Poetry For The Beat Generation
JACK KEROUAC
Blues And Haikus
The two albums of (mostly) spoken
word recordings that Kerouac made in 1959, when his literary star was soaring.
On Poetry For The Beat Generation, a
Benzedrine-fueled Kerouac recites his edgy odes to the beauty to be found in
urban observations, while sympathetic straight man Steve Allen tickles the
ivories. ‘October In The Railroad Earth’, the opening piece, is a staggeringly
moving oral performance of one of Kerouac’s most effective passages of writing.
Throughout this set, Kerouac is amped-up exuberant yet seemingly on the brink
of despair, both the ultimate knowing street denizen and a self-conscious nerd
who’s in over his head. On the follow-up, Blues And Haikus, a more assured JK reads (and sometimes sings) his pieces while
hepcats Zoot Sims and Al Cohn blow in the background. But while the writer
sounds more confident here than on the debut set, his aching vulnerability
that’s in evidence on the earlier material is sorely missed.
Brian Greene
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