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Audio: Hum Bom! from Holy Soul Jelly Roll
Video: Allen Ginsberg reads Hum Bom! live on stage at his last appearance in London on October 19 1995 Heaven nightclub.
Part I codifies a longer improvisation in a Southern church at an antiwar rally marking U.S. carpet-bombing North Vietnam, early '70s. Performing this percussive bummer with me at Folk City a decade later, Don Cherry laid down his trumpet and protested squealing "We don't wanna bomb!?" so Part II evolved to alchemize the aggressive energy into something positive. I thought that I was finished with the poem but the bombing of Iraq prompted another seven stanzas' blacktop analysis. Part III's an attempt to lob a word bomb, an explosion of mantric sound, into the middle of what seems by hindsight one of the most successful coups of government brainwash in the history of American mass-media. The fossil fuel-addicted West helped fortify Saddam Hussein; the age of the Iraqi populace averaged 16, the war was child abuse. This was a live reading for poetry heads crowded into St. Mark's Church in the Bowery. Gog and Magog are mirror-image mad puppets of war, prophesied to appear before world's final destruction, Biblical Armageddon, (see Ezekiel and Revelation). Allen Ginsberg
- Hum Bom!
- I
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb'd them!
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb'd them!
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb'd them!
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb'd them!
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb you!
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb you!
- Whom bomb?
- You bomb you!
- Whom bomb?
- You bomb you!
- What do we do?
- Who do we bomb?
- What do we do?
- Who do we bomb?
- What do we do?
- Who do we bomb?
- What do we do?
- Who do we bomb?
- What do we do?
- You bomb! You bomb them!
- What do we do?
- You bomb! You bomb them!
- What do we do?
- We bomb! We bomb you!
- What do we do?
- You bomb! You bomb you!
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb you!
- Whom bomb?
- We bomb you!
- Whom bomb? You bomb you!
- Whom bomb?
- You bomb you!
- 1971
- II
- For Don Cherry
- Whydja bomb?
- We didn't wanna bomb!
- Whydja bomb?
- We didn't wanna bomb!
- Whydja bomb?
- You didn't wanna bomb!
- Whydja bomb?
- You didn't wanna bomb!
- Who said bomb?
- Who said we hadda bomb?
- Who said bomb?
- Who said we hadda bomb?
- Who said bomb?
- Who said you hadda bomb?
- Who said bomb?
- Who said you hadda bomb?
- Who wantsa bomb?
- We don't wanna bomb!
- Who wantsa bomb?
- We don't wanna bomb!
- Who wantsa bomb?
- We don't wanna bomb!
- We don't wanna
- we don't wanna
- we don't wanna bomb!
- Who wanteda bomb?
- Somebody musta wanteda bomb!
- Who wanteda bomb?
- Somebody musta wanteda bomb!
- Who wanteda bomb?
- Somebody musta wanteda bomb!
- Who wanteda bomb?
- Somebody musta wanteda bomb!
- They wanteda bomb!
- They neededa bomb!
- They wanteda bomb!
- They neededa bomb!
- They wanteda bomb!
- They neededa bomb!
- They wanteda bomb!
- They neededa bomb!
- They thought they hadda bomb!
- They thought they hadda bomb!
- They thought they hadda bomb!
- They thought they hadda bomb!
- Saddam said he hadda bomb!
- Bush said he better bomb!
- Saddam said he hadda bomb!
- Bush said he better bomb!
- Saddam said he hadda bomb!
- Bush said he better bomb!
- Saddam said he hadda bomb!
- Bush said he better bomb!
- Whatdid he say he better bomb for?
- Whatdid he say he better bomb for?
- Whatdid he say he better bomb for?
- Whatdid he say he better bomb for?
- III
- Armageddon did the job
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Armageddon did the job
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Armageddon does the job
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Armageddon does the job
- Armageddon for the mob
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Armageddon for the mob
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Gog Magog Gog Magog
- Gog & Magog Gog & Magog
- Gog Magog Gog Magog
- Gog Magog Gog Magog
- Gog Magog Gog Magog
- Gog Magog Gog Magog
- Gog Magog Gog Magog
- Ginsberg says Gog & Magog
- Armageddon did the job.
- 1991