The Stapled Brain is a 60-year comprehensive collection of Ron's aphorisms, poems and stories,
true and fantastic, funny, serious, provocative and outrageous.
Hardback; 176 pages; 23 colour illustrations; 29 monochrome illustrations.
In American Royal format: 6 1/8th" x 9 1/4" (166mm x 235mm).
“Some people say I'm mad, but I say,
'I'm a great deal more mad than that!'
which brings me back round -
to the front of the extremely sane.”
Ever since 1961 - on the road with the Original Downtown Syncopators - Ron Geesin has scribbled on anything that would hold a pencil mark and in anything from trains, buses, toilet and bed, particularly to relieve the stress of composing ‘Atom Heart Mother’ with Pink Floyd, the music for ’Sunday Bloody Sunday’ (John Schlesinger), other feature films and innumerable arts, educational and social documentaries for The Media.
Ron Geesin is Neo-Renaissance man, performing, composing and constructing his way through what he calls ‘chance careering’. He pioneered the one-man record company in 1972, created several interactive installations, the best being The Tune Tube for Glasgow 1990, and wrote and presented two major series on jazz prototypes Coleman Hawkins and James P. Johnson for BBC Radio 3. The one-hour profile, An Improvised Life, was screened several times by SkyArts from 2019 to 2021.
He has already written the history of ‘Atom Heart Mother’, The Flaming Cow (History Press), and the quite impossible The Adjustable Spanner - a history (Crowood Press), no doubt as a therapy from everything else.
Just discovered - two overlooked pieces:
PERPLEXED OF TUNBRIDGE WELLS (1991/07/10)
I saw a man upon a train
de-wax his ear into his brain
and flick the fluff from off his suit
and eat the bits from off his boot.
He tugged at cuffs and fiddled tie
and even swatted unseen fly.
I tingled warm with watchful eye
to see him poke and tweak and pry.
Stepping up examination,
unrelenting exploration,
grinding teeth in concentration,
led him up his nose in station.
You know what B. R. is like:
when journey's vital, it's on strike;
when mug is full and seats are taken,
you hit floor - well-stirred and shaken!
Digital manipulation
came within this train's fixation,
so it lurched in pure delight
and jammed his finger out of sight!
The moral here is plain to see
(except for he who sat near me):
"When there's too much stress and strain,
man with twitch poke hole in brain."
SLIMMER (1991/07/10)
When you get thinner,
you'll want a good dinner
to stoke up the boiler
and be a good sinner.
