Item #39779 A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968. DIALECTICS OF LIBERATION.
A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.
A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.
A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.
A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.
A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.
A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.
A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.

94.

A run of 15 LPs featuring recordings made during the proceedings of the Dialectics of Liberation Congress, from the series total of 23 records released by InterSound Recordings Ltd./Liberation Records, London, c. 1968.

The records were originally available either individually or in sets, part or complete (the complete set was initially offered at a little over £30.00, later increased to £38.00). The chronological sequence in which the records were made available is unclear. It seems that the majority (perhaps all) were not released until sometime around April 1968, although The Times (August 5, 1967) reported that recordings of Stokely Carmichael’s address from July 22, the conference’s most influential, were being offered for sale just two weeks later (given the lack of time available to press vinyl records and print sleeves it seems probable that these would have been reel-to-reel tapes).

The mono recordings from the Roundhouse were made by Roy Battersby and Ben Churchill, and the transfer of the tapes to vinyl arranged by InterSound, a company formed by Fred Hunter and John and Helen Cassidy (of Stream Records) and incorporated by their accountant, Mike Henshaw, in October 1967. The release of (at least some of) the records was delayed due to a worker at the pressing plant being so upset at Allen Ginsberg’s reading from William Burroughs’s book “Nova Express” on a test pressing of DL 16 that she became ill and had to be sent home, resulting in the pressing plant refusing to press the record. Fred Hunter later remembered the conference organisers having to “set up a special bank account to pay for the venture with Dr. Berke and Cassidy jointly signing cheques, easing the pressing company’s fears of being prosecuted for ‘pornography’ - most likely caused by Allen Ginsberg’s four-letter words.”

Each sleeve features a generic design by Jutta Werner (later married to RD Laing), which reproduces photographs by John Haynes of 20 of the conference speakers, with the verso printing a list of the series (the Stokely Carmichael copy here has an illustrated paper label pasted to the front for release in America). Individual titles were often identified on the back cover with an ink circle, arrow or mark next to its listing, and sometimes on the front cover in marker pen.

i) DL 2: Gregory Bateson - “Conscious Purpose vs. Nature” (continued from DL 1) + Ross Speck - “The Politics & Psychotherapy of Mini & Macro Groups” (continued from DL 5).

ii) DL 3: David Cooper - “Beyond Words” - Introduction to the Dialectics of Liberation Congress.

iii) DL 4: Ronald Laing - “The Obvious”. The conference’s opening lecture.

iv) DL 6: Stokely Carmichael - “Black Power”. US issue, with b/w illustrated cover pasted on to sleeve and variant label. The famous speech by Carmichael that inspired Obi Egbuna and CLR James and helped launch the Black Power Movement in Britain. Carmichael’s book, “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation”, co-authored with Charles V. Hamilton and published shortly after the Congress, featured the first use of the term ‘institutional racism’.

v) DL 8: John Gerassi - “Imperialism & Revolution in America”.

vi) DL 9: John Gerassi - “Imperialism & Revolution in America” (continued) + Herbert Marcuse (continued from DL11).

vii) DL 10: Jules Henry - “Special & Psychological Preparations for War”.

viii) DL 11: Herbert Marcuse - “Liberation from the Affluent Society”. One of the conference’s keynote speeches, largely based on Marcuse’s book “Eros and Civilisation”.

ix) DL 12: Paul Sweezy - “The Future of Capitalism”.

x) DL 13: Public Meeting and Discussion - Includes Stokely Carmichael, David Cooper, Allen Ginsberg, and Ronald Laing.

xi) DL 14: continuation of DL 13.

xii) DL 16: Allen Ginsberg - “Consciousness & Practical Action”. Opens with Ginsberg reading from William Burroughs’s book, “Nova Express” (Burroughs himself refused to participate but did sit in the audience), followed by his response to Gregory Bateson’s lecture, mention of Paul McCartney’s recent quote to him (“We are all one”), and much else. A separate track at the end of side 2 features a speech by Simon Vinkenoog, though this is not listed.

xiii) DL 17: Paul Goodman - “Objective Values”. White label, with details handwritten.

xiv) DL 19: Simon Vinkenoog - “Revolution in Consciousness” + Paul Goodman - “Objective Values” (continued from DL 17) + Julian Beck - “Money, Sex and the Theatre” (continued from DL 15).

xv) DL 20: Anti Institution Seminar - Provos; Free University of New York; New Experimental College, Denmark. Speakers: Simon Vinkenoog, Allen Krebs, Aage Rosendal Nielsen, Underground Communications, The Internationalists, Berlin Students, Allen Ginsberg.

An excellent run, lacking eight LPs from the complete set (although what precisely constitutes a complete set is unclear; some titles are so rare that they have never been seen by this cataloguer, including, for example, DL 18 “Art & Literature in Czechoslovakia”, and DL 22 “The Lotus & The Fire” by Thich Nhat Hanh, neither of which are in the British Library Sound Archive).

All except DL 6 in this collection came from the library of Fred Hunter. The vinyl has since been professionally cleaned, so that all discs now play very well and appear bright, black and shiny, and each one is now contained in a new anti-static inner sleeve (all the original paper sleeves except one have been retained). The outer sleeves show some signs of age (DL 13 has an ink squiggle to the front cover; the back cover of DL 19 is slightly dampstained), o/w all Very Good.

Also included is an InterSound price list, and a promotional broadsheet listing every record (except DL 13 & 14) and printing biographies of each speaker, as well as an extract from Susan Sherman’s article on the conference from Ikon magazine (issue #3 stated, but actually #4, see item #100). Printed in purple ink, recto only. Measures 58x58cm. when unfolded and 29x29cm. folded (2 copies).

Individual records from the series occasionally appear for sale, with often the same handful of titles recurring, but rarely en masse, as here.

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