Too Much Bad Weed Is In The Garden, part 1

Named after Luis Eduardo Luna’s recordings of Peruvian ayahuasceros’ healing songs, this “unreasonable music” seminar features strange vinyl recordings inspired by plants, gardens and agricultural utopian thought like Charles Fourier’s: “A group of Maiden Strawberry-growers arrives at the end of the session. They have been cultivating a strawberry-ringed glade in the neighboring forest.” Selections are played from bizarre horticulturally-inspired records accompanied by readings and discussion of plant-human relationships, myths, and metaphors. These unusual records address our relationship with all imaginable locales where wild and cultivated plants grow. There are songs about woods, forests, and fields as well as farms, gardens and parks. Few songwriters can resist the opportunity for allegory and analogy presented by these settings and by the social dynamics they enable.

The video performance was shown in Facts ‘n’ Figures, Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna, June-September 2020

Playlist for part 1
Junior Murvin (produced by Lee Perry) – Bad Weed, 1977
Barrington Levy – Black Roses, 1983
Bill Rogers – West Indian Weed Woman, 1934
Count Lasher – The Weed, 1966
Ruth White – Evening Harmony, 1968
The Fugs – Ah! Sunflower, Weary Of Time, 1965
Jerry Solomon – Look At The Flowers, 1967
Tiny Tim – Tiptoe Through The Tulips, 1968
The Caretaker — Get Off My Tulips, 1968
Harry Merry – Village Life in 1905, 2005
Tony Delevin Dell Erba – Flowers, 1985
Jandek – Lavender, 1988
Sun City Girls – The Flower, 1998
Linda Lane (song poem writer Flossie Jones) – Did He Send Flowers?, undated
Rodney Keith Eskelin – Stroll Through The Wildflowers, 1968
Ween – Roses Are Free, 1994
Stevie Wonder – Outside My Window, 1979
The Shaggs – Paper Roses, c. 1969
Les Robots-Musique (Edouard Diomgar) – Petite Fleur
The Portsmouth Sinfonia – Waltz of the Flowers, 1973
Ivor Cutler – I’m Walkin’ To A Farm, 1974
Traditional Folk Dances of Japan – Mugiya-Bushi-Odori, 1959
The Fugs – Group Grope, 1966
The Mud Hutters – Cultivation, 1981
Artless – Vegetable Rights, 1987
Edric Connor – Day Dah Light, c. 1954
Louise Bennett – Day Dah Light, 1954
Slim Gaillard – When Banana Skins Are Falling, 1949
Bandt + Instruments (Truus de Groot) – Sweet Bananas, 1980

Too Much Bad Weed Is In The Garden, part 2

Playlist for part 2
Archie Shepp—Invocation – Ballad For A Child, LP Attica Blues, 1972
Canzoniere Internazionale – Le Quattro Stagioni, LP Gli Anarchici 1864-1969, 1973
Carl Orff and Gunild Keetmen – Summer is icumen in, LP Music for Children
Moondog – Voices of Spring, 10″ record Moondog and his Friends, 1953
Robert Wyatt – Grass, LP Nothing Can Stop Us, 1982
Bartholomäus Traubeck – Alnus (Alder) For Utrecht (extract from Years), 7″ Suite Botanique, 2014
Alexandra Duvekot – The Plant Orchestra, 7″ Suite Botanique, 2014
The Bora – Le Chant du Bois, 10″ record Amazone Indiens Ìawa et Bora, 1955
Arcesia – Leaf, LP Reachin’, 1971
Incredible String Band — Greatest Friend, LP Wee Tam & The Big Huge, 1968
Donovan — Voyage into the Golden Screen, LP A Gift From A Flower To A Garden, 1967
Beaver & Krause — People’s Park, LP In A Wild Sanctuary, 1970
The Undead – There’s A Riot In Tompkins Square, 1993
Peter Grudzien — The Garden Of Love, 1957 LP The Unicorn, 1980
Morgan Fisher — Jerusalem (William Blake), LP Miniatures, 1980
Crass — 10 Notes On A Summer’s Day—3 (Petulance is a pretty girl), 1985
The (very nice) Plants – Plant Chant, 1983
Pastor John Rydgren — Dark Side of the Flower, LP Silhouette Segments, 1968
Rudimentary Peni — The Gardener, EP 1981
James Cleveland with the Angelic Choir — Beautiful Garden of Prayer, LP The Grace of God
Olivier Messaien — Jardin du Sommeil d’amour, LP Turangalila Symphony, 1946-8
The Very Things—The Bushes Scream While My Daddy Prunes, 1984
Television Personalities – In A Perfumed Garden, LP They Could Have Been Bigger than the Beatles, 1982
Television Personalities — Arthur The Gardener, 1981
Peter Wyngarde — Neville Thumbcatch, 1970
Roth and Bricker – Ivy, LP Plant Talk
Baroque Bouquet – Photosynthesizer, LP Plant Music
George Millstein – Music to Grow Plants
Steve Hall – Look Out Here Comes The Dogs, LP Green Sounds, 1974
Allan Seale – You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, LP Music to Grow Plants
Ann Chase – A Chant for your Plants, 1976