John Bennett | Rug Burn

Rug Burn – Shard readings by John Bennett

Vagabond Productions

Cover Art: Scott Mayberry. Layout & Design: Jeff Cleveland & Scott Mayberry. All shards written and read by John Bennett. All beats by Seed Verb except: The Audience, Seed & Mike Elkins; Choosing, Seed & Nervous; CIM, Nervous; Leeboy, Lee McCullough & Nervous; Snake Skin, Nervous. Seed Verb and Nervous appear courtesy of Puppetfangghost.

Some of the shards on this CD have appeared in written form in the following books and magazines: Books:Domestic Violence; New World Order. Magazines: First Class; Pudding; Pulpsmith; Lost & Found Times. Copyright 1999 by John Bennett. A Vagabond Production, 605 E. 5th Ave., Ellensburg, WA 98926. Produced at the Bombshelter, Ellensburg, Washington, by Seed Verb, Nervous and John Bennett.

Tracklist: 1. Only Business 2. Choosing 3. The Audience 4. A Bird’s Eye View Of The Problem 5. Feel Up (Instrumental)6. Blowing The Lid Off 7. Costello: The God Of Creation 8. Cim (Instrumental) 9. Ghetto Poem 10. Let Them Eat Biscuits 11. Much Ado About Nothing 12. Russ (Instrumental) 13. A Pep Talk To The Class Of 97 14. Snakeskin 15. Junkyard Dog 16. Leeboy (Instrumental) 17. Ascent Of Man 18. Molecular Conspiracy

John Bennett | Rug Burn. Photo by Sean Maupin

BALLAD OF A SHARD WRITER

I hit the road when I was ten. Carnival gigs and fruit-tramp days. Shady doings in South Philly and Cleveland. The army shot me straight off to Nam. I was the only tunnel rat over six feet tall, a contortionist from the school of hard knocks. I spooked the hell out of Charlie. For the first time in my life, I was grounded in purpose.

But good things never last. I hit the streets when the war crashed and burned, and the next thing I know l’m on a chain bus to prison. By the time I got out, I was rug burn all over. It’s what happens when you get dragged naked over life’s carpet by the hair, by the heels, by betrayal.

I know this next part is hard to believe, but one night a princess came down from the sky and began spinning spells around me. It took years, but when she’d finished, my skin had grown soft as a baby’s. Then she rode off without warning on some prince’s white charger. That’s when I began writing shards. A shard is a knee-jerk reaction to rug burn. A blowtorch in the face of betrayal.

This CD contains a selection of spoken shards, jazzed up by the musical imaginations of Seed Verb and Nervous, two cats from the rap group Log Hog. Happy listening. — John Bennett

“You’ve fought a harder, cleaner fight than anyone I know.” — Charles Bukowski

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This download consists of one 79 MB zip file containing the complete track list in 192kbps MP3 format along with album art in high resolution JPG format.

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