The Beat Generation cont....
Now, Rhino Records' master compilers have topped
it with a 3-CD set, THE BEAT GENERATION (R2 70261). It covers the whole
spectrum of Beat from the sublime to the crass. The profound and absurd
aspects are thoroughly documented. Jack Kerouac reads from B~ad and Rod
Nc Q.N., the vapid Hallmark-card-poet of the 60's, sings, "I belong
to the Beat Generation..."
It starts with Kerouac's voice: "It's the Beat Generation. It's be-~'
It's the beat to keep. It's the beat of the heart. It's being beat and
down in the world..." The whole thing all came together in '57 when
Kerouac's masterpiece, On The Road, was finally published (though the
rumblings began when Ginsberg exploded poetry with "Howl" the
year before).
The musicians and the poets had been digging each other and expanding the
forms for 15 years before Pop Culture noticed. The Abstract Expressionists
were getting a million dollars for just throwing paint at canvas so, at
first, most people thought that that's all the Beats were doing with words
(and the Bops with music). The superficial aspects were emphasized: the
clothes, the coffee house poetry, and "jive" talk. Everyone
wanted to be "cool" and "hep". Naturally, this wasn't
"it" at all but it opened the door. (Cultural emphasis of style
over content is the eternal curse of true art.)
The true essence of Beat is here in a tune called "Parker's Nood".
King Pleasure took a typically mind-blowing, chord-bending, time-warping
Charlie Parker sax solo and set it to words. Bird, himself, is here too
on "Cosmic Rays". 60 is Perry Como singing "Like Young",
Nelson Riddle's theme song from the Kwata ~ TV show, and Elmer Bernstein's
"Like Having Vun". The yin and the yang of various aspects of
Beat, from corny fun to documentary evidence.
HK BAZ ~ compiles all the facets of a cultural movement
which was the search for Joy and Meaning in the fusion of post-war- economic-boom
with Atomic-Age-social- conscience. The birth of Pop culture out of what
had previously been the povince of the "elite". Everything from
the hillarious "jive" ramblings of Lord Buckley and the "vout"
linguistic jazz of Slim Gailard to the ponti- fications of Charles Kuralt
and Howard K. Smith. All melted into such hybrids as Ken Nordine's Word
Jazz. The words, the music, the comedy, and poetry are all represented
here.
A swell complement to this set is "RE/SEARCH: Incredibly Strange Music,
vol. 2" (Asphodel 0951). (This, and its mediocre "vol. 1"
companion, supplement the two brilliant books of the same title reviewed
in QLitrft' ~2.) It's a set of even more bizzare cultural audio artefacts,
anchored by some of Ken Nordine's Color. and another cut from HQK ~ RDeak
~.
Also, look for !HI , the soundtrack of a movie based on the Kerouac novel.
It's all tight instrumental Bop Pop by Ander Previn and Gerry Mulligan
along with Carmen McRae's smooth, night song: "Coffee Time".
(Sony AK 47486)
Other essential Beat CDs are the magnificent 3-disc
Jack Kerouac set (Rhino 70939) comprising his three albums (one backed
by Steve Allen on piano!) along with out-takes and TV appearances, Weird
Liiliabz by Babs Gozales (Blue Note CDP7 84464 2), two William S. Burroughs
ODe: fl~d Citv ~n'1~n (Island 422-846-264-2) and Material/~ So~ls (Virgin
2-91360), and Lord Buckley's A Nofit ~ Ari£toorat (Enigma Retro/Straight
7 73398-2).
If you dig the kind of edge stuff we mentioned in Olitre 3 and 4 (like CDs
by Jack Kerouac, Harlan Ellison, William S. Burroughs, and the Beat Generation
set), there are two new discs that you'll want to hear.
Kerouac-Kicks Joy Darkness (from Rykodisc) is a mind-blowing collection of
rare and unpublished poetry and "prosody" by Jack Kerouac performed
by a mad diversity of authors, musicians, and other comics such as the
late Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Richard Lewis (who
manages to capture the flow of Kerouac s voice), Patti Smith, John Cale,
Anna Domino, Matt Dillon, Johnny Depp, Warren Zevon, and 15 others even
more diverse. Many are brilliant and most are highly unique. Kerouac's
poetry is sublime, as usual. There's also a dopey tribute song by Morphine,
which is more than balanced by Hunter S. Thompson's "Ode To Jack".
Speaking of H.B.T., his now-classic 1eaa' And Loathing In Las Vegas has been
wonderfully dramatized on CD in commemoration of the 25th anniversary
of the book's publication. If you have never read this book, you are instructed
to do so immdiltilz. Or... listen to this album. It's not a substitute
but it gets the essence; narrated by Harry Dean Stanton and featuring
Jim Jarmusch, Maury Cahykin, and an almost-all-star supporting cast, This
book is a true original, derived as much from surrealism as The Beats
and sprinkled into a style Thompson called "gonzo". It shook
the generation that grew up with Catcher In The Rye and came of age with
OR The Road. If there were any wisps of the vibe from the 60s still floating
around in 1971, this is the book that killed the last of them. Depending
on your point of view, this could be either the funniest or most horrifying
CD you'll ever hear.