Various Artists: Closed On Account Of Rabies: Poems And Tales Of Edgar Allan Poe

The liner notes for this two-CD collection of Edgar Allan Poe interpretations quote Allen Ginsberg as saying, "Everything leads to Poe." Typically Ginsberg, that's the sort of grandly vague statement with which it's almost impossible to argue, even if it doesn't seem particularly true. After all, the archly Romantic morbidity of the poetry hasn't aged nearly as well as Poe's stories, and even with these, there's probably not a graduate of high-school freshman English who's not sick of "The Tell-Tale Heart." The road back to Poe may have been closed by changing fashions and over-anthologization. On the other hand, the array of contemporary talent assembled to pay tribute here—from Dr. John to Abel Ferrara—is diverse enough to suggest that there's something to Ginsberg's belief. Marianne Faithfull's reading of "Alone," the unofficial national anthem of disaffected, pretentious teenagers, does not provide an auspicious start, but, perhaps not surprisingly, Christopher Walken's take on "The Raven" helps set things right. Walken's subtle recitation, beginning rationally before bringing out the tics, makes the tired poem sound fresh. Iggy Pop gets "The Tell-Tale Heart" right for the same reasons, and Gabriel Byrne's reading of "The Masque Of The Red Death" is graceful but marred, as many tracks are, by the addition of haunted-house-style sound effects. More problematic is the first disc's 36-minute centerpiece, Diamanda Galás' unbearable version of "The Black Cat," read in a throaty, one-note, I-am-being-spooky-now voice that never suggests she has attempted to interpret the work, just present it in the most bombastic fashion possible. Although the quality varies, that melodrama doesn't stain most of Closed On Account Of Rabies; still, the collection is ultimately interesting as little more than a curio. Sitting on a shelf, it's considerably less likely to be picked up twice than a decent edition of Poe's collected works.