Published
Sun, Feb 3, 2019, 12:32
- Hot Rod To Hell comprises 48 explicit poems from Garrett with sonic "scenery" from Man Parrish.
Dark Entries will reissue a rare album of explicit poems by Roy Garrett backed by electro pioneer Man Parrish.
Garrett, born Roy Samber, left his native Newark, New Jersey for New York City "to explore the sex and porn scenes he'd seen advertised in the Village Voice’s classified section," the label explains. He danced in Times Square theaters before starring in ten adult films between 1979 and 1983, five of which were directed by Joe Gage.
During this period, he wrote 48 poems which he would self-release on a cassette as Hot Rod To Hell in 1982. The poems feature a "haunting, atmospheric score" from the New York City electro pioneer Man Parrish, who had also soundtracked gay porn films for Gage.
Robert W. Richards, who produced Hot Rod To Hell for the stage, describes it as "a searing voyage through the labyrinths of modern male sexuality; its geography ranging from porn theaters to back room bars to the intimacy of shared beds. Only a man born at exactly the moment in gay history that Garrett was could have lived through and conceived this work."
Garrett died of AIDS at the age of 37 in 1992. The poems tell stores of "sex, violence and truth," Dark Entries says, "as visceral and personal a record as any of that moment in gay history pre-AIDS."
The recordings have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The Dark Entries vinyl edition will come with a 44-page full-colour magazine including all 48 of the poems on Hot Rod To Hell as well as 44 previously unpublished poems from Garrett's archive. All proceeds from the Valentine's Day release will go to Housing Works, a New York City-based non-profit that battles AIDS and homelessness.
On Valentine's Day, Man Parrish will speak on his life as an openly gay man in '70s and '80s New York City, his little-known porn soundtracks and Hot Rod To Hell with Dark Entries label boss Josh Cheon as part of the Red Bull Music Festival Los Angeles. For more information check out the event listing below.
Listen to clips from Hot Rod To Hell.
Tracklist
01. Hot Rod To Hell Side 1
02. Hot Rod To Hell Side 2
Dark Entries will release Hot Rod To Hell on February 14th, 2019.
Photo credit: Jorge Dubose
