This is a “stream of recall” edition of a core poem, I have written in many iterations, many perspectives, since first I wrote the seeds of it as lyrics to a song in 1969.
~ at Columbus & Broadway, SF – the beat cathedral ~
To watch me read Angst & Indignation: CLICK HERE
W hen night fell on bohemia
the streets were set ablaze
an acid-infused haze
city lights
turned to black lights
and strobe lights
tie-dyed in psychedelia
when night fell on bohemia
jack and neal were on the road
ridin’ with the fire-whores
of angst and indignation
mental fornication
emotional elation
combustin’ carnal fireballs
goin’ flowin’ with it all
when night fell on bohemia
allen was howl’n
pal’n with corso
still long’n for peter
groin deep
in the brain-drug carnival
fantasy flesh festival
hunter was fearful
loathing the big strip
ridin’ the snow trip
bemused by it all
best he could recall
when night fell on bohemia
bill stood stark naked
lunchin’ with the devil
stinkin’ and disheveled
jelly-rollin’ in a demon’s fire
vein poppin’ on a live wire
when night fell on bohemia
gary headed for cold mountain
to watch it all
to the 11th hour
from his lofty perch
on sourdough tower
rip rappin’ and zen tappin’
hot jazz was hap’nin
while electric bob
went subterranean
when night fell on bohemia
ken gathered up the faithful
made merry on the magic bus
party trippin’ for all of us
day-glow’n infamy
rocket fueled by owsley
and ran off to the future
like mad-capped pranksters
to take it all
a lil’ further
Robertson ~ McClure ~ Dylan ~ Ginsberg
*
rob kistner © 2022
Poetry at: dVerse
https://youtu.be/4gK1ZeBW438
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This below is the original song I wrote in ‘69, loosely about Ken Kesey and the Merry Panksters. I used them as a milepost to represent the transition from the beat poets of the 50’s to the rock poets of the 60’s. My lyrics for this song became the seed inspiration for a number of iterations of related poems I wrote, including the one above.
BOHEMIAN MIDNIGHT
lyrics: Rob Kistner
music: Jay Wormus
the white rabbit’s on the loose
our minds are fine’ly set ablaze
at last our voice is raised
acid’s opened up new ways
it’s a san-fran song of love
larry’s big beat city lights
now day-glow’n new black lights
and mind blow’n strobe’n lights
dreams tie-dyed in psychedelia
night has fallen on bohemia
the white rabbit’s on the loose
make’n merry on the magic bus
mind trippin’ party plus
we’re rock’n further into infamy
rocket fueled by oz-el-ly
it’s midnight in bohemia
the white rabbit’s on the loose
man it’s midnight in bohemia
the white rabbit’s on the loose
GUITAR SOLO
make’n merry on the magic bus
expandin’ minds — truth’s stimulus
to look beyond just what we see
feeling love and being free
clock’s struck midnight in bohemia
the white rabbit’s on the loose
(repeat to end over guitar improv)
it’s midnight in bohemia
the white rabbit’s on the loose
© 1969
Ken Kesey & the Merry Prankstres
I just knew you’d nail this one, Rob! I love the jazziness of the rhythm and rhyme.
Thank you Kim, your kind words and confident attitude towards my ability is truly an honor!
Beat Poetry at its best! This is excellent writing here, Rob! I love the smooth flow and progression- the references and rhythm- a pleasure to read and re-read! Thank you so much for writing to the prompt 🙂
Thank you Sanaa, and you are welcome —/my pleasure… 🙂
I loved this poem. It’s a great tribute to the beat generation with a wonderful rhythm and flow. Great line repetition too.
Thank you Nitin… 🙂
Great lyrics Rob! Perfect for Sanaa’s challenge. I hope you got to perform it ….
Thank you Helen. Yes we did play the song, many times. You’ll find the original lyrics from 1969, following the music posts at the end of my poem here.
CHEERS! Your life needs to be a book or a film.
Sometimes it feels like a waking dream, sometimes a contradiction, sometimes a nightmare Helen — but it has always been a teacher.
Oh man, I’m diggin ALL yer references to each of the great beats, and read it aloud cuz I dug it so much & when I finished I looked over at this photo of me & Allen, shoulder to shoulder back in 1972, when he came to Hartford for a walking tour of the city & stopping occasionally to share some of his work with us (before the night’s festivities at the Atheneum) and I swear to god I think he was wearing a smile I’d never noticed before when I finished reading.
You rock, Bro. Thanks.
Oh. And your song…Oy!
Thank you Ron… that sounds like it was a helluva day there in Hartford my friend. I met Allen in ‘77 when he came to the University of Cincinnati to do some readings and chanting. It was a very cool time. He was luminous. I am so glad you dug this piece I wrote brother. And my song, “Bohemian Midnight” — my band (Stone Fox) and I first played it in October of ‘69, right after me (lyrics) and our guitar player, Jay Wormus (music) wrote it. It was at a place called The Ludlow Garage in Cincy. We shared the bill that particular night with the Holy Modal Rounders. They did a ten minute version of “Boobs A lot” — it was insanely incredible! What an outrageously excellent night. 😉
I like both the poem and the song. If your recording on YouTube is here, I couldn’t find it. I would like to listen. Please??
I do know a fellow who will come up with music to fit what we write, I haven’t tried to write for that, yet.
In 1965 I spent a whole month in San Fransico, I liked it then. Nights were free, a small group were there to attend a Lockheed school on some new equipment for the NASA control center in Houston. We took turns with the rented car, it was a 1965 Red Ford Convertible. I could tell some tales never told of our month there.
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I’ve visited SF a few times since with family. Most of the Hippies have moved to Colorado and Vermont now. The city has matured and cleaned up its act.
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A great city Jim… 🙂
Never made a recording of “Bohemian Midnight” Jim. I did 3 different sessions in the studio, with different groups, from 1964 through 1976 — but none of it ever got popular enough for any of it to be archived… to my knowledge… and I never kept any of the masters organized, so they have gotten misplaced. I actually think they “got” misplaced by an x-wife after my first divorce — but who knows, or can prove it… sadly, not me. It was all 4 lifetimes, three marriages, and two cross country moves ago — one to the southeast, and this last one 32 years ago here to the pacific northwest.
Thanks, Rob
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No problem Jim…
Love the musical beat in your lines Rob. You nailed it!!!
Thank you Grace… 🙂
Great roll with the Beats, a popping bongo up there where the angels got high. You have a decade on me, I came to the beats after they had lapsed some (the confessionals were my primary poetic sources), and the rock monster they bred took to very far and ill places. The trippy teenage wasteland. Blake was much better at winging the fire than Ginsberg, but that’s just my opinion. One of your more muscular efforts, good work.
Thank you Brendan. It was a pleasure to write! My cultural DNA was birthed at the end of the beat generation, and nurtured through adolescence, to flourish in the rock era. In fact, there was a “beat” coffee house (we used the term beatnik) my friend and I would drop into after football practice my freshman and sophomore years in high school. That was the first time I ever experienced public poetry reading. Some of it was improvisational so it was really cool. I was absolutely fascinated by the noir ambience of the place. My junior year in high school it became a jazz club when they got their liquor license. When I graduated high school it had shifted to a rock club, and my band and I played there a number of times.
Ginsberg certainly liked Blake, and felt he had a mystical connection to the poet? Who knows!?
Of course, Allen did his fair share of hallucinogens. There was a time I had taken psilocybin, and thought I was walking through a field of sunflowers talking with Jim Morrison. Turned out to be my drummer —- but the sunflowers were real.
You need to add Loretta Lynne, she died day before yesterday. 🙂
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What a bummer about Larreta, I hadn’t heard Jim, so thank you for letting me know.
You certainly captured /encapsulated them all. Love your choice of accompanying videos too. And your original song lyrics. Altogether, what a feast!
Thank you Rosemary. I loved writing that piece, and assembling the overall post. As I commented to Brendan when he responded to the piece, the end of the beat era introduced me to poetry, music, the noir attitude, all 3 of which I adopted when I got into my rock music era. So writing “Angst & Indignation”, and assembling that post, felt like “going home” for me — I really loved it.
Well it seems that everybody, and I mean everybody, was at the party when night fell on Bohemia. A lovely trawl through the beat-streets of time.
There were many I didn’t fit in, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Elise Cowen, Amiri Baraka, Janine Pommy Vega, Diane di Prima, Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Rod Mckuen, Ivor Cutler, to name a few name a few — and I can think of at least 6 more I feel could, maybe should have been referenced. But they were in my heart over the years this evolved. Of course Lawrence was there as his City Lights Bookstore. If I ever write “Angst & Indignation — the Musical” I will include to entire group… 😉 😉
Enjoyed this- the tempo of the poem, the song lyrics, the whole mood!
Thank you Rajani… 🙂
I enjoyed watching you read your poetry. Amazing writing as always. A gifted lyricist and I am sure your performances were riveting. There are places around here that have open mic for poets/musicians and the beat still stirs the soul some nights. You have had an amazing journey in this realm. Keep the magic flowing your pen is always knowing.
Love and light my friend
Thank you so much True, you are most kind. Public reading would be fun, but I need to be close to human facilities, and endurance is a challenge — I nap frequently because of my CHF having moved to stage C. Not impossible for me, but the place would have to be suited to my needs, and the stay would need be reasonably brief. Crotchety old man and all, ya know… 😉 …but Your kind words are wonderful my friend.
I enjoyed the poem and the song, but especially the song. You took me back to those times – the music, the beat, the beatniks (!!) What a time it was!
Glad this resonated for you Sherry — those were the days… 🙂
A fantastic lyric/poem Rob – full of 60s magic!
Thank you very much Ingrid. Nice to see you visit again — been a while. 🙂
The stream of consciousness style really suits the wild and reckless feel of being young and out on the town.
The inquisitive freedom, impatience, and yet hope of youth Rommy.
Jazz is what I hear when I read your poem.
Jazz was the origin Susy… 🙂
Spectacular speechin’, Rob! The poem, the song, everything.
Again, outstanding music.
Thank you Sara… 🙂