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The Gospel According to John/You’re Not Sleeping

Taken from the wonderful filming available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-OKTOY8mA
Taken from the wonderful filming available here.

This is a story about a story. Once upon a time a hiphop radio DJ found an old piece of vinyl lying around. That record contained hundreds of snippets of spoken word poetry recording in and around LA in the early 1980s. He had produced a few of his own tracks by the late 90s/early 2000s, and thought it might be neat to sample some of that spoken word stuff for his next couple of recordings. So, around that time, he produced a couple of new tracks. One of them contains the following story, lifted in its entirety from that record he found:

You pick up this working girl,
who's hooked on smack,
who hustles and scores.
"That's all I do," she says.

She says, "ten bucks for head, fifteen for half and half."
She says, "three hits a day at thirty-five per."
You say, "that's seven tricks a day at least."
"But," she says, "sometimes I get lucky."
"Once this guy gives me a bill and a half just to eat me.
Only time I ever came."

You figure you can save her.

You sell your color TV.
That keeps her off the streets a whole day.
You hock your typewriter for one jolt.
Then your shotgun, your watch.

A week later, you say, "listen, I'm a little short."
But she says, "no scratch, no snatch."
You say, "look, it is better to give."
"But," she says, "beat off, creep."

One night they spot you on the street in your skivvies,
trying to sell your shoes.
You tell them who you are,
but they nail you.

Then she happens by,
and she says, "Christ, you look fucked."
She says, "hang tough."

But you don't say anything.
You just think, what a bum rap for a nice, sensitive guy like me.

The name of the track this is on is “You Are Sleeping” by “PQM“, AKA “DJ Prince Quick Mix,” AKA Manuel Napuri. Opinions likely differ as to whether this is an interesting or valuable piece of poetry/prose. However, the Internet attests to the value that many attribute to it. For example, the Discog pages for the various versions of the track contain reviews like the following:

A superb piece of music. I have heard it on several mix albums and also played at several club nights and I never tire of hearing it. The monologue flows perfectly in time with the underlying rhythm, and is more than just the bunch of random samples that is so often used in dance music. The story the dude tells is ultra-seedy, but at the same time also has very humane elements to it. 
This is an excellent house record. The entire production is tight, clean and grooves from start to finish. The actual vocal samples are what makes this record a must have. That repeated “You Are Sleeping” sample has an acapella which is a good DJ tool and as most PQM productions go, they have nice breakdowns and builds. One of the finest Yoshitoshi records ever made. 
The meaning of the absurd ironically lyrics has been widely discussed, but that’s the meaning, they are not ment [sic] to be understood in only one way – you gotta check it out yourself. Could be the greatest lyrics ever written for a song, next to Underworld’s Born Slippy.

As I’m writing this, YouTube contains versions of the song with over 300,000 views, and such comments as:

These are the greatest words ever spoken in a dance track. The writing, whatever it is from, just makes me cringe in awe

The song has gone on to be played in nightclubs, sold to mix CDs and has been widely appreciated and discussed. It is reasonable to suppose that PQM’s career has benefitted significantly from his track ‘You Are Sleeping.’ A review of the remix release of the track states:

What is this track “You Are Sleeping” all about?
“You Are Sleeping” was first released June 2002 and featured the Deephead Pass, Thumpin´ Instrumental, Bonus Beats and DJ Tools. It was tribal drumming workout that was minimal in the inclusion of other samples. But what made it a standout was the bizarre spoken word story told at the breakdown by a man´s experience with picking up a prostitute that hustles to earn money for her smack addiction. He goes on to say he thinks he can save her, ends up selling all his possessions and ends up broke, with her responding to that with “no scratch, no snatch” and leaves him. After recounting being homeless, getting beat up, having the prostitute stroll by and tell him he looks horrible and hang tough, he concludes that it was a bum wrap [sic] for being a nice sensitive guy. (emphasis added)

As I write this, there appears to be no evidence available anywhere as to who wrote or spoke the story in the track. Recently I tried to contact PQM through his facebook page to find out who is behind it. I didn’t get any response, and decided to figure it out myself. I’m not the first person to try. The Trance Addict forum, around for over 12 years, has sub-forums dedicated to the identification of tracks and sharing track lists from DJ sets. Electronic music fans can spend lots of time trying to ‘ID’ a track. As you might expect, there’s a long (7 page, right now) thread of people trading notes, trying to identify the spoken word source of You Are Sleeping. You can find people on the Internet speculating that it’s Bukowski, or Burroughs. When I asked some Bukowski fans for help, they suggested in turn that it might be Jesse Bernstein. The only attribution that anyone can find is, as pointed out in the Trance Addict discussion, is listed in the Discogs summary of the liner notes:

Contains a sample from “Hoes Gotta Eat Too” by DJ Xenamorph by courtesy of Abducted Recordings NYC/all rights reserved

This is pretty clearly a joke. There is no such song, and there is no such recording artist. So the attribution has been faked. It’s possible that PQM sampled the record and then lost it, and was encouraged by the label to add something indicating copyright status. If you’ve read this far, you’re probably interested in who it really is. I’ll tell you, just as soon as I explain how I figured it out. Googling snippets of the spoken word itself led nowhere except lyrics sites for You Are Sleeping. After many hours of googling, and trawling through YouTube, I noticed that PQM released another track at around the same time as YAS: “Insane Poem.” The Discogs summary of its liner notes states:

Contains sample from “I’m Waiting For The World To Admit It’s Insane,” by DJ Xenamorph.

That sample includes the following:

I know who's free and I know who's a slave,
and I'm waiting for the world to admit it's insane.

It’s reasonable to think that the source for this short snippet might be the same as the one for YAS. When you google this passage with quotations around it, so as to only return exact matches, you find its source: a poem written by Michael C. Ford, dedicated to Henry Rollins. The title of the poem is ‘Ammunition.’ That source says nothing about an audio recording of it, though. But when you google ‘Michael C Ford’ and ‘Ammunition’, some very helpful links are at the top: they refer to a 1984 vinyl double lp of spoken word recordings, including the aforementioned poem dedicated to Henry Rollins. And if you google that record further, you find something beautiful: a personal music blog describing Neighborhood Rhythms (Patter Traffic) and a bit of its history, with a download of all of the tracks. If that link ever breaks, comment here and I’ll repost it. If you listen to all of those tracks, you’ll find the ones that PQM sampled both for YAS and for Insane Poem. The name of the poet who wrote and spoke the lines sampled in You Are Sleeping is Californian poet John Harris. The sampled version omits the following introduction:

Ok. This is a poem that could only happen in Venice. 
It's called 'The Gospel According To John."

If you’d like to see John Harris reading his poem, he’s on YouTube presenting a version of ‘The Gospel According To John’ in 2011, which as I’m writing this has a grand total of 47 views and 0 comments. It’s a little different from the sampled version. Maybe you can suggest the significance of the elisions and differences in comments below. At my visit with John and his wife Marcia, on July  1, 2013 (they wished us a happy Canada Day) I was able to examine a annotated, typed, and paginated looseleaf copy of “The Gospel” that contained some of the revisions in that version. Here are images of those pages:

Gospel of John -- Manuscript -- Page 1 Gospel of John -- Manuscript -- Page 2

In that same visit I discovered that not only did John not know that his reading from Neighborhood Rhythms had been sampled for a popular piece of electronic music, he didn’t know that his work had been recorded to that piece of vinyl. Here is a short sample of the interview in which John is speechless at seeing Neighborhood Rhythms for the first time:

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://www.darrenabramson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Agape.mp3″]

The last part of this story about a story has to do with fairness, attribution, sampling and the Internet. I’m not sure if John Harris deserves money or compensation for the success of You Are Sleeping, but I’m completely certain that he deserves credit. So, I’ve posted links to this story in the places I could find where people were asking about it. In another post I may discuss John’s reaction and his own views on compensation and attribution.

44 replies on “The Gospel According to John/You’re Not Sleeping”

You solved the decade long mystery surrounding this track. Very interesting story and it’s even better that you met John Harris and shared it all with him. A while ago I saw the DJ Xenamorph credit and found Insane Poem, but couldn’t learn anything beyond that. Well written article and something amazing for anyone who’s heard the song to read. A cool little piece of music history. Thank you Darren!

Is there anyway to get that poem in the Luke Chable Vocal Pass as an acapella?

I did have it but my laptop broke and I LOST EVERYTHING. I can’t remember where I got that whole acapella from but it was like GOLD! Any got it that can get a copy for me?

Hmmm, I tried googling “you are sleeping acapella” and I saw loads of stuff out there.

I’ve tried too. There’s the woman’s voice saying, “You are sleeping” DJ acapella but not the full poem of what he says, I did find it once by Googling but I think It’s been taking off the site where I think I got it from… Just thought someone out there might have it. Oh well. Cheers.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,.For a decade I searched for Neighborhood Rhyyhms in mp3 format. You’ve just made my week/ month/ year. that Michael C. ford piece, “Ammunition”, plays in my head frequently…and now i can hear it once again.

Me too man…short of recording the YouTube video I cannot see any other way. And the poem (although great) is not EXACTLY the same as in the PQM track. Does anyone have a heads up about this? It must be somewhere as there has recently been a track released called “No scratch, no snatch” by Lojak & Ben Nott. Help

This is fascinating, glad someone was able to do what I never was. Now, is there acapella to be found anywhere?

Joni, if you follow the link in the original post to the Neighborhood Rhythms album (click the word ‘download’), you will find the entire recording of John Harris, along with the other tracks on the 1984 album. Googling will yield the ‘acapella’, which is exactly the same recording, but with pauses and effects that PQM added on top.

Yes, I clearly missed that. Thanks a lot! Found quite some other gems in there too. Thanks a lot yet again!

[…] John and Marcia were very generous with their embarrassment of stored media riches. I gave them a copy of Neighborhood Rhythms, and they filled a paper shopping bag with some of John’s and his friends’ work from over the years — poets working in and around the Los Angeles from the 1960s onwards. I’m only now getting through it. […]

Really amazing blog post!!
Ironic that the poem is about a guy who gets a bum rap…. it’s a bum rap for the poet that his work blows up and he doesn’t get a cent, nor does he get to see ripple effect that his work had… nor all the hot club girls grinding to this club classic. Life of the artist….
It’s a double edged sword – without that freedom to sample freely and remix, none of this would have ever happened, yet there needs to be a way for original artists to get credit and most of all cash for their work. The PQM track was great production but would not have been anything special without the poem, which sends chills through you.

Thank you so much for finding this. That it of spoken word stood out as an incredible super short story (500 words or less) far above the usual fare sampled in house music. Very happy to have found its source.

All the bellends on the Bedrock forum think they know everything but the reality is they are all just as big losers as I am

One of my favorite tracks, ever. Turned on to it by an ex-girlfriend OB GYN several years ago, who loved it at the time and probably still does.

Just wanted to applaud your sleuthing work. Most impressive and appreciated. John Harris is absolutely the man. Wow. Glad he could get some credit while living.

Poetry.

Peace y’all!

Thank you for this! Great memories and a really good read! Wonder if we can find more tracks like this with meaningful words.

Great work! I’ve known You Are Sleeping since it came out, and weirdly know the lyrics off by heart. Always wondered where it came from.

Brilliant investigation, man.

I’ve listened to PQM’s song many times since it first came out and I always wondered where the lyrics came from.

Thanks!!

Thanks for your hard work, mate! People like you are the ones who make the world turn.

Thank you, John Harris, for your great words. Keep writing, friend.

<3 from Colorado!

I have always wondered where the lyrics for this song came from. First heard them in PQM – You Are Sleeping (PQM Meets Luke Chable Vocal Pass) around 2003. Thanks for uploading this!

That’s an amazing story!

I just heard the song in question yesterday or so (New Year’s Eve 2018), when I bought the Album Yoshitoshi Ibiza, mixed by Miss Nine (2006). Track #4 is YAS. I got the lyrics and googled them to get this post. Thanks for posting the story! It is really interesting.

Sounds like you got nailed on the Bukowski thread: yikes!

Thanks for a link to all the spoken word with the original. What a treasure trove this post is…

Thank you Darren,

I always wondered where this came from; it’s quite a piece.

Listening to GU10 on the way to work this morning, obviously it popped up again and I decided my day would be best spent trying to find out which lead me here.

Sterling work my friend.

It’s been a true relief to put a face to the voice where those brilliant lyrics come from. I’ve been singing and trying to figure out these lyrics since I first listened to that tune in Hernan Cattaneo’s masterpiece and I never get tired of it. Although Mr. Harris will be remembered because of his work and lovely voice, I’m pretty sure You Are Sleeping’s PQM will keep him alive forever.

Huge thanks to you, Darren, for diving into darkness and sheding light on this mystery. The fact that you actually got to meet John Harris and told him about the song and all the caos he “made” in electronic music is absolutely mind blowing!
There wouldn’t have had a track without the magic of Manuel Napuri and probably You Are Sleeping would have gotten another sample without the work of Mr. Harris, that wouldn’t have f*cked up our minds as much as this poem.

Hi there…

The first time I heared this poem, I was in my car driving over the highway, listening to a 2-hour-mix-session by Hernan Cattañeo (superb DJ!) and I was wondering the whole time who the author was but never gave much time to search. Then, months later, I by coincidence, listened to “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg (truly one of the best poems I’ve ever read!!!) and I was struck by the similarities in voice and style of this poem here on your website. I rembembered the line “trying to sell your shoes…”, so after a 30 sec. search, I finally came across your site. Thank you SO much for providing all the information, great work and an amazing stroy! Thanks and have a nice day….

Greetings from Switzerland

I saw Allen Ginsberg at The University of Montreal in the late 90s. Such willingness of the people in the audience to have a shared experience of emotions that are difficult and uncomfortable, but ultimately focused on improvement of the spirit.

Switzerland is beautiful. I was lucky to spend a month there in Lausanne learning from Henry Markram’s lab. Did some running in the mountains, wow.

I just saved this article to the ALL WORLD board on my Pinterest. For sure, I loved this track the second I heard it on a long Hernan session at my boyfriends house. Im new to this music but love it all and just so you guys have a glimpse into a pop-culture perspective I wanted to share how I felt when I heard this poem sampled. ::: I immediately associated with an underground version of that Everybody’s Free fka “Sunscreen Graduation Song” (https://youtu.be/ocxEgpGPjsw) (that was popular just after that Springsteen song (1996, Secret Garden) where he interlaced Jerry Maguire audio). My boyfriend had no idea and neither did my boss but every girlfriend I have thinks its amazing and modern. Its a total gateway into this music for basic bitches like us. Honestly, I find it refreshing and timely.

love coming back to this, have read it many times.

Love the sample, it really is something else.
Thanks for putting in the work to figure it out

What can I say beside: WOW. Thank you so much for sating my curiosity. Such an in-depth search, with such a successful outcome.

I first heard the poem several weeks ago in a mix by Hernan Cattaneo (https://soundcloud.com/whiteoceanofficial/hernan-cattaneo-white-ocean-burning-man-2015-sunrise-set, at 46:20 and onward).

I was taken aback by the sheer humanity of the text, and it stuck with me for a while. Upon further investigation, I found your post and realized the depth there was to it.

Thanks Darren!

This is amazing citizen journalism, thank you. this track was the penultimate one (the Luke Chable remix) on my favorite mix of all-time, Balance 005 by James Holden from 2003.

Like so many thousands of people around the world I was struck by these lyrics. They sounded like the street-wise writing from a David Simon show (The Wire, The Deuce, etc), however, they had a meter to them that just went so well with the music, so it makes sense it was written by a poet.

All the chance factors that made this sample happen in this traxk the way it did are amazing. I don’t believe anyone save the original author, Mr. Harris, could have read it the way it came out on that track.

I love how immediately recognizable his voice is in the 2011 clip…

I’ve included a couple links I found last night after reading this article. I’m assuming none of it is news to the author but others might find them interesting.

Cheers and thanks again.

A cool bit about Mr. Harris’s key history in the poetry scene in LA:

https://bit.ly/2VkaKx1

Also:

http://www.billmohrpoet.com/john-harris-in-memoriam/

Wow. Thank you.
16 years of thinking this was some 1950s reference from a random movie.
Mind blown.
One of my favourite tracks ever.

Awesome – I’ve had that PQM record for years and the sample has always stayed with me.
Great work identifying and crediting the author.

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