Allen Ginsberg With Paul McCartney ＂Ballad of The Skeletons＂ ‌‌ - Bohemia Afterdark

What this video is

Released in July 1996 and placed in MTV 'Buzz Bin' rotation ahead of the US presidential election, 'Ballad of the Skeletons' stands as one of the most anomalous music video events of the mid-1990s. Allen Ginsberg, at 70 years old and in declining health (he would die in April 1997), produced the track as a scathing spoken-word political satire targeting Newt Gingrich's 'Contract with America,' Rush Limbaugh, and…

Why it matters

This video represents a singular convergence of Beat Generation literary legacy, mainstream rock celebrity (McCartney), minimalist classical composition (Glass), and 1990s political video art. It pushed spoken-word poetry into pop music video format at a moment when MTV's 'Buzz Bin' was the…

The director

Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952, Louisville, Kentucky) is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. A key figure in American independent cinema, he studied film at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is known for Drugstore…