The Jack Kerouac Collection [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Jack Kerouac (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990

The complete recorded works of Kerouac, the king of the "beats." 4 cassettes.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Rhino Records; abridged edition edition (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930589033
• ISBN-13: 978-0930589035
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 12.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,167,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > Kerouac, Jack

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed Bag, April 18, 2002

By 

Art Turner "decipheringhobshog.blogspot.com" (Rockford, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jack Kerouac Collection (Audio Cassette)

The Jack Kerouac Collection is a four-tape set from Rhino Records compiling recordings Kerouac made in 1958 and 1959. Here's an overview of what you'll find here:

Tape 1, Poetry For The Beat Generation, a recording of Kerouac reading his poetry accompanied by television personality Steve Allen on piano. This is probably the weakest tape in the set. Altough it contains a couple of Kerouac's better poems ("Charlie Parker" and "The Wheel Of the Quivering Meat Conception"), most of his other work here comes off as self-indulgent and pretentious. Allen's piano is workmanlike but dull.

Rating: **

Tape 2, Blues And Haikus, is a little better. Here, Kerouac's accompanied by Al Cohn on saxophone and piano and Zoot Sims on saxophone. The standout track here is "American Haikus", featuring Kerouac reading short snatches of often striking, imagistic poetry in between Cohn and Sims' riffing saxes. Suprise: "Hard Hearted Old Farmer", on which Kerouac sings (!).
Even Bigger Suprise: He's not too bad (!!). Crazy, man, crazy.

Rating: **1/2

Tape 3, Readings By Jack Kerouac On The Beat Generation, is easily the best one of the bunch. This concentrates more on Jack's prose pieces, which is its saving grace. Standout track: "Fantasy: The Early Years Of Bop", which, with the exception of Lester Bangs' essay on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks (collected in his excellent Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung), is probably the best piece of music writing I've come across.

Rating: ****

Tape 4, The Last Word, consists of outtakes from the Blues And Haikus sessions; a speech entitled "Is There A Beat Generation?' from a Brandeis University lecture of the same name, and brief readings from Visions Of Cody and On The Road from a 1959 television appearance. These range from the embarrassingly bad (the Blues And Haikus outtakes, featuring on obviously drunk Kerouac) to the sublime (the '59 TV show readings), which makes the tape a fitting capper to the set.

Rating: **1/2

In sum - if you're a Kerouac fan, you'll probably want to check this out. If you're new to his work, you're probably better off starting with one of his novels - On The Road is probably his best.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melts your mind into the beat mind-set...., January 14, 2003

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Jack Kerouac Collection (Audio Cassette)

If you are familiar with everything Jack Kerouac ever wrote, then this set is a great memory jogger. If you are new to his work it is a superb introduction. Or perhaps you've tried to read him but never got into his "flow of consciousness" style. Then, these recordings teach you how to hear him in your mind- as one long, sweet jazz riff. Just close your eyes and let him transport you to better times and better places. Of course, Kerouac's America is still out there, here and there, in forgotten corners, in special places and special people.

Kerouac was the soul of his age. Who else but Jack could go from commenting on Dostoeveky one minute, then switch to the Three Stooges without missing a beat? Or just as easily go from Sanskrit to skat. And it works. That is because a great soul can encompass entire worlds without contradiction....