phoenix Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Allen Ginsberg performed his poem 'Howl' , one of the seminal works of the Beat Generation , for the first time , in San Francisco. This , brothers and sisters , along with Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' and rock 'n' roll.....is what kicked the whole thing aff , after WW2. ALLEN GINSBERG 'HOWL' For Carl Solomon I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated, who passed through universities with radiant eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war..... http://www.justsomelyrics.com/702565/Allen-Ginsberg-Howl-Lyrics Link to comment
The Boofon Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Never heard of it. I'll read it again after. Too early in a Friday morning to compute properly. Link to comment
phoenix Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Never heard of it. I'll read it again after. Too early in a Friday morning to compute properly. Fabulous work of art , boofon but I defy you to read it in one. I have Ginsberg reading it on cd , in fact you may get him doing 'Howl' on You Tube. He is having a 'pop' at the 'American Dream' and the obsession with materialism.What the Beats tried to avoid was settling down , getting a mortgage and being conservative ; they issued a rallying call for youth to get out 'On The Road' and discover life. Not what the US government really wanted and this seems to have been 'sanitised' into what is called the 'gap year' today. These guys hit the road with mebbe $5 in their pockets and used their wits to survive and not necessarily within the law. He is 'greetin'' if you like( ) , if that is how you choose to see it , this is why he calls it 'Howl' ! But it is in a constructive way using creativity , a style that points out society's dra'backs and injustices. It does , in fact , what great art is supposed to do. Link to comment
The Boofon Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Fabulous work of art , boofon but I defy you to read it in one. I have Ginsberg reading it on cd , in fact you may get him doing 'Howl' on You Tube. He is having a 'pop' at the 'American Dream' and the obsession with materialism.What the Beats tried to avoid was settling down , getting a mortgage and being conservative ; they issued a rallying call for youth to get out 'On The Road' and discover life. Not what the US government really wanted and this seems to have been 'sanitised' into what is called the 'gap year' today. These guys hit the road with mebbe $5 in their pockets and used their wits to survive and not necessarily within the law. He is 'greetin'' if you like( ) , if that is how you choose to see it , this is why he calls it 'Howl' ! But it is in a constructive way using creativity , a style that points out society's dra'backs and injustices. It does , in fact , what great art is supposed to do. He looks like Buck. I'll read it over the weekend. Link to comment
phoenix Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Ginsberg was gay , btw...and unrepentant aboot it. Check Ginsberg in the background( lhs ) in this clip of Bob Dylan and 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'. Ginsberg was the one who told Dylan to used the card method for 'demonstrating' his lyrics , a method that is being repeated still today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVvH0wKwgBc D.A. Pennebaker's classic documentary Don Link to comment
amancalledbuck Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 He looks like Buck. Fuck off. Link to comment
BrianFaePerth Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Fuck off. Ye canna deny, there's a likeness, a sort of tramp quality if ye like. Link to comment
phoenix Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Ye canna deny, there's a likeness, a sort of tramp quality if ye like. There was respect for tramps in those days so meebe you're right. Tramps were either establishment guys who had fallen on hard times or who had opted out of the rat race and were not always down and out alchoholics or drug addicts. Jack Kerouac, creator of the "beat generation" best sums up his philosophy as "everything belongs to me because i am poor". The failure of ideology and of the American Dream in the 1960s gave young dreamers who were eager to live just one way out: the road. Link to comment
muttondressedaslamb Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Fantastic reading Feen, thanks Link to comment
tup Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Kerouac's 'On the Road' was one of the most over-rated books I've ever wasted my time reading. These Yanks love nothing better than blowing their obnoxious brand of smoke out of each other's arses. They needna bother expecting me to join the chorus. Link to comment
phoenix Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Kerouac's 'On the Road' was one of the most over-rated books I've ever wasted my time reading. These Yanks love nothing better than blowing their obnoxious brand of smoke out of each other's arses. They needna bother expecting me to join the chorus. Yeah.....I've heard that already from different sources. It probably does not resonate today as well as it did back in the '50s/'60s/'70s. 'Easy Rider' the movie was inspired by the book and the younger generation here at work didnae get it either...but it was big in the day. I ken you've got considerable imagination , tup so I'm surprised that you cannot see the books appeal , not obviously for yourself but in recognition of the fact that others might have differing outlooks on life. Link to comment
tup Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I thought it was bleak, and not the liberating experience it was meant to portray, a nomadic existence, it's not something I can relate to, I detest strangers and the general public and have the unstinting loyalty of those closest to me. Maybe it would be different had I not had a decent upbringing, maybe I could relate to it, but I ended up just feeling sorry for the poor cunt. Link to comment
phoenix Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 I thought it was bleak, and not the liberating experience it was meant to portray, a nomadic existence, it's not something I can relate to, I detest strangers and the general public and have the unstinting loyalty of those closest to me. Maybe it would be different had I not had a decent upbringing, maybe I could relate to it, but I ended up just feeling sorry for the poor cunt. Well there's no doubt he is dealing in sadness/loneliness/melancholy but he was not out to be pitied.....that would be your decision. What he brought to the table for me was solace and a universal empathy/compassion for the suffering , in all it's varieties , to which humankind are heir. A pisecs min...try 'Dharma Bums' or 'Lonesome Traveller'.....'Big Sur' chronicles his breakdown( alcohol induced ). Link to comment
Betty Swallicks Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHaZyMxgxpk&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2My46ZyuVA4&feature=related Link to comment
The Boofon Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Fuck off. Have you not got that hat any more? Link to comment
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