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Released in 1996

The Ballad of the Skeletons

Written by Paul McCartneyAllen GinsbergPhilip Glass

Last updated on September 26, 2020


Album This song officially appears on the The Ballad of the Skeletons EP.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1996

Timeline This song was written, or began to be written, in 1995, when Paul McCartney was 53 years old)

Related session

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related interview

From OpenCulture, April 17, 2012:

Allen Ginsberg was an unlikely MTV star. In late 1996 the Beat poet was 70 years old and in declining health. He had less than a year to live. But Ginsberg managed to stay culturally and politically relevant, right up to the end. His last major project was a collaboration with Paul McCartney and Philip Glass, among others, on a musical adaptation of his poem, “The Ballad of the Skeletons.”

The poem was first published in 1995. The American political climate from which it arose bears a striking resemblance to the one we’re living in today. “I started it,” Ginsberg told Harvey Kubernik of The Los Angeles Times in 1996, “because [of] all that inflated bull about the family values, the ‘contract with America,’ Newt Gingrich and all the loudmouth stuff on talk radio, and Rush Limbaugh and all those other guys. It seemed obnoxious and stupid and kind of sub-contradictory, so I figured I’d write a poem to knock it out of the ring.”

The skeletal imagery was inspired by the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead, and takes a playful poke at the vanity of human desires. “It’s an old trick,” Ginsberg told Steve Silberman in a 1996 interview for HotWired, “to dress up archetypal characters as skeletons: the bishop, the Pope, the President, the police chief. There’s a Mexican painter–Posada–who does exactly that.”

In October of 1995, Ginsberg visited Paul McCartney and his family at their home in England. He recited “The Ballad of the Skeletons while one of McCartney’s daughters filmed it. As Ginsberg recalled to Silberman, he mentioned that he had to give a reading with Anne Waldman and other poets at the Royal Albert Hall, and was looking for a guitarist to accompany him. “Why don’t you try me,” McCartney said. “I love the poem.” Ginsberg continued the story:

He showed up at 5 p.m. for the sound check, and he bought a box for his family. Got all his kids together, four of them, and his wife, and he sat through the whole evening of poetry, and we didn’t say who my accompanist was going to be. We introduced him at the end of the evening, and then the roar went up on the floor of the Albert Hall, and we knocked out the song. He said if I ever got around to recording it, let him know. So he volunteered, and we made a basic track, and sent it to him, on 24 tracks, and he added maracas and drums, which it needed. It gave it a skeleton, gave it a shape. And also organ, he was trying to get that effect of Al Kooper on the early Dylan. And guitar, so he put a lot of work in on that. And then we got it back just in time for Philip Glass to fill in his arpeggios on piano.

The recording was produced by Lenny Kaye, guitarist for the Patti Smith Group, who had put together a group of musicians for a performance of the song at a Tibet House benefit in April of 1996. One member of the audience that night was Danny Goldberg, president of Mercury Records and a fan of Ginsberg. He invited the poet to record the song, and it all came together quickly. In a 1997 article in Tikkun, Goldberg remembered Ginsberg’s giddiness over the project: “He loved that Paul McCartney had overdubbed drums on ‘Skeletons.’ He said, ‘It’s the closest I’m going to ever come to being in the Beatles,’ and giggled like a teenager.”

The recording features Ginsberg on vocals, Glass on keyboards, McCartney on guitar, drums, Hammond organ and maracas, Kaye on bass, Marc Ribot on guitar and David Mansfield on Guitar. Mercury released the song as a CD single in two versions, including one with the language sanitized for radio and television. The “B side” was a recording of Ginsberg’s “New Stanzas for Amazing Grace that did not include McCartney or Glass. The next step was to create a video. As Goldberg recalled, Ginsberg knew an opportunity when he saw one:

When Tom Freston, the CEO of MTV, bought five of Allen’s photos, Ginsberg promptly called me, not too subtly implying that if Mercury would fund production of a video, we might be able to get on MTV. Allen had an unerring instinct of how to mobilize his mystique for those who were interested. He regaled Freston with stories of the beatniks one night at our house, which made it almost impossible for MTV to reject his video despite the fact that he was decades older than typical MTV artists and audience members. A political satire of both generations, “Skeletons” received highly pubicized and much-coveted “buzz bin” rotation on MTV in the weeks before the last election–to the consternation of other record companies who were submitting artists with more conventional credentials. This made Allen the only seventy-year-old besides Tony Bennett to ever be played on MTV.

The video was directed by Gus Van Sant, who had ties to surviving members of the Beat generation. Van Sant had directed William S. Burroughs in the film Drugstore Cowboy, and had made short films–Thanksgiving Prayer and The Discipline of DE— based on writing by Burroughs. Ginsberg was happy with Van Sant’s work, despite a tight filming budget. “It’s a great collage,” Ginsberg told Silberman. “He went back to old Pathé, Satan skeletons, and mixed them up with Rush Limbaugh, and Dole, and the local politicians, Newt Gingrich, and the President. And mixed those up with the atom bomb, when I talk about the electric chair– ‘Hey, what’s cookin?’–you got Satan setting off an atom bomb, and I’m trembling with a USA hat on, the Uncle Sam hat on. So it’s quite a production, it’s fun.”

From Club Sandwich N°81, Spring 1997:

Poet extraordinaire Allen Ginsberg is not only one of the most famous, prolific and profound exponents of his art, carving his name into the pantheon of the century’s best, he’s also a friend of Paul McCartney. Readers may recall seeing in a previous Club Sandwich (issue 76) a photograph of Allen and Paul together, on stage at the Royal Albert Hall. Allen read a riveting new piece, The Ballad Of The Skeletons, while Paul – his surprise guest, whose unexpected appearance drew gasps, even from the “cool” crowd – vamped on electric guitar. During that same visit to England, Allen and Paul also worked together in Paul’s studio, cutting the definitive version of the piece that, at its fullest and in all its finery, extends to almost eight minutes. Paul contributed not only guitar but also drums, maracas and a Hammond organ passage. (Later still, other musicians Philip Glass, Lenny Kaye, Marc Ribot and David Mansfield also contributed.) The result is a four-track CD EP, issued shortly before Christmas in USA by Mercury Records, comprising this full piece, an edited version, a “clean” version and, finally, a new rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ that has no McCartney connection.

The Ballad Of The Skeletons” was included in the 2020 reissue of “Flaming Pie” but was not remastered. 

Allen Ginsberg: “I did the poem at Carnegie Hall (in New York at a benefit) for the Tibet House, that followed the Albert Hall show. And… Danny Goldberg, (President of Mercury Records), was in the audience at Carnegie Hall, (and he) called up my office.. ’cause he heard it and liked it and said, “Do you want to record it?” I got together Marc Ribot, who I had played it with first, Lenny (Kaye) and David Mansfield. And Lenny was the session-maker… We made a basic track – and McCartney had said, “If you record it, I’d like to work on it. It would be fun”. So we did a 24-hour overnight-mail to him, and he got it, and listened to it, after a few days. He spent a day on it. He put on maracas, drums, (which was unexpected, which we needed), and organ, Hammond organ, trying to sound like Al Kooper. And guitar, which was very strong. Then the day it arrived, Philip Glass was in town, and he volunteered because he thought it was my hit, so he wanted to do something with it. He added on piano, very much in his style, and fitting perfectly onto the rest of the tape. Then Hal Willner wound up mixing it and brought out McCartney’s role and the structure that McCartney
had given to it, ’cause he gave it a very nice, dramatic structure. I had planned that after “Blow Nancy Blow” you would have four consecutive choruses of instrumentals. McCartney and I had planned the breaks the first time, and varied it a little..”

Allen Ginsberg: “[Paul] reacts to the words in an intelligent way. You can hear it on the tape. Like, if I say on the recording, “What’s cooking”, all of a sudden he brings in the maracas to get that really funny excitement. When I say, “Blow Nancy Blow”, he blows on the Hammond organ. He added a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of interpretation. And sometimes when I made a flub, he covered it. He left his lead sheet in his guitar case, so we had to share my lead sheet (at the gig), which was fun.”


Lyrics

Said the Presidential Skeleton

I won't sign the bill

Said the Speaker skeleton

Yes you will


Said the Representative Skeleton

I object

Said the Supreme Court skeleton

Whaddya expect


Said the Miltary skeleton

Buy Star Bombs

Said the Upperclass Skeleton

Starve unmarried moms


Said the Yahoo Skeleton

Stop dirty art

Said the Right Wing skeleton

Forget about yr heart


Said the Gnostic Skeleton

The Human Form's divine

Said the Moral Majority skeleton

No it's not it's mine


Said the Buddha Skeleton

Compassion is wealth

Said the Corporate skeleton

It's bad for your health


Said the Old Christ skeleton

Care for the Poor

Said the Son of God skeleton

AIDS needs cure


Said the Homophobe skeleton

Gay folk suck

Said the Heritage Policy skeleton

Blacks're outa luck


Said the Macho skeleton

Women in their place

Said the Fundamentalist skeleton

Increase human race


Said the Right-to-Life skeleton

Foetus has a soul

Said Pro Choice skeleton

Shove it up your hole


Said the Downsized skeleton

Robots got my job

Said the Tough-on-Crime skeleton

Tear gas the mob


Said the Governor skeleton

Cut school lunch

Said the Mayor skeleton

Eat the budget crunch


Said the Neo Conservative skeleton

Homeless off the street!

Said the Free Market skeleton

Use 'em up for meat


Said the Think Tank skeleton

Free Market's the way

Said the Saving & Loan skeleton

Make the State pay


Said the Chrysler skeleton

Pay for you & me

Said the Nuke Power skeleton

& me & me & me


Said the Ecologic skeleton

Keep Skies blue

Said the Multinational skeleton

What's it worth to you?


Said the NAFTA skeleton

Get rich, Free Trade,

Said the Maquiladora skeleton

Sweat shops, low paid


Said the rich GATT skeleton

One world, high tech

Said the Underclass skeleton

Get it in the neck


Said the World Bank skeleton

Cut down your trees

Said the I.M.F. skeleton

Buy American cheese


Said the Underdeveloped skeleton

We want rice

Said Developed Nations' skeleton

Sell your bones for dice


Said the Ayatollah skeleton

Die writer die

Said Joe Stalin's skeleton

That's no lie


Said the Middle Kingdom skeleton

We swallowed Tibet

Said the Dalai Lama skeleton

Indigestion's whatcha get


Said the World Chorus skeleton

That's their fate

Said the U.S.A. skeleton

Gotta save Kuwait


Said the Petrochemical skeleton

Roar Bombers roar!

Said the Psychedelic skeleton

Smoke a dinosaur


Said Nancy's skeleton

Just say No

Said the Rasta skeleton

Blow Nancy Blow


Said Demagogue skeleton

Don't smoke Pot

Said Alcoholic skeleton

Let your liver rot


Said the Junkie skeleton

Can't we get a fix?

Said the Big Brother skeleton

Jail the dirty pricks


Said the Mirror skeleton

Hey good looking

Said the Electric Chair skeleton

Hey what's cooking?


Said the Talkshow skeleton

Fuck you in the face

Said the Family Values skeleton

My family values mace


Said the NY Times skeleton

That's not fit to print

Said the CIA skeleton

Cantcha take a hint?


Said the Network skeleton

Believe my lies

Said the Advertising skeleton

Don't get wise!


Said the Media skeleton

Believe you me

Said the Couch-potato skeleton

What me worry?


Said the TV skeleton

Eat sound bites

Said the Newscast skeleton

That's all Goodnight

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “The Ballad of the Skeletons

Live performances

The Ballad of the Skeletons” has been played in 1 concerts.

Latest concerts where “The Ballad of the Skeletons” has been played


Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 2) 1990-2012

This new book by Luca Perasi traces Paul McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1990 to 2012 in the form of 250 song entries, filled with details about the recordings, stories behind the sessions and musical analysis. His pop albums, his forays into classical and avant-garde music, his penchant for covering old standards: a complete book to discover how these languages cross-pollinate and influence each other.

The second volume in a series that has established itself as a unique guide to take the reader on a journey into the astonishing creativity of Paul McCartney.

Read our exclusive interview with Luca Perasi

Buy on Amazon

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