Nichols Collection 0005

Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork (A Song Cycle on Poems by Richard Brautigan)

Gene Nichols. Text by Richard Brautigan

Various media

Performed by Gene Nichols with the Neoteric Ensemble

April 17, 1981

Northern Illinois University

Music © 1981 Gene Nichols, text © 1971 Richard Brautigan

Collection of Gene Nichols

The second half of 1981's April 17 program was given over to these interpretations of Brautigan's 1971 poem collection Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork. Each segment is a separate poem, which we'll name properly after consulting Gene's copious notes.

Please contact us with more information about this work or the performance itself.

<flashmp3 id="01">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_01.mp3</flashmp3>
Prologue: Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork

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Two Guys Get Out of a Car

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Homage to Charles Atlas

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Seonds

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Montana Inventory

<flashmp3 id="06">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_06.mp3</flashmp3>
We Meet, We Try, Nothing Happens

<flashmp3 id="07">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_07.mp3</flashmp3>
As Mechanical as a Flight of Stairs

<flashmp3 id="08">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_08.mp3</flashmp3>
I'll affect You Slowly

<flashmp3 id="09">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_09.mp3</flashmp3>
They are Really Having Fun

<flashmp3 id="10">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_10.mp3</flashmp3>
What Happened?

<flashmp3 id="11">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_11.mp3</flashmp3>
Punitive Ghosts Like Steam-Driven Tennis Courts

<flashmp3 id="12">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_12.mp3</flashmp3>
Crow Maiden

<flashmp3 id="13">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_13.mp3</flashmp3>
Nine Crows: Two Out of Sequence

<flashmp3 id="14">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_14.mp3</flashmp3>
Business

<flashmp3 id="15">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_15.mp3</flashmp3>
Voluntary Quicksand

<flashmp3 id="16">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_16.mp3</flashmp3>
Death Like a Needle

<flashmp3 id="17">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_17.mp3</flashmp3>
We Were the Eleven O'Clock News

<flashmp3 id="18">Media:Loading_Mercury_with_a_Pitchfork_18.mp3</flashmp3>
Epilogue: The Curve of Forgotten Things