Birdbrain / Sue Your Parents - Signed Record with Psychedelic Drawing

Signed copy of the Beat poet's 1981 single, recorded with the Denver-based band The Gluons. Single 33 1/3 rpm 7" vinyl disc, with original dust-sleeve, printed insert sheet and photographic outer sleeve screen-printed in colors, designed by Howard Klein. Ginsberg has signed inside the outer sleeve, dating Boulder, November 16, 1983. To the blue-and-white printed record label, he has added two psychedelic drawings: on the A side, a drawing of a triangle within a circle, with flames coming from it; on the B side, a flower with the initials A. H., stars and a snake. "A. H." refers to Albert Hofmann, the "Father of LSD"; we are aware of several other drawings by Ginsberg incorporating these initials. Very slight toning to dust-sleeve and tiny dents to outer sleeve; overall very fine. 

Ginsberg and Mike Chapell's band The Gluons collaborated on "Birdbrain," with the poet speaking his anti-Reagan poem to the band's backing: "Birdbrain runs the world! / Birdbrain is the ultimate product of Capitalism!...". The track was later included on "Holy Soul Jelly Roll." Ginsberg would go on the following year to appear in "Ghetto Defendant" with The Clash. There were reportedly five pressings of 1,000 copies, each with a number of sleeve variations, though the earliest of these were screen-printed in color. OCLC notes 8 holdings.

Ginsberg experimented with drugs from the 1940's on, and in the 1960's became an outspoken advocate for psychedelics as a tool to explore the nature of consciousness and unlock creativity, along with other public figures such as Timothy Leary and Ram Dass.  By the 1980's, he had retreated somewhat from LSD culture, and turned to Buddhist mindfulness meditation. He became a follower of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who founded the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado in the 1970's. Together with Ann Waldman and John Cage, Ginsberg started a poetry department at Naropa called the "Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics." (16390)

---

Signed Document/Item

Literature

Song

• Sold