Poetry Out Loud – Number Six

01 The Harlemans and Klyd & Linda Watkins ‘Turn Me’ (5:06)
02 Klyd Watkins & Peter Harleman ‘Anything You Do’ (2:26)
03 Klyd & Linda Watkins ‘You Don’t Know Me’ (2:32)
04 Klyd & Linda Watkins and The Harlemans ‘Down To The River’ (6:56)
05 Linda Watkins ‘Down To The Sea’ (3:13)
06 The Harlemans and Klyd & Linda Watkins ‘Hello Morning’ (1:49)
07 The Harlemans ‘A Pact’ (1:17)
08 Klyd & Linda Watkins and The Harlemans ‘Ocean’ (6:15)
09 Peter Harleman ‘White Horse’ (4:23)

Total time 33:50
LP released by Out Loud Records, Madison, NJ, 1972

These days we hear now and then of new fans who have continued to find Poetry Out Loud through the used record bins. Thirty years later, the world has not entirely forgotten Poetry Out Loud, just as it never entirely heard of it in the first place. [Klyd Watkins, from Volcanic Tongue]

First issues of the Poetry Out Loud LP-series (published from 1969 to 1977) included sound poetry live recordings inspired by shamanism and beat poetry, though when reaching Number Six, Klyd Watkins and Peter Harleman had moved to studio recording with their wifes Linda and Patricia. For a short story of POL, please refer to  previous post, Poetry Out Loud Number Ten. The omnipresent blue color on the cover of ‘Number Six’ possibly refers to the epiphany experienced by the Watkins when they first encountered the sea while visiting the Harlemans in New Jersey in 1972 (according to Volcanic Tongue). Two tracks on the B-side refers to this experience, ‘Down To The Sea’ and ‘Ocean’, the latter relentlessly delivered to summon the sound of waves on the shore. The sea element was possibly experienced as a baptism by the Watkins, hence the picture on the back. Other tracks include the usual elements found in Poetry Out Loud records: poetic homophony, repetition of words, congregational call-and-response singing, delay and reverb effects, hand drums. Track #2, ‘Everything you do’, for instance, is based on the convincing, obsessive repetition of the following words: Everything You Do Is A Prison. The album is a sound poetry gem with a hippie touch and shows the New Jersey rhapsodes on top form.

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