Saturday 29 July 2017

Poem: "Roll Over Dean Benedetti (& Tell Dave Britton The News)"




ROLL OVER 
DEAN BENEDETTI 
 (AND TELL 
DAVE BRITTON 
THE NEWS)/ 
 OPERATION MOONBEAM 

“The music business was in a mood of high self-congratulation
this week after what is described as ‘the smashing of the biggest 
 bootleg ring in the UK’.” (‘Melody Maker’ 1 September 1979) 


Manchester streets 
squirm unclaimed sound, 
a patina of noise 
collecting in flesh-pools 
oozing in gutters. 
BUT DON’T PICK IT UP!!! 

Manchester caves 
r-e-v-e-r-b-e-r-a-t-e 
with indecent exposures 
of stolen sound, 
sucked from hidden mics, 
stacked in neat piles 
across grotto’s where 
Aubrey Beardsley and 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti dance 
(watched by fabricating 
identi-machine wizards) 

Mandible moonbeams 
light gleams 
stealth shift – 
finger prods the gloom 
sinks into viscous mounds 
of round black sounds, 
various, nefarious. 
R-E-C-O-I-L-S 
in legislative horror, 
image screwed into retina’s 
of vinyl germs 
inviting aural disease – 
wilderness is not a place 
but a state of unordered sound!!! 
Moonbeam wizards 
disinfect ears, 
check palms of hands 
for masturbatory hairs, 
flush offenders into 
neat matrix catalogues, 
and chains of books 
synchronizing 
gratuitous breathings 

Sometimes they hear 
Manchester streets 
v-i-b-r-a-t-e 
with a pulse 
of bass lines 
that coil and 
snare unsuspecting 
feet 

 and they ache… 



(Addendum: Dean Benedetti, who invaluably pirated live Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker sessions in the 1940s, is the legendary first sound recording-Bootlegger. Dave Britton, publisher of ‘Savoy Books’ and co-owner of Manchester’s ‘Bookchain’ shop, was the victim of anti-Bootleg prosecution following the ‘Operation Moonbeam’ Police purge in September 1979)

Published in:
‘GLOBAL TAPESTRY No.9’ (UK – May 1980)
‘IT: INTERNATIONAL TIMES – Frivolous Summer Issue 1980’ (UK)

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