bill bissett & the mandan massacr: awake in th red desert
Navel-Gazers #79 is an interview with bill bissett who is going to talk to us about awake in th red desert. Released in 1968 on a Canadian label called See/Hear Productions, it’s a long-standing object of interest for adventurous listeners, residing somewhere beyond-the-beyond at a nexus between concrete-poetry and psychedelic music’s outer fringes. It was also - in the decades leading up to my own first encounter with it while working at a record store in the 2000s - quite the collectors item, originally a limited edition of only 500 copies which was issued with a companion book full of poems, photos and ink drawings by mr. bissett. Revisiting th red desert on this occasion I’m struck by the album’s variety, the moments where its memorable freak-outs are offset by flashes of raw, unaccompanied sound poetry, along with calmer moments and even electronic passages I had forgotten about. I’ve taken special care to de-capitalise bill’s name here, as not only is he the creator of ‘awake in th red desert’ - which also belongs in the lowercase, I think? we can find out - but he’s also one of Canada’s great poets and he’s got a special way with words. I think we can expect him to respond in his own unique orthography, and I figure the least I can do is to meet him halfway. Let’s have a little jabber!
bill bissett: we wer housing amrikan draft dodgrs n finding them canadian wives sew they wudint dew 5 in an amrikan prison seeing lawyrs in town trying 2 get off cannabis beefs n cumming 2gethr with peopul n breking up starting bands writing nu books organizing n dewing poetree reedings starting 2 fly a lot dewing reedings in far away places goin on marches 4 womens rites aborsyun rites marches 4 gay rites hadint yet startid but they wud soon ther wer be ins amayzing evreething was full liveing evn th times in jail wer full living in sum wayz thos yeers wer wundrful a lot uv th time ther wer manee marches 4 pees n against th amrikan war against vietnam
4 me 2 things standout first i did sum time n whn i got out i went 2 a partee n th wall we wer leening against a bunch uv us gave way as it was reelee a door n it wasint hinged at that time i landid on my hed way far down on th konkreet basement floor had an introduction 2 th abyss cerebral bleed brain surgeree th prosecusyun apeeld my sentens they figurd 3 months wasnt enuff n th hed nurs told them whn they came 2 th hospital 2 serv me paprs that i wudint last anothr week sew they thot 2 much trubul 2 serv thees paprs sew they left th hospital without serving me xcelent sew th brain surgeree helpd me yes
thru all ths i was contimuing 2 write poetree th book i wrote in jail sunday work? i sold door 2 door 2 rais th 500.oo dollrs i needid
2 pay th fine i was chargd as well as th 3 months time i servd i sold them all that way sold enuff it was a blewointment press book th press i workd with n startid in 1962 th same yeer our dottr was born
i had sum defisits from th brain surgeree i was epileptik as a result n i had a spastik rite leg n needid 2 sleep a lot recovree tuk abt 4 yeerts
th last part uv wch i was living with bertrand lachance martina clinton haveing left me in 68-69 n me mooving in with bertrand lachance 69-70 bertrand was a wundrful poet we livd 2gethr abt 4 yeers sumtimes i found th speed at wch things changd a littul 2 fast n our dottr was thn living in a free school on a gulf island with sum wundrful peopul a few yeers latr we bcame best freds n we hung a lot wundrfulee
n at th beginning uv all thees changes 68 ish awake in th red desert was recordid in a recording studio at ubc by jim brown
AC: Thanks for sharing these stories! It sounds like it was an extraordinary time and place.
Who else was involved in the ‘red desert’? The “Mandan Massacre”?
bill bissett: personnel martina clinton wundrful poet n paintr we livd 2gethr almost 7 yeers roger ten trey wundrful poet terry beauchamp gregg simpson we wer all deeplee gud frends n came 2 th mewsik intuitivlee organikalee
th mewsik was ther 4 us n th varietee yu talk abt in th recording was how we wer / still partlee ar
martina clinton passd recentlee as did sidney simons my frend n lawyer who kept me out uv jail freqwentlee n andy dumyn wun uv th partnrs in th mandan ghetto a co-op art galleree me n martina n gregg simpson andy n joy zemel long othrs terry beauchamp amayzing guitarist passd whn i was reseeving th brain surgeree latr in 1968 blewointmentpress kept going til 1982 gregg is still dewing wundful playing roger ten trey pass in th 70’s i think rosemary hollingshead wrote a wundrful pome my son is dead sum uv h best uv all our lives is that album we made 2gethr awake in th red desert
it was a time uv great turbulens awakning conscious huge strugguls big advances wundrful xquisit romantik tik times construksyun n deconstruksyun police brutalitee state brutalitee anguish n loving serenitee leeps n defeets uv consciousness n th strength uv th feeling n beleef that things cud get bettr thru th arts n polikul acksyuns that we cud dew
AC: The words on 'awake in th red desert', were those poems that were written out or were you ever improvising "free-style" with the words?
bill bissett: yes an appresiabul amt uv th text was originalee from improv on th recording spot with th inspiraysyun uv th mewsishyans yes def
adding abt consciousness changing drugs first peyote a littul erleer thn thos yeers yu askd abt but its medicine soul enerjee still was aktive n lsd bgan 2 b happning sew also as well as peyote lsd was happning n 4 me lsd bcame veree freqwent visitor in2 th galaxee i livd in veree illuminating n veree liberating n wundrful n latr on mda also v liberating n a bodee stone n veree uplifting 4 millyuns uv peopul inklewding me n our lives alwayze changing all wayze
AC: Speaking of consciousness, your website describes a gallery called the Secret Handshake Clubhouse as your passion in life. What can you tell us about this project?
bill bissett: th subjekt is th secret handshake n all th wundrful work it dus wher els wud yu find 5 at leest art opnings a yeer n mor thn that poetree reeding events n evree day peer support sessyuns in wch peopul with
schizophrenia make n find needful connexyuns n frends n allies all that n mor happns evree day xsept sunday sew munday-friday 1-4 n saturday 2-5 we wer foundid by jordan stone late 90’s incorporatid 2006 our first club hous 2010 nsins thn we have alwayze had a club hous currentlee we ar in a wundrful club hous at 360 college st unit 301 on th
third floor elevator rom ground we rely a lot on publik support n writing lettrs such as ths will yu join us in keeping ths wundrful place opn with th rent pd no donaysyun is 2 small all contribusyuns ar veree welcum
attachd is our nu mission statement n commentaree on our missyun work plees reed n enjoy n 2 reiterate no amount donatid 2 us is 2 small if yu want 2 dew direkt deposit name uv recipient is the secret handshake n etransfr email n/or our email is thesecrethandshake3@gmail.com.
AC: You have continued to release music over the years, seen on your Bandcamp page. Which releases should we check out?
bill bissett: stars with pete dako my current fav cd awake in th red desert keeps getting releesd most recentlee by gear/fab in florida n alexander moskos in in quebec yu prob know all that
AC: What else are you up to nowadays?
bill bissett: dewin gigs with adrian russouw at th secret handshake n th suprmarket n at th transact we hope sumday 2 dew a recording 2gethr workin as sec-tresurer at th secret hadsake painting getin redee soon 4 anothr art show with hart broudy in july at th secret handshake
a nu book came out veree recentlee from talonbooks th book uv lost passwords 1 ths june n recent july past vancouvr galiano islamd edmonton
AC: Thank you kindly bill.
bill bissett: cheers all best thanks n love bill
