“Stranger forget seventy tons to the square inch and be gone at the flutes. Death takes over in busy lands, ashes — gutted cities of America and Europe. Empty air marks authority over all antagonists, late afternoon on white steps of the set. See the chains are fallen long long radio silence on Portland Place.” — hands work and go— Our street boys picking up show — no word — no flesh — the actors melted — indications enough it wasn’t easy — radio silence to answer your air — Remember i was the ship gives no memory pictures — Johnny Yen, in last good bye fading scars — played the flute of Ali — played the flute in Kiki — some clean shirt and man like good bye — ding-dong bell no good no bueno — stranded actors walk through Poo Poo the Dummy — The Orchid Girl fades into memory picture on outhouse skin forgotten — Greeen Tony the last invisible shadow — Call the Old Doctor twice on last errand? — caught in the door of Panic, Mr & Mrs D — last round over — a street boy’s morning sky — flesh tape ebbing from centuries — Remember i was movie played you a long last good night”—
end of the line for vaudeville voices — last round in a shower of ruined September — last film flakes — The globe is self just old secondhand door — indications enough just ahead — boys on roller skates before stranded — our revels at Rings of Saturn — last September on stage — Last parasite just went up, Mr Martin — i fold thy strong tape — Bitter price on our ticket? — ‘Bye then — broken dream and dreamer of the sick lies — the brain of Gothenberg on stage — Last intervention gives no flesh identity — for i last errand boy — adiós in the final ape of history — fading shelter in the dog’s death trauma — intervention — last round over — The pipes are calling, Mr Bradly Mr Martin — The story done when you reach September — So we’ll say good night — showed you your air — the pipes your summons — All are wracked and answer — adiós to the sick lies — adiós to thy strong tape — caught in the door of Gothenberg — courage to question erogenous secondhand trade — story of absent world just as empty as ding-dong bell — silence to the stage — These our actors erased themselves into air far from such as you, Mr Bradly Mr Martin — September faded leaves not a wrack behind — I foretold you all spirits are going —
Johnny Yen: (His face shows strata of healed and half-healed fight scars — under grey luminous film flakes as the cover of the world rains down) “I’m going to look for a room in a good neighborhood” —
Ali The Incandescent Street Boy: “You come Ali — You no go body” —
Kiki: (Some clean shirt and walked out) “You can look any place — No good — No bueno — Adiós, Meester Bradly Meester Martin” —
Poo Poo the Dummy: (Flares of good bye over the iridescent lagoon) —
Miranda the Orchid Girl: (Trailing tendrils of stinging sex hairs, fades into birdcalls and frogs from the vacant lot) “good bye then” —
not looking around, talking away —
Green Tony: “On the last saucer, boss — a big bank roll” —
Willy the Fink: “I’m not taking any rap for those board bastards — I’m going to rat on everybody” —
Izzy the Push, Jacky Blue Note, Hamburger Mary, Limestone John: “Call the Old Doctor twice? He quiets you — Hello yes good bye — A few more calls to make tonight” —
Mr & Mrs D: “The ticket that exploded posed little time so we’ll say good night” —
Sammy the Butcher: (definitive arrest) —
Inspector J. Lee: “We do our work and go — Proceed with the indicated alterations” —
The Fluoroscopic Kid: “Now picking up show — no word — no flesh — the lot” —
The Subliminal Kid: “It wasn’t easy get to be radio be tape recorder on — friends are — showed you your air —
Mr Bradly Mr Martin: “Man like good bye — What in St. Louis after September? — faded story of absent world just as silver film took it — Remember i was the movies — Rinse my name for i have known intervention — Pass without doing our ticket — mountain wind of Saturn in the morning sky — From the death trauma weary good bye then — What summer will I will you? . . cold summer will. . exactly . . He lifts his hands sadly turns them out . . Brother can’t you spare a dime? . . dead finger in smoke pointing to Gibraltar .. the adolescent shadow .. he should have the same face . . stale face stale late face in the late summer morning mouth and nose sealed over . . funny I don’t remember you . . it’s ended over there . . Remember the stale kids? .. toneless voice in San Francisco? . . belong to the wind.. silver morning smoke in the desolate markets .. sure you dream up Billy who bound word for it. . in the beginning there was no lam.. stale smoke of dreams it was lam.. haunted your morning and will you other stale morning smell of other lam.. no lam there.. no one .. silences .. There was no morning.. sure late Billy.. Iam the stale Billy . . I lived your life a long time ago . . sad shadow whistles cross a distant sky . . adiós marks this long ago address . . didn’t exist you understand.. ended.. stale dreams Billy.. worn out here.. tried to the end.. there is a film shut up in a bureau drawer . . boy I was who never would be now . . a speck of white that seemed to catch all the light left on a dying star.. and suddenly I lost him.. my film ends .. I lost him long ago . . dying there . . light went out . . . my film ends.”
Hassan i Sabbah: “Last round over — Remember i was the ship gives no flesh identity — lips fading — silence to say good bye —” See the action, B.J.? This Hassan I Sabbah really works for Naval Intelligence and . . Are you listening B.J.?”
the invisible generation
what we see is determined to a large extent by what we hear you can verify this proposition by a simple experiment turn off the sound track on your television set and substitute an arbitrary sound track prerecorded on your tape recorder street sounds music conversation recordings of other television programs you will find that the arbitrary sound track seems to be appropriate and is in fact determining your interpretation of the film track on screen people running for a bus in piccadilly with a sound track of machine-gun fire looks like 1917 petrograd you can extend the experiment by using recorded material more or less appropriate to the film track for example take a political speech on television shut off sound track and substitute another speech you have prerecorded hardly tell the difference isn’t much record sound track of one danger man from uncle spy program run it in place of another and see if your friends can’t tell the difference it’s all done with tape recorders consider this machine and what it can do it can record and play back activating a past time set by precise association a recording can be played back any number of times you can study and analyze every pause and inflection of a recorded conversation why did so and so say just that or this just here play back so and so’s recordings and you will find out what cues so and so in you can edit a recorded conversation retaining material which is incisive witty and pertinent you can edit a recorded conversation retaining remarks which are boring flat and silly a tape recorder can play back fast slow or backwards you can learn to do these things record a sentence and speed it up now try imitating your accelerated voice play a sentence backwards and learn to unsay what you just said... such exercises bring you a liberation from old association locks try inching tape this sound is produced by taking a recorded text for best results a text spoken in a loud clear voice and rubbing the tape back and forth across the head the same sound can be produced on a philips compact cassette recorder by playing a tape back and switching the mike control stop start on and off at short intervals which gives an effect of stuttering take any text speed it up slow it down run it backwards inch it and you will hear words that were not in the original recording new words made by the machine different people will scan out different words of course but some of the words are quite clearly there and anyone can hear them words which were not in the original tape but which are in many cases relevant to the original text as if the words themselves had been interrogated and forced to reveal their hidden meanings it is interesting to record these words words literally
made by the machine itself you can carry this experiment further using as your original recording material that contains no words animal noises for instance record a trough of slopping hogs the barking of dogs go to the zoo and record the bellowings of Guy the gorilla the big cats growling over their meat goats and monkeys now run the animals backwards speed up slow down and inch the animals and see if any clear words emerge see what the animals have to say see how the animals react to playback of processed tape
the simplest variety of cut up on tape can be carried out with one machine like this record any text rewind to the beginning now run forward an arbitrary intervals stop the machine and record a short text wind forward stop record where you have recorded over the original text the words are wiped out and replaced with new words do this several times creating arbitrary juxtapositions you will notice that the arbitrary cuts in are appropriate in many cases and your cut up tape makes surprising sense cut up tapes can be hilariously funny twenty years ago i heard a tape called the drunken newscaster prepared by jerry newman of new york cutting up news broadcasts i can not remember the words at this distance but i do remember laughing until i fell out of a chair paul bowles calls the tape recorder god’s little toy maybe his last toy fading into the cold spring air poses a colorless question
any number can play
yes any number can play anyone with a tape recorder controlling the sound track can influence and create events the tape recorder experiments described here will show you how this influence can be extended and correlated into the precise operation this is the invisible generation he looks like an advertising executive a college student an american tourist doesn’t matter what your cover story is so long as it covers you and leaves you free to act you need a philips compact cassette recorder handy machine for street recording and playback you can carry it under your coat for recording looks like a transistor radio for playback playback in the street will show the influence of your sound track in operation of course the most undetectable playback is street recordings people don’t notice yesterday voices phantom car holes in time accidents of past time played back in present time screech of brakes loud honk of an absent horn can occasion an accident here old fires still catch old buildings still fall or take a prerecorded sound track into the street anything you want to put out on the sublim eire play back two minutes record two minutes mixing your message with the street waft your message right into a worthy ear some carriers are much better than others you know the ones lips moving muttering away carry my message all over london in our yellow submarine working with street playback you will see your playback find the appropriate context for example i am playing back some of my dutch Schultz last word tapes in the street five alarm fire and a fire truck passes right on cue you will learn to give the cues you will learn to plant events and concepts after analyzing recorded conversations you will learn to steer a conversation where you want it to go the physiological liberation achieved as word lines of controlled association are cut will make you more efficient in reaching your objectives whatever you do you will do it better record your boss and co-workers analyze their associational patterns learn to imitate their voices oh you’ll be a popular man around the office but not easy to compete with the usual procedure record their body sounds from concealed mikes the rhythm of breathing the movements of after-lunch intestines the beating of hearts now impose your own body sounds and become the breathing word and the beating heart of that organization become that organization the invisible brothers are invading present time the more people we can get working with tape recorders the more useful experiments and extensions will turn up why not give tape recorder parties every guest arrives with his recorder and tapes of what he intends to say at the party recording what other recorders say to him it is the height of rudeness not to record when addressed directly by another tape recorder and you can’t say anything directly have to record it first the coolest old tape worms never talk direct
what was the party like switch on playback
what happened at lunch switch on playback
eyes old unbluffed unreadable he hasn’t said a direct word in ten years and as you hear what the party was like and what happened at lunch you will begin to see sharp and clear there was a grey veil between you and what you saw or more often did not see that grey veil was the prerecorded words of a control machine once that veil is removed you will see clearer and sharper than those who are behind the veil whatever you do you will do it better than those behind the veil this is the invisible generation it is the efficient generation hands work and go see some interesting results when several hundred tape recorders turn up at a political rally or a freedom march suppose you record the ugliest snarling southern law men several hundred tape recorders spitting it back and forth and chewing it around like a cow with the aftosa you now have a sound that could make any neighborhood unattractive several hundred tape recorders echoing the readers could touch a poetry reading with unpredictable magic and think what fifty thousand beatle fans armed with tape recorders could do to shea stadium several hundred people recording and playing back in the street is quite a happening right there conservative m.p. spoke about the growing menace posed by bands or irresponsible youths with tape recorders playing back traffic sounds that confuse motorists carrying the insults recorded in some low underground club into may-fair and piccadilly this growing menace to public order put a thousand young recorders with riot recordings into the street that mutter gets louder and louder remember this is a technical operation one step at a time here is an experiment that can be performed by anyone equipped with two machines connected by extension lead so he can record directly from one machine to the other since the experiment may give rise to a marked erotic reaction it is more interesting to select as your partner some one with whom you are on intimate terms we have two subjects b. and j. b. records on tape recorder 1 j. records on tape recorder 2 now we alternate the two voice tracks tape recorder 1 playback two seconds tape recorder 2 records tape recorder 2 playback two seconds tape recorder 1 records alternating the voice of b. with the voice of j. in order to attain any degree of precision the two tapes should be cut with scissors and alternate pieces spliced together this is a long process which can be appreciably expedited if you have access to a cutting room and use film tape which is much larger and easier to handle you can carry this experiment further by taking a talking film of b. and talking film of j. splicing sound and image track twenty four alternations per second as i have intimated it is advisable to exercise some care in choosing your partner for such experiments since the results can be quite drastic b. finds himself talking and thinking just like j. j. sees b.’s image in his own face who’s face b. and j. are continually aware of each other when separated invisible and persistent presence they are in fact becoming each other you see b. retroactively was j. by the fact of being recorded on j.’s sound and image track experiments with spliced tape can give rise to explosive relationships properly handled of course to a high degree of efficient cooperation you will begin to see the advantage conveyed on j. if he carried out such experiments without the awareness of b. and so many applications of the spliced tape principle will suggest themselves to the alert reader suppose you are some creep in a grey flannel suit you want to present a new concept of advertising to the old man it is creative advertising so before you goes up against the old man you record the old man’s voice and splices your own voice in expounding your new concept and put it out on the office air-conditioning system splice yourself in with your favorite pop singers splice yourself in with newscasters prime ministers presidents
why stop there
why stop anywhere
everybody splice himself in with everybody else yes boys that’s me there by the cement mixer the next step and i warn you it will be expensive is programmed tape recorders a fully programmed machine would be set to record and play back at selected intervals to rewind and start over after a selected interval automatically remaining in continuous operation suppose you
have three programmed machines tape recorder 1 programmed to play back five seconds while tape recorder 2 records tape recorder 2 play back three seconds while tape recorder 1 records now say you are arguing with your boy friend or girl friend remembering what was said last time and thinking of things to say next time round and round you just can’t shut up put all your arguments and complaints on tape recorder 1 and call tape recorder 1 by your own name on tape recorder 2 put all the things he or she said to you or might say when occasion arises out of the tape recorders now make the machines talk tape recorder 1 play back five seconds tape recorder 2 record tape recorder 2 play back three seconds tape recorder 1 record run it through fifteen minutes half an hour now switch intervals running the interval switch you used on tape recorder 1 back on tape recorder 2 the interval switch may be as important as the context listen to the two machines mix it around now on tape recorder 3 you can introduce the factor of irrelevant response so put just anything on tape recorder 3 old joke old tune piece of the street television radio and program tape recorder 3 into the argument