666: "The Hymn" to "Lucifer".

Notes

First edition, uncommon. Fascinating document of the San Francisco underground scene. A sequence of amphetamine-fuelled metaphysical explorations combining the Satanic, astrological, and psychedelic in equal measure, with just a dash of biker lore. Reynolds was secretary of the notorious SF chapter of the Hell's Angels, and the previous year had seen the publication of his autobiography "as told to" poet Michael McLure, with whom he had been performing musical settings of McClure's poems - Frank on harmonica, McClure on autoharp - at various clubs and events. In this ghosted memoir Reynolds set out his understanding of Lucifer: "Dig my definition of God Almighty is of a back-knifing second-rate cherub. And Satan is cursed because he was knifed in the back while laying it down the way it was and still lays it down a hell of a lot clearer beyond any doubt when weighing the facts A few pages from John Milton's Paradise Lost have put me exactly on the positive track that I am following. I am a child of his. I am a Hell's Angel I no longer have to stammer and stutter: I will be able to lay down the trips of the righteousness of Lucifer" (quoted in Baddeley, Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship & Rock'n'Roll,). When Reynolds was imprisoned in Soledad for arson McClure sent him a copy Shunryū Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind " to help him clear his head. Frank told me the book by the Zen master saved his life. He said that he has been living in the mountains by a waterfall for over 10 years" (Larry Keenan Jr on the McClure-Manzarek 'site, retrieved 23 August 2018). He died at his cabin in northern California in 2003 "in clearness of mind, Zen expectancy of death, and manly resolution" (Michael McClure, ibid.). Fairly well represented institutionally, but far from common on the market, originally intended for free distribution to a constituency not especially noted for its predilection for curation.