A Supermarket in California carried the dead into the underworld, across the river Styx. The River Lethe was a different river in the underworld, which caused those who drank its waters to experience complete forgetfulness. The shades of the dead were required to drink the waters of the Lethe in order to forget their earthly life. In "Story Line", Ian Marshall suggests that the poem is written to show the differences in American life depicted by Whitman and that which faces Ginsberg in the 1950s: "It's the distance of a century—with Civil War and the 'triumph' of the Industrial Revolution and Darwinism and Freud
Mission of Dead Souls Mission of Dead Souls Mission of Dead Souls is a recording of the final performance of Throbbing Gristle before their initial breakup. The concert took place in San Francisco on 29 May 1981. The album was originally released as part of the "Fetish" box set, consisting of four old albums and this album that was exclusive to the box, but when Mute Records picked up the Throbbing Gristle catalogue, this was one of the albums that was picked up, making this one of the most common Throbbing Gristle albums. An official Betamax and VHS of this performance was recorded and