00_misc/vomit_express.htm

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  13 <title>Vomit Express</title>
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  18
  19 <h1 class="songtitle">Vomit Express</h1>
  20
  21
  22 <p>Words and music Allen Ginsberg/Bob Dylan-Allen Ginsberg<br />
  23 Recorded Nov 17, 1971, and released (i.a.) on Allen Ginsberg: First
  24 Blues (1983) and recently on the four-CD boxed set of Ginsberg's
  25 recorded work: <em>Holy Soul Jelly Roll &ndash; ongs and Poems (1949-1993)</em>
  26 on Rhino Records.<br /></p>
  27
  28 <p>Tabbed and transcribed by Eyolf &Oslash;strem (who will be happy to
  29 receive corrections to the transcription)</p>
  30
  31 <hr />
  32
  33 <p><strong>Here's the story, in Allen Ginsberg's own words:</strong></p>
  34
  35 <p><strong>Vomit Express</strong>: These 1971 sessions came about because Dylan
  36 had come to hear a poetry reading at NYU's Loeb Auditorium, standing
  37 in the back of the crowded hall with David Amram. We were on stage
  38 with a gang of musician friends, and Peter improvised, singing, &ldquo;You
  39 shouldn't write poetry down but carol it in the air, because to use
  40 paper you have to cut down trees.&rdquo; I picked up on that, and we spent
  41 a half an hour making up tuneful words on the spot. I didn't know
  42 12-bar blues, it was just a free-form rhyming extravaganza. We packed
  43 up, said goodbye to the musicians, thanked them and gave them a little
  44 money, went home, and then the phone rang.</p>
  45
  46 <p>It was Dylan asking, &ldquo;Do you always improvise like that?&rdquo; And I
  47 said, &ldquo;Not always, but I can. I used to do that with Kerouac under
  48 the Brooklyn Bridge all the time.&rdquo; He came to our apartment with
  49 Amram and a guitar, we began inventing something about &ldquo;Vomit
  50 Express,&rdquo; jamming for quite awhile, but didn't finish it. He said,
  51 &ldquo;Oh, we ought to get together in a studio and do it,&rdquo; then showed me
  52 the three-chord blues pattern on my pump organ. A week later in the
  53 studio Dylan actually did the arrangement, told people when to do
  54 choruses and when to take breaks, and suggested the musicians cut a
  55 few endings on their own to be spliced in.</p>
  56
  57 <p>&ldquo;Vomit Express&rdquo; was a phrase I got from my friend Lucien Carr, who
  58 talked about going to Puerto Rico, went often, and we were planning to
  59 take an overnight plane a couple of weeks later, my first trip
  60 there. He spoke of it as the &ldquo;vomit express&rdquo;  &ndash; poor people flying at
  61 night for cheap fares, not used to airplanes, throwing up airsick.</p>
  62
  63 <hr />
  64
  65 <pre class="verse">
  66 C . F . G . F .
  67 C . F . G . F .  (same chords throughout)
  68
  69           C       F      G    F
  70 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
  71 I'm going down on the midnight plane
  72 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
  73 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
  74
  75 You can take an ancient vacation
  76 fly over Florida's deep-blue end
  77 rise up out of this mad-house nation
  78 I'm going down with my oldest tender friend
  79
  80 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
  81 I'm going down on the midnight plane
  82 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
  83 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
  84
  85 We know each other now twenty years,
  86 seen murders, and we wept tears
  87 Now we're gonna take ourselves a little bit of free time
  88 Wandering round the southern poverty clime
  89
  90 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
  91 I'm going down on the midnight plane
  92 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
  93 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
  94
  95 Start flyin' with all the poor, old, sick ladies
  96 Everybody [in the plane] [drowded] and drunk, and they're crazy
  97 Flyin' home to die in the wobbly air
  98 All night long, they wanted the cheapest fare.
  99
 100 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 101 I'm going down on the old midnight plane
 102 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 103 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 104
 105 When we're down on the air field, I've never been there,
 106 Except once walkin' around the air field in the great, wet heat,
 107 Walk out, smell that old mother-load of shit from the tropics
 108 Stomach growl [love], oh friends, beware.
 109
 110 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 111 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 112 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 113 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 114
 115 Me and my friend, no we won't even drink,
 116 And I won't eat meat, I won't fuck around
 117 Gonna walk the streets alone, [cars] will blink and wink
 118 Taxi's, buses and US gas all around.
 119
 120 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 121 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 122 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 123 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 124
 125 Start [read] poetry at the university, meet kids,
 126 look at their breasts, touch their hands, kiss their heads
 127 seen from the heart, maybe the four buddhist normal truths
 128 &quot;Existence is suffering&quot;, it ends when you're dead --
 129
 130 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 131 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 132 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 133 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 134
 135 Go out, walk up on the mountain, see the green rain
 136 imagine that forest, finds, get lost,
 137 sit cross-legged and meditate on old love pain,
 138 watch every old love turn to gold.
 139
 140 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 141 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 142 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 143 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 144
 145 See raindrops and the jungle rainbow, dancin' men;
 146 brown legs walk around on the mud road
 147 far from US smog, war, again
 148 Sit down, empty mind, vomit my holy load
 149
 150 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 151 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 152 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 153 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 154
 155 Come back to earth, walk the streets in [shark/sharp?]
 156 Smoke some grass and eat me some cock
 157 kiss the mouth of the sweetest boy I can see
 158 who shows me his white teeth and brown skin joy
 159
 160 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 161 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 162 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 163 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 164 </pre>
 165
 166 <pre class="bridge">
 167 <em>
 168 [this chorus is completely out of rhythm.
 169 Luckily they decided to take an instrumental verse, followed by:]</em>
 170 </pre>
 171
 172 <pre class="verse">
 173 Go find my old friend, we'll go to the museum,
 174 talk 'bout politics with the cats, and ask for revolution,
 175 get back on the plane and chant high in the sky
 176 Back to earth, to New York garbage streets and fly
 177
 178 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 179 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 180 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 181 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 182
 183 I'm gonna come back with frighteneds in the hot
 184 at New York's electrical eternity here
 185 pull the air-conditioner plug from the wall
 186 sit down with my straight spine and pray
 187
 188 I'm going down to Puerto Rico
 189 I'm going down on the midnight plane
 190 I'm going down on the Vomit Express
 191 I'm going down with my suitcase pain.
 192 </pre>
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