RE/Search: Were you part of the beatnik movement?

Ken Nordine: I was a great memorizer of poems by T.S. Eliot, Omar Khayyam--all kinds of things. I was working in a little joint and ran out of poems I'd memorized so I had to make up new ones. The jazz pianist, bass player and I would get up and ad-lib stories because the same people came all the time and you couldn't keep repeating yourself. But the beatnik movement happened in San Francisco. I met some of the people when they passed through Chicago, but I never considered myself a beatnik.

R/S: You do a stream-of-consciousness reflection upon society-

KN: Right now I'm re-doing an album of mine called Colors. The idea came from a series of radio commercials I did for the Fuller Paint Company in San Francisco. They said, "Do whatever you want--just mention our name." So I wrote, "The Fuller Paint Company invites you to stare with your ears at Yellow." And then you'd hear very strange music, and I'd continue, "In the beginning--no, long before that--when light was deciding who'd be in--or out--of the spectrum, Yellow was in serious trouble. Green didn't want Yellow in--some primal envy, I guess. Things like very bad for Yellow until Blue came along and said, 'What's the trouble?' and Yellow explained...so Blue went to see green and told him, "Look--if Yellow and I get together, we can make our own Green. We won't need you.' 'Oh.' So Green saw the light, and Yellow got in. It worked out fine: Yellow got lemons and Green got limes." I liked this project so much I thought, "Hey--I'll do these colors as an album."

Other excerpts from Incredibly Strange Music II :

• Robert Moog
• Esquivel

Excerpts from Incredibly Strange Music I:

• The Cramps
• Eartha Kitt
• Martin Denny

Table of Contents for Incredibly Strange Music I
Table of Contents for Incredibly Strange Music II

Body Modifications and Sexuality / Music & Films / Subversives/Alternative Acts / Writers/Fiction