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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the end all, February 7, 1999
This review is from: Beat Generation (Audio CD)
hands down , without a doubt , the most entertaining box set i have ever heard (i own 3,000 + cds) red hot jazz , blues , and lounge with bits of news reports , poetry readings , and general zanniness . i have never laughed so hard while having my mind blown . this collection is so good it almost made me stop buying cds . it can't get any better . now i have to save up for the kerouac box .
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Root, Vout and Dig It ! ! !, January 7, 2001
This review is from: Beat Generation (Audio CD)
What I love about the Beat Generation Box Set is that in addition to serving as a great social portrait of the era, as well as hipster culture, throughout it maintains a sense of humor and focuses on its strange relationship and rivalry with American pop culture. Beyond mere literary readings, a colorful cast of charactors make the scene... from beboppers to hipsters, bongo beating philosophers to comedians and pop icons arise. One track might be Annie Ross's bebopistic tribute to Schizophrenia "Twisted", the next a recitation by Lord Buckley or Ken Nordine - in other tracks, square singers try to cash in on bebop and hipster culture... reporters go out on the streets of Greenwich village in search of America's lost youth, while others show beat generation icons in action from Dizzy Gillespie to Slim Galliard and Ray Brown Jr. - - Cuts from the rare, "How to Speak Hip" and even Lenny Bruce's Psychopathia Sexualis (I'm in Love With a Horse That Comes from Dallas) appear. While by no means comprehensive, the three CDs along with the illustrated booklet are not only educational but incredibly entertaining. If you enjoy this album, be sure to check out a reissue of Ken Nordine's Colors, as well as stuff by Harry The Hipster Gibson, Slim Galliard and Leon Watson, as well as the movie, "Sweet Love Bitter" (based on the life of Charlie Parker.)
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's 1957 Forever!, January 15, 2005
This review is from: Beat Generation (Audio CD)
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!
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