Last month, Shimmy-Disc, the cult-favorite label founded by legendary producer, multi-instrumentalist, and archival visionary Kramer, re-introduced the world to DIE ON ME, the rare and intimate collection of Gregory Corso's final spoken word recordings.
Corso—both the youngest and one of the most influential members of the Beat Generation—stood alongside literary icons like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg as a defining voice in American poetry.
Originally released on CD in 2002, DIE ON ME is now available for the first time ever on vinyl. Newly remastered and edited by Kramer, the collection spans archival recordings from 1959 and culminates in Corso’s final sessions, recorded by the late Hal Willner between January 7–10, 2001— just days before Corso’s death.
Today, Shimmy-Disc unveils a new installment of ambient-cinema to accompany “No Arrangement Was Made,” the piece that features Marianne Faithfull more prominently than any other track on the LP. Written by Corso and recited by the late icon, the recording brings renewed vitality to his words—even though Faithfull delivered her reading at Corso’s bedside.
Kramer pairs the audio with a slideshow of photographs of Faithfull and the circle of loved ones who surrounded Corso during his last days, offering an intimate visual dimension to an otherwise strictly auditory experience. The recording closes with Faithfull exclaiming, “Oh, that’s lovely!” followed by Corso’s soft chuckle and the remark, “Isn’t that funny.”
Kramer reflects, "Corso at his best, as he is here, cannot be matched. As Ginsberg so often said, "He is the greatest of us all."
Within this deeply personal and revealing document are the last known voice recordings of Corso. Conversational, reflective, and raw, DIE ON ME captures Corso in dialogue with close friends and fellow legends—including Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull, and Chicago writer Studs Terkel—as he recounts stories, revisits formative memories, and reads aloud some of his most beloved poems. The result is an unfiltered self-portrait of an undersung literary giant.
Marianne Faithfull, in one of the album’s most striking moments, urges Corso to share stories—and, at his request, recites several of his own poems. The sessions showcase not only Corso’s voice and verse but his thoughts on mortality, love, and the poetic form itself. Produced by Hal Willner and lovingly reassembled by Kramer, DIE ON ME offers a rare and luminous insight into the mind of a poet facing the end.
Corso passed away on January 17, 2001, at the age of 70—just days after completing many of the recordings featured on DIE ON ME. On May 5, 2001, his ashes were laid to rest in Rome at the Cimitero Acattolico, at the foot of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s grave. John Keats lies nearby.
As Allen Ginsberg once said of his closest friend: “People say that I’m the greatest American poet of the 20th Century. I tell them they’re wrong. GREGORY CORSO is a far greater poet.”
The "No Arrangement Was Made" video and DIE ON ME the LP are out now via Shimmy-Disc.
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