These works were among Allen’s earliest attempts to bridge visuals with music. For Cowboy and the Stranger, Terry wrote songs as an auditory accompaniment to the drawings and attached the taped recordings to the back of each work, in what he called “paper listening movies.” While the music and visuals were made in connection to one another, neither was a direct representation of the other, creating a space between “looking” and “listening” for the narrative to unfold.

“I didn’t want the drawings to illustrate the songs or the songs to illustrate the drawings,” said Allen. His objective was to have “two completely different sets of information with the same idea. It’s like the drawings were on one wall, the songs were on the other, you’re in the middle and that’s what the piece was about—kind of what happened to you in that middle ground.”

The Cowboy's Dream of Home Turn to Chili-Up-The-Desert, 1969
mixed media on paper
38 ¼ x 31 ¼ in. (97.2 x 79.4 cm)

Prologue… Cowboy and the Stranger, 1969
mixed media on paper
38 ¼ x 31 ¼ in. (97.2 x 79.4 cm)

Harmony Sovereign, 1969
mixed media on paper
38 ¼ x 31 ¼ in. (97.2 x 79.4 cm)

Terry Allen, 1968 / Photo: Gary Krueger

When works from this series were shown at Michael Walls Gallery in San Francisco in 1968, Allen staged music performances in dialogue with various pieces by positioning his piano (situated on a wheeled structure) alongside specific works, activating the imagery with sound, and the sound with imagery.

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