Search - Various Artists :: Beat Generation

It's 1957 Forever!

M. Hori | Urayasu, Chiba Japan | 01/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's January, 2005 and sleeting outside in Shin-Urayasu, Japan, but I'm here wailing with Jack Kerouac. Steve Allen is tinkling away on the piano, and Ben Hecht is waiting to ask Jack some smart-aleck questions, which Jack will answer in an innocent, pure-heart, eternal good-guy way before heading back out on the road. This three-CD set is incredible. Not only do we get a sense of what the big names of beat-dom were up to, but we are treated to little-heard beat-fare, like a hyper-beat effusion on falling in love with a horse from Lenny Bruce, and zany reflections of beat-dom from such square media dogs like Perry Como crooning about his young beat honey, and Howard K. Smith, who gives us the low-down on THE COOL REBELLION. Kenneth Patchen's "The Murder Of Two Men By A Young Kid Wearing Lemon Colored Gloves" is a gem, and Kenneth Rexroth's hang-dog rendition of "Married Blues" is yet another great cut I would never have heard otherwise. Langston Hughes fronting his own jazz band is a treat too, but there's lots more. After listening to all 3 CDs one can get a pretty good idea of the scene, both from the inside, hipster's angle, and from the square's point of view, too. Generous cuts from Gerry Mulligan's Quartet have me snapping my fingers and reaching for my sunglasses. Forget the sushi and pass the nutmeg!"

Get this back in print - now! One of the best albums you can

TimothyFarrell22 | Massachusetts | 08/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is, outside of the first "Nuggets" box set, the most played multi-artist compilation in my collection. The greatest thing about this collection is the wide variety of peices included. There are readings by the major players of the generation (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs), beat Jazz (Don Morrow, Lee Konitz), various parodies or outsider views of the movement (the "Basic Hip" recordings, the clips from the cult film "High School Confedential", Bob McFadden), the comedians (Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce), and the sucessors (Tom Waits). In other words, this is an absolute must-buy for anyone with a passing interest in America's first counterculture movement. This was one of the most fascinating and unique eras in American history, and the Beat Generation was a blow against the conservative American ideals and dreams. The highlights of the collection are obviously the readings. Hearing the geniuses of the time read their own work is just as fun, if not more so, as reading the books themselves. Each one of the top three (Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac) has an unique style of writing and an unique style of delivery so that you can tell each one apart from the other. Outside of the readings, some of the selections are odd but none don't fit in with the overall concept of portraying the movement. This is almost as much an essential as the writings of the Beats, and is a fascinating portrait of America's original counterculture movement. Why did Rhino let this go out of print?"