a beautiful meditation on the fragile fleeting quality of time enhanced by Allen’s melancholic delivery of the title as a mantra, a call resonating out from his heart deep into our present. The track also features original music composed by Kramer for this release.
The LP was kicked off with the release of ‘To Aunt Rose’ in September, followed by Shimmy-Disc sharing a new track from the titled, ‘The End,’ complete with an Ambient-Cinema video crafted by Kramer.
This forthcoming LP release, due November 3, finds Allen Ginsberg — the voice of a generation, fierce, gentle, profound and profane — paired with music created especially for his work, by some of the guiding lights of Jazz in the modern era: Mark Bingham, Bill Frisell, Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot, and others. All masterfully coordinated and produced by the mad scientist of collaborations, Hal Willner.
First released as ‘The Lion For Real’ in 1989, this time capsule surges forth into the now with 8 additional tracks never included on the original release. These are timeless works, a garden of eden on vinyl to wander through repeatedly, guided by the founding father of Beat Poetry. Graced by an irresistible coda co-written with Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer, his lyrical mantra of ‘Don’t Grow Old’.
Headline photo: Macioce (1983; Orlovsky, Ginsberg, Taylor, Kramer, Don Cherry)
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Nice to see the great bard’s recorded works being reissued so long-time fans and the younger generation can listen to and appreciate his one of a kind voice. Hopefully Rhino or another company can reissue the definitive box set “Holy Soul, Jelly Roll” and other Spoken Word and Poetry recordings.