materials for the study of religion and culture in the lower east side

‘harry was down on another floor, engaged in a long recording project called materials for the study of religion and culture in the lower east side, which included murderers babbling on amphetamine in the streets, jump-rope rhymes, bawdy songs, rap, (the) complete canon of gregory corso’s early poetry...’ - allen ginsberg interview with hal willner, introduction to think of the self speaking: harry smith - selected interviews.

another day for horsemouth another celebration of harry everett smith, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, avant-garde film-maker, recorder of peyote rituals and the fugs first album, and compiler of the 1952 anthology of american folk music (which basically inspired everyone you’ve ever heard of to pick up an acoustic guitar and start singing those songs again).

"we all knew every word of every song on it, including the ones we hated.” - dave van ronk

ED sanders recounts that smith was the key advisor for allen ginsberg and the fugs's effort to levitate the pentagon including recommending having a cow present to represent the goddess hathor.

the police were careful to keep the cow away from the pentagon.

today it really is 7 days to the vernal equinox.

late in his life (towards his death) harry smith would often ask his carer (rani singh) what she’d done today that was creative (here again he was ahead of the curve). eventually he dies and ginsberg goes to sit with his body in the morgue. later his ghost haunts the film-makers co-op of jonas meekas.