VA - The Beat Generation, Vol. 1+Vol. 2 + Vol. 3 [1992] (3 x CD's)

 

BEAT GENERATION

VA - The Beat Generation, Vol. 1+Vol. 2 + Vol. 3 [1992] (3 x CD's)

The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generationers in the 1950s. The central elements of Beat culture are the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration.

This 3 x CD box set features recordings from titans including William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Kenneth Rexroth, The Beat Generation and works in tandem with Rhino's earlier compilation The Jack Kerouac Collection to paint a definitive audio portrait of one of the seminal literary uprisings of the 20th century. Because the Beats were so heavily influenced by jazz, their work ranks among the most rhythmic and lyrical in all of literature and lends itself perfectly to spoken word recordings; Kerouac's insistence that "Beat" stood for "beatific" aside, the name's musical implications are undeniable, with the writers' free-flowing, improvisational wordplay -- what Ginsberg dubbed "spontaneous bop prosody" -- echoing the radical innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. The set also charts the Beats' own influence on musicians spanning from Lambert, Hendricks & Ross to Perry Como to Tom Waits, at the same time embracing kindred spirits including Ken Nordine, Lord Buckley, and Lenny Bruce. The inclusion of some of the material is questionable at best, the box would probably work as effectively at two discs instead of three,  but in recapturing the singular spirit of its time, The Beat Generation is an essential document of cool. (Amazon)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Jack Kerouac San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation) 0:03:09

02 Bob McFadden & Dor The Beat Generation 0:02:03

03 Wnyc News Feature Footloose in Greenwich Village 0:12:32

04 Langston Hughes & Leonard Feather Blues Montage 0:03:13

05 Babs Gonzales Manhattan Fable 0:02:37

06 Ken Nordine Reaching Into In 0:01:53

07 King Pleasure Parker's Mood 0:02:57

08 Nelson Riddle Route 66 Theme 0:02:07

09 Tom Waits Diamonds on My Windshield 0:03:11

10 William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch (Excerpt) 0:06:26

11 Gerry Mulligan Quartet With Lee Konitz Bernie's Tune 0:03:32

12 Don Morrow Like Rumpelstiltskin 0:06:19

13 Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra Opp-Pop-A-Da 0:03:09

14 Del Close & John Brent Basic Hip 0:01:11

15 John Drew Barrymore Christopher Columbus Digs the Jive 0:03:04

16 Charles Mingus With Jean Shepherd The Clown 0:12:12

17 Kenneth Patchen W/Chamber Jazz Sextet The Murder of Two Men By a Young Kid Wearing Lemon Colored Gloves 0:01:16

CD2

01 Lord Buckley The Hip Gahn 0:06:10

02 Lambert, Hendricks & Ross Twisted 0:02:15

03 Slim Gaillard Yip Roc Heresy 0:02:29

04 Charlie Ventura Ha 0:02:47

05 David Amram Pull My Daisy 0:04:30

06 Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen October in the Railroad Earth 0:07:06

07 Howard Smith The Cool Rebellion 0:20:13

08 Charlie Parker Cosmic Rays 0:03:05

09 Edd Byrnes Kookie's Mad Pad 0:02:03

10 Gordons With the Hank Jones Trio Bebopper 0:02:45

11 Ken Nordine Hunger is From 0:03:48

12 Rod McKuen No Pictures, Please 0:04:04

13 Perry Como With Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra Like Young 0:02:53

14 Kenneth Rexroth Married Blues 0:03:23

15 Lenny Bruce Psychopathia Sexualis 0:02:25

CD3

01 Tom Waits Jack & Neal, California, Here I Come 0:04:58

02 Jack Kerouac With Steve Allen Readings From "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody" 0:03:29

03 Ben Hecht Interview With Jack Kerouac 0:15:30

04 Don Morrow Kerouazy 0:02:07

05 Del Close & John Brent Cool 0:03:51

06 Oscar Brown Jr. But I Was Cool 0:02:54

07 Del Close & John Brent Uncool 0:00:58

08 Phillipa Fallon High School Drag 0:02:14

09 Kenny Clarke & His 52nd Street Boys Oop-Bop Sh-Bam 0:03:04

10 Three Bips and a Bop Featuring Babs Gonzales Professor Bop 0:02:26

11 Patsy Raye and the Beatniks Beatnik's Wish 0:02:29

12 Elmer Bernstein Like Having Fun 0:02:17

13 Carl Sandburg On Beatniks 0:00:28

14 Gerry Mulligan Quartet Swinghouse 0:02:54

15 Charles Kuralt The Greenwich Village Poets 0:01:37

16 Allen Ginsberg America 0:04:47

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