GREGORY CORSO
Die On Me (Koch)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

---

Knowing he was about to die, Gregory Corso asked producer Hal Willner to finally make the record they had planned. Willner, along with longtime friend Marianne Faithfull (who pleaded "please do not croak, we are coming"), made the journey to Minneapolis for Corso's final stand. The last of the great beat poets, Curso mustered up the strength for three days of recordings before Willner decided to turn the trip from business to visit. Corso died a week later, and it was a full year before Willner could listen to the tapes. Collecting Corso's last words with some vintage recordings dating back as far as 1959 (jousting with Allen Ginsberg), and a couple of readings by Faithfull, "Die On Me" couldn't be a more appropriate overview, and a fitting farewell to a gifted wordsmith who mixed humour and sorrow to great effect. "If you have a choice between two things, and cannot decide, take both."

© 2002 - John Sekerka