Ralph's newest CD "This is for the Night People" is a disc for all those who love the night.  No, I'm not talking about the goths or the vampyre crowd; rather it for those who love to drive around, late at night listening to the radio, or hanging out at clubs, or back home with a date, waiting to begin some serious smooching.
     This CD is a tremendous step forward in style and in the maturation of the Ralph combo.  The style is definitely more jazzy.  The disc features a number of vocal and instrumental selections as well as Ralph reading his poetry to some cool sounds.  The opening track "Wet Cigarette" sets the mood nicely for the disc.  I should point out, that while it starts jazzy, Ralph does return to his Beatnik Lite-Lounge style;  music with a wink, that is not serious but playful.
 This CD is also a departure from the previous ones, in that it was done totally in the studio, no live cuts, so you hear even more polished work.
     He's also enlisted a number of vocalists.  One is Lee Aaron, once known as the "Metal Queen" of the 80's does a great job doing a Billie Holiday bluesy rendition of one of Ralph's poems. Some of the tracks I enjoyed were;  "John Coltrane, New York City", "This is for the night people" and "Good-bye Jack. Kerouac".  My personal favorite is "that's what lonely people do";  Bridget Sullivan does an incredible job with this poem, turning it into a country/folk torch song. Her voice projects an incredible amount of pathos, but she doesn't go overboard.  Her performance is very mesmerizing and you may be hitting the repeat button a few times.  Memo to the record industry- sign her up.
     Overall, this is a great disc, send Ralph the money.
please note- the disc is not coming out until December, look on the bright side, more time to save your money.

You were raised in Montreal during the 60's, can I assume, this was during the city's most exciting period of time.  What sort of recollections do you have of the city and did the culture influence your own creativity.

I was very lucky to have been brought up in a family where three languages were spoken around the house.English is realistically the third language I came in contact with; Italian and French were first and second.Because of that, I was able to fully absorb both the English and French pop culture of the time. I was still young so a lot of the world came in through our black and white TV set - so I grew up equally with French and English kids shows and rock shows. Montreal really was the cultural centre of Canada and EXPO 67 drove that home - there was such an incredible excitement in the air. No other city in the world comes close to what Montreal is about. It really is two cities in one and if you can overlap the two, you are a much richer person for it. Everyone in Canada should visit Montreal so they can see how bland everything else in comparison.
    I remember when I first went to Toronto in the early 70s - what a grey dull town it was. Yonge St. was full of peep shows and massage parlours. It was a really seedy place.
    I would always stay up late to watch the movies on the two French channels (we only had 4 channels - two French and two English) and that's how I got to be familiar with entertainers like Fernandel (sort of a French George Formby) and a lot of the swinging 60s films. The French Canadian music scene had all these great groups and entertainers (a lot of the rock groups were into gimmicks and outlandish costumes - dying their hair and stuff)- while on the English side there were shows like "Like Young" and "Six on Six" where visiting American groups came on to lip-synch. At one point, there was this Ringo look-alike who'd alternate his appearances between the CTV and CBC shows. I wonder where he is now?
    And of course, coming up through the Catholic school system puts a whole other spin on things. We were all mostly kids of immigrants who came to Canada in the 50s. My high school was in the poorest and toughest French neighborhood (St. Henri) - who was the genius behind that idea? We were mostly Italian, Polish and Ukranian. If we missed the school bus home, we had to run the gamut of French bullies waiting for us.
    Towards our last year of high school, a bunch of us hung out at the Tavern after school, drinking cheap pints and being very philosophical we thought.
    Somewhere in there, a couple of us had a basement garage band called The Plastic Bag (it's the 60s). We couldn't really play anything, ok, maybe Paul the guitar player actually knew how to play, but the rest of us banged around. There's a tape floating around somewhere of all that noise. I was writing a LOT of poetry at the time after discovering Leonard Cohen via his NFB movie (I was one of the school projectionists, so I would see it many times over the course of my time in high school) and Bob Dylan and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
    I used to be a voracious reader as well. Around this time, I dicovered On The Road and Catcher In The Rye and Harlan Ellison. I really was blown away by Harlan Ellison, especially his collection of TV essays (The Glass Teat). Now combine this with underground comix and Robert Crumb, Spain and all those guys and my teenage head was probably going to explode, but that's what the 60s seemed to be like - there was always something new to discover.
    I got my mimeograph machines in high school and was involved also with comics fanzines in addition to a lit mag, Mongoose, that grew out of the school writer's club and that I eventually carried on with after I graduated.

How did you get involved in the punk movement, and what led to the managing of the band "The Diodes".

I was very aware of punk because I used to get UK music papers and in 1975, they started writing about all the new groups coming out of New York (Patti Smith, Wayne County, The Fast, etc) mostly because the English rock writers had a real fascination with the New York Dolls and this seemed like a resurgence of the Dolls attitude but stripped down even more.  The word "Punk" originally was a term used to describe American 60s garage bands (The Seeds, Shadows of Knight) but it quickly became a convenient moniker for this new movement because the same DIY attitude seemed to be a part of the ethic.
    At this time, I had started writing for a Toronto free rock paper called Cheap Thrills and had a column (Bomp de Bomp) where I started alerting people that something was happening. I had moved to Ontario by this time and had friends who were studying at the Ontario College of Art and I went to one of the dances there, and it turned out to be one of the debut shows by The Diodes. The Ramones had just come through town on their famous first tour (soon as they left a town - a dozen bands sprung up) and Toronto suddenly had a bunch of bands. Anyway, I thought I would write about The Diodes as I was really impressed by them. My friends hooked me up with Paul Robinson and he phoned me and what started off as an interview suddenly turned into this conversation that lasted till 3 in the morning and he had me managing his band and their new club, the Crash 'n' Burn, by the end of the call!
    I went down to their rehearsal space (the basement of the Centre Of Experimental Art and Communication building at Pearl & Duncan). They were going to turn it into a weekend punk club because there was no place for the new bands to play, but we also wanted to keep the standards high so we tried to just book bands we knew and that had proven themselves (Teenage Head, Viletones, etc). We had the Dead Boys headline there - that was definately a high light cause they were at the peak of their energy.
    All along, I was still writing (New York Rocker, Bomp, Cheap Thrills) and photographing as much as I could.

You mention in one of your zines that punk died in 1978, were you aware that it had peaked?  Most people believe "punk" had to do with horrible teeth and rotten attitude, does this fit with your view?

No.
    Well, punk originally was a blanket clarion call for anyone who was a geek and outsider in 1976-77and so Devo, The Ramones, Television, Diodes, Viletones, Elvis Costello, etc. all fell under this umbrella. It was something spontaneous. We all knew things had to change. There was a lot of pent up energy and frustration that had to let loose and in the beginning - it was positive and for creating something new. As soon as punk hit the UK and the Pistols threw up in whatever airport it was -it all changed. Now the UK violence was the norm and, at the club level, I saw all the loogans come out of the woodwork & smash up the club and wanting to beat up "punks".
    Overnight, punk now had a fashion uniform and a prescribed mode of behaviour. So, it was exactly like the Beats and the Hippies - all the hustlers and thugs suddenly swarm into the party and everyone has to grow up to deal with it, so the original innocence and naivety is quickly face to face with drugs and the usual stuff.
    The individualism of the very first 76 wave was quickly supplanted by the conformity of the 77-78 deluge.Punk as I knew it went away in 1978. I was in London in 1979 and it was already pretty ugly over there by then; that's when all the mohawks and etc dictated punk as a lifestyle and so that is the stereotype to this day - reduced to squeegeeing cars at stop lights.
    However, I see that the new new punk seems to be about positive energy again. However, punk as a creative artistic force on culture is no longer a factor.
    Rave culture is the punk of the new millenium in that it has similarly permeated popular culture at all levels (music/clothing/art/etc) - but it seems to have maintained a certain style that is more adaptable and malleable than the rigidity of punk.

 You eventually made your way to the West Coast, I believe you talk about being at the beach on Tofino, what conclusions about your life did you reach?

Break the big picture down into little fragments. Appreciate the little things. Writing about a single leaf might be better than trying to tackle the whole tree all at once.

 A number of your poems and essays have had to do with religion.  How important is religion, or spirituality to your life. I believe you have mentioned that you're not one to wear their religion on the sleeve, but is it important to your life?

Yes, it is. If nothing else, I have a conscience and I think I know right from wrong. I try to do the best I can. Nobody's perfect.It definitely can provide an anchor when you might otherwise be adrift.

 As you consider where you've been, and where you are, what are your plans both in the short term and/or the long term.

I would like to concentrate more of my time on the zine and get back on a regular publishing schedule.Short term - I have a new cd coming Nov 7 ("This Is for The Night People") and a new book by the same title coming in October. Long term - I'd like to go to Europe and maybe eventually concentrate full time on my music and writing.

"The Zine"
 Your Zine, "Ralph" is considered an important part of Canada's alt.culture what got you started in zines.

Comics. I discovered comics zines back in 67 or 68 and eventually started publishing in the early 70s - I was a member of various Amateur Press Alliances (APA) and published various zines (poetry, comics, etc) either on my Gestetner or Ditto machines. I really enjoyed trading zines and corresponding with new people. I stopped in 75 and did not resume my zine activity until 1992. I also did no writing during this period as well.

You subtitle it, "coffee, jazz and poetry", is this an homage to the beat generation or is it your view of what's important in life.

Hmmm. Both, but mostly if you like coffee jazz and poetry - then you'll probably like what I like and know where I'm coming from.

What happened to the Gestetner?

I still have it. I have several. I will be using it again this month. For about 2 years, my machines had to be put in storage & I had to use offset and photocopying and the resulting printing expenses kind of slowed me down (it's a lot cheaper when you can use your own press)....

How much work does it take you to put together one of the zines?

It takes about a week to lay out & correct it, etc. To physically print it on the Gestetner - we're looking at a full weekend of  printing & folding. Then about a week to stuff envelopes and mail. It's pretty intense. I used to have friends help me out, but it's pretty tedious and I'm usually on my own. I have succumbed to the temptation to just let a real printer do it but some of the warmth of  the mimeograph is gone...

 If someone was interested in starting their own zine, what words of advice would you give them?

Don't think about it - just do it. Mistakes are just as fun as getting something right. :)

You already have one book on your zines, is there another book coming that will be a collection of zines 26-50?

Yes. "This Is For The Night People". It is being published by Madrigal Press (a division of Nettwerk) and distributed and marketed by Raincoast Books (the Harry Potter people). It should be available in late October.http://www.madrigalpress.com

 When you started, did you have any thought about its life span, how many issues, how many years, or has it just happened.

It just happened. When I ran into financial problems - I had to slow things down and it's taken a while to recover from that. The downside to being around so long is that now I'm considered "established" and so lately, I've been getting some bad reviews because I don't seem to live up to whatever expectations each reviewer has. Well, I intend to be around long after these people go away....

 Much of your zine was personal revelation, you talked about your love life, goatee wearing and questions of the deeper things of life, like bumper boats in Salmon Arm, are you still getting dissed by Latvians?

Hahahahaaa..... no!
    BUT - I just got discovered by the Swedes - there is a great article in a Swedish lit mag (I can't read it as it's all in Swedish but I've been assured it's all good).
    I draw from my life all the time and, in print, I can change the circumstances or live out maybe how I SHOULD have resolved things in real life... it's not meant to be autobiographical.... it's just little vignettes....
 

"the Music"

 I believe you write that it was after the appearance on "Morningside" which caused you to consider recording some of your work, was it ever in the back of your mind to take your poetry and put it to music?

Yes, but my original idea was to have an INSTRUMENTAL cd with a booklet of poems.Performing on Morningside (I had never performed in public prior to this) made me re-thinkthis once I saw how we could make the poetry and music mesh together more like a pop song rather than a guy reading over free form bleats. It's very important that the words and music mesh together.

You mention in one issue, "it always goes back to Frank (Sinatra)", how does it get back to Frank for you.

Frank is the ultimate hero. He never compromised his standards and started his own indie label to ensure that.I'm always learning something every time I study how he approached situations.

You're new disk, how do you describe the music and poetry?

Music for people driving around in the rain late at night by themselves. The majority of the pieces were written and performed during our last tour in 1997 andsome are also part of a live soundtrack for the movie "Vie De Nuit" - a silent b/w movie inwhich we perform a live soundtrack to.

 Has Tom Bagley done the cover?

He'll be represented on the inside. I've kind of gone a different, more noir direction - using a photo by my friend Al Robb, more like those 60s jazz covers with models on the cover.

the beatnik persona, the fellow with the goatee, and the book "Yowl" is this a nod to both Alan Ginsberg and Walt Whitman, or is this reading more into it then I should?

Probably. He was originally created to spoof the term "Goatee Nation" that people were using for a while as a way to target the coffeehouse crowd. He is a caricature of myself mixed in with whatever else Tom Bagley felt made sense (the "Yowl" is very obvious). Patrick Jenkins, another RALPH cover artist, has created an entire animated cartoon based on Tom Bagley's original RALPH cover that the Goatee Guy came from  and set to the song, "The Goatee Club".

Dig that crazy Bongo Beat!
Visit my web site
 http://www.bongobeat.com
 

--------------------------
interview with: beundransvrd mentalitet

RALPH:
Hello again, I’ve wrote down some questions for you below, the interview will be included in our next issue that’ll hopefully be out sometime by the end of the month. I will gladly send you a copy if you're interested.

- It’s my impression that you’ve always been associated with the music business one way or the other, either as a DJ, graphic designer or promoter…could you describe the circumstances surrounding the first publications of RALPH, that was (in the beginning anyhow) not associated with music?

Well, it's funny because I originally came from the world of comics and science fiction. I was involved with these sorts of fanzines back in the late 60s when I was in high school. At about the same time I discovered Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan and through a poetry group at school, began to write poetry and explore that. I had also purchased a Gestetner mimeograph machine (it was previously owned by the Belgian Consulate in Montreal) and was using that to publish not only my comics fanzines but also a small poetry publication called Mongoose which was distributed around Montreal and was an out-growth of my high school poetry group. I tried to introduce poetry into my comics fanzines but was quickly ostracized and kicked out of some of the comics co-operatives I was part of. The political situation in Montreal in the mid-70s was very bad and if you were English, there were very few opportunities because all the major companies were moving out, so, I was thinking of pursuing a journalistic career but that's hard when there's only one English newspaper left.
    I had also discovered 60s punk rock and Iggy and the New York Dolls, again this is all in 1970-72, and was starting to integrate all these things into my fanzines so it was kind of confusing for some people - poetry and music and comics - which of course now, all of that doesn't matter anymore, but at that time, everything seemed very regimented, which I didn't like and would always cause trouble.
    My rock articles were noticed by a comics friend who recommended me to a music magazine in Toronto and I began writing record reviews for them. Because of the situation in Montreal, I moved to Toronto in 75 to study journalism for which I graduated with an honors diploma in 1977. In the meantime, the magazine (Cheap Thrills) had given me a column and I had begun writing about a new kind of music coming from New York which was about to become punk rock. 1976 was a very exciting time and I got to meet and interview Patti Smith, The Ramones, etc.
    Through my writings, I was contacted by the new Toronto punk bands and became a part of that scene.Unfortunately, because my girlfriend at that time laughed at my poetry, I completely stopped writing for almost 20 years. It was easy to go from managing a group (The Diodes) to working at record labels and I drifted around the music industry from 1979-1991 in Toronto, become a marketing executive and having a good reputation, but ultimately, I decided I didn't want to work with stupid rock bands or be their babysitter anymore because I was spoiled by the 70s bands I admired who had vision and creativity and some of the Canadian groups I worked with were not very interesting and had nothing to contribute to the musical lexicon. Plus, all my hard work was making other people rich and I thought, I should finally start using my creativity for myself.
    I had met a girl in Vancouver and moved here in 1991. She turned out to be a crazy woman and made me destroy most of my belongings and sell my rare books and albums and etc. I finally kicked her out and took off for a week to Tofino, a small northern beach town on Vancouver Island, which is a sort of surfer hangout. I was all by myself in a house on the ocean so I had a lot of time to think and I wanted to go back to a time when I was really happy and what did I have to do to accomplish that? I decided I would go back to fanzines and publish something that I could use as both a creative outlet and perhaps as a newsletter to promote my graphic design skills (in Vancouver, I had started work in the art dept of Nettwerk Records, I didn't want anything to do with marketing or the business side of music anymore). Well, I still had my mimeo machines and I found supplies and more equipment and began publishing RALPH. I sent some to my friends and some bookstores and it slowly had a life of its own. Nobody cared about my graphic design but the poetry and the printing method got a lot of interest.
    I wanted to write positive things. Language that is stripped down to bare essentials and yet universal enough that everyone can understand it. I realized that the average person's experience with poetry is usually through greeting cards. This sort of poetry can actually be very clever. I realized this because I had bought a lot of these cards for my psycho girlfriend. I thought about how can you take some of those elements and make them subservient to something better. Music lyrics are also in that category. I was always frustrated by poetry that was too insular and self-referential and made no real sense or was dated in reference points.

- Your writing has more in common with jazz ballads than Beatlitterature, do you agree with this and if so; who (or what) do you think inspire you the most?

Well, I would like to think I have my own voice. If anything, there's probably a bit of Ferlinghetti in what I do (his 50s work). There's certainly a lot of jazz influence in some of the earlier pieces where I tried to almost create mood issues of the zine, where the poems would be like lyrics to an album that didn't exist (which is funny, because years later, these poems did actually become songs on my albums). Some of the more lyrical side of beat, but yes, I thought some of the Cole Porter and Noel Coward stuff and all that.... incredible stuff. I always see some of my poetry as frames from a film, a small corner from a bigger picture. This is one of the things I discovered during my week on the ocean.... I was getting all crazy trying to capture the big picture, when really, you should be examining the small details more and appreciating the beauty to be found there. So yeah, you can go ahead and write an epic poem but I'll try to say the same in 6 lines, maybe, if I can. I try to write spontaneously wherever possible as well. When I labour over something for a long time, it invariably is no good because I've thought about it too much. I don't try to consciously write in any sort of style like beat or whatever.... it just comes out and then you can look at it and go, "Oh...this is kinda Bob Kaufman."  I've lately been trying to write prose poetry or short stories that can operate with the short hand of poetry and I've gotten to appreciate Kerouac more as a result of this, because he was able to extend that into books.

- In one of the issues of RALPH presented in the collection you refer to a letter from somebody asking if you’re really that naïve and naively romantic as your poetry or if it should be interpreted with a deeper sub-text. How ’bout it – are you still the same?

Well, if I have any fault, is that sometimes I am very naive about life and things. These last 3 years have been very rough and I feel like I've aged 10 years because I haven't really been taking care of reality and it's rough losing thousands of dollars on these endeavours and trying to pay back everyone and dealing with some of the harsh criticism I've gotten in the last 2 years, mostly in Canada, because I don't fit the stereotype of hard living poet or whatever.  I have no intention of making people miserable. My work is, at best, a brief diversion. You read it. You smile. That's it. If a poem can reflect back an experience that you can relate to personally, then you get intothat next layer of meaning. The good thing about writing nice things, is you meet nice people.

- Has your relationship with RALPH changed over the years?

The zine has expanded to occasionally reach 8 pages, sometimes 12 pages. The back cover material was always the most popular and I've expanded that also, sometimes at the expense of the poetry. It's hard sometimes to find a balance, but this year, I'm going back to the original idea. I have not been publishing regularly because of various personal situations; no money, writer's block, my wedding, no work space for my machines, etc. The diversion into music has also taken a toll... sometimes it felt like a big runaway car with no control.

- Do you see an end to the publication of RALPH?

No. I may just do it for friends and subscribers and forget about the free distribution everywhere. I will alwaysdo it. I have my own printing press so I can do whatever I want.

Do you see yourself concentrating entirely on music, or maybe publishing a book of poetry, I’m guessing everybody’s lined up with decent offers?

I would like to do it all because the poetry and the writing comes first. Without that, there is no music.There is a new book coming this fall on Madrigal Press which will collect issues 26-50 and will be called "ThisIs For The Night People". No one has made any offers (hahahaha) because my music is difficult to categorize and so is my first book and in a retail world driven by specific categories... you need publishers and record companies with big budgets to properly advertise things and these days, very few people are interested in doing that. They would rather you, the artist, do all the work and they just capitalize on it, which is fair, but not very practical, because a lot of press and retail will not take you seriously unless you are aligned with an established publisher or record label, so it's a bit of a circle. This really frustrated me for the last 2 years and now, I've realized I should just do what I do and personally meet everyone who buys my books and cds because I'll be the one selling them (hahahaha....).

- What have you got planned for the future?

Hahahaha.... pay all my debts. Come to Europe somehow. Release a new CD this year (Sept). Release a live cd next year. Write an issue of RALPH about my two cats, Jack Kerouacat and Iver The Coniver.  Go on a holiday with my wife to visit my parents in Montreal.

- Anything you would like to add?

Thank you very much for wanting to interview me. I am very grateful for the opportunity.There are a few poems about Sweden in my book. I enjoyed myvisit there in the 80s. It was cold and winter and wonderful.

BONUS QUESTION:
Of course I have to ask you about this Jan Lindmark – the swedish bird whistler -  who you apparently wrote some press release for when working at ATTIC Records…(I’m reading the info included on the cd) Do you remember this at all – what did the press release consist of?

Hahahaa....well, you know, the record label I worked for, Attic Records, at the time was a very odd independent label in that it would release everything from metal to Julie Andrews to Soft Boys to Jan Lindblad. I actually recommended we release this lp because it actually was a pretty good album and in that era, there were Canadian radio stations that would play this "Easy Listening" style of music, of which, I must confess, I do actually like.Anyway, the humour of the situation, a guy whistling contemporary standards with all sorts of animal sounds... I thought we might have some sort of novelty hit like they did in Sweden. Canada did have a history of success with whistling entertainers, believe it or not (hahahahaa). We changed the lp graphics for Canada and I think we also tried to push it as some sort of "mood" album (there was no such thing as New Age music yet), altho God knows what kind of mood it could get you into. Anyway, I wrote all the press materials and the actual liner notes on the back of the album. The story was fantastic, here was a very serious conservationist who recorded a novelty song, thought nothing of it and went away into the jungles or whatever, and when he gets back to Sweden, suddenly discovers he has a hit single!!! Plus, it turns out, he had also mastered the language of tigers, which he called "tigrish" (this is absolutely true). Anyway, he was visiting Canada promoting his children's books, and stopped by the office and I finally met him and he was a fantastically nice man and I think he regarded his musical success as another way to get support and highlight his more serous work.

    I was visiting this book store in Vancouver, (Book Warehouse-does it still exist??), it was after Christmas so I had a few dollars to buy a book or two.  As I made my way to the cashier, I saw this zine called "Ralph: Coffee, Jazz and Poetry".  I looked through it, and put it in the bag of books.  Later I pulled it out and began to read it.  What an interesting pamphlet- it had a number of poems based on various Kink songs.  I read it a couple of times and was hooked.  Here was a guy writing poetry and letting others read it.
    For a year or so, I would head to West Broadway and try to find more copies of this magic zine.  After awhile, stores on Commercial Drive began to feature the zine, so I could just stroll down the street from my place of employment and pick up my copy.  I continued to read and was re-introduced to poetry.  I then thought to myself if he could write, perhaps I could begin as well.
I bought myself a notebook and began to write.  I looked forward to reading the next "Ralph", it was a source of inspiration to me.
    After a time, I moved away from Vancouver and away from the Ralph zine.  However, I did read of the new cd "Sophisticated Boom Boom" and that got my interest.  This was followed by reading his web page and subscribing to the zine.  Now, I've written a whole zine for him.
    You may wonder if Ralph some sort of patron saint, I wouldn't go that far, he is continues to be an inspiration to this ezine and all my artistic endeavours.
 

Closing words

    You may wonder, where's the poetry.  Well, its one of the perks as the "publisher" of this ezine.  I am THE PUBLISHER, FEAR ME!! ( cue maniacal laughter).  No seriously, I decided to dedicate this issue to Ralph and I hope you've enjoyed reading and learning about the beat poet of Vancouver.
All material in this ezine is copyright.  Please respect the authors. ©2000.
For inquiries, submissions, or just to say 'hi', please email: pabear_7@yahoo.com
https://www.angelfire.com/on/abovegroundtesting

  see you next month
As for the usual, don't worry, next issue will feature

• more poetry
• more reviews
• more sites of the month
• more of what has made this a great ezine.