Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation [LIMITED EDITION]

Jack Kerouac

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 28, 1997)
• Original Release Date: October 28, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B0000047EY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,020 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Reading By The Premier Beat Poet, April 27, 2004

By	turtlex "turtlex" (PA USA) - See all my reviews

If you've read any of Kerouac's books, and likely if you're reading this review and considering this purchase, you have - then you are truly in for a treat.

This is an excellent Spoken Word disc.

Hearing Kerouac reading his own words, the wonderful cadence of his voice, the slight Massachusetts accent coming through, the improvised jazz be-bop, and even the very crisp noise registered when he turns the page of his ever present notebook - this is the Kerouac you've wanted to hear since you first read "On The Road".

He expounds on San Francisco, Allen Ginsburg, Jazz and Be-Bop, and impressively The Beats.

Hearing him describe the "beat" in the opening track, the tempo he uses, the tonality in his voice, you'll hear what the "Beat Generation" is all about.

The excellent liner notes and packing, some of which are presented as postcards, indicate this recording was made sometime in 1958 or 1959 and Mr. Jack Kerouac is at his prime.

This is a treasure, a real gift for the Kerouac fan.

I strongly suggest you purchase this excellent recording. The production values are very high. The sound is crisp and clean.

Thank you Verve Records for this real historic find.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The King of Beat Defines Beat, August 15, 1999

By A Customer

Since I read On The Road, Kerouac has changed the way that I viewed prose and poetry. It is here in these recordings that I heard the voice of Jack himself. Often humorous--at times even daring to be silly, he shows how literature isn't dead and dusty meant to be spoonfed to school-children--But it breathes, slides jumps from the soul to the tongue to soul of others. These works are pieces of Jack's vision of the "American Night." They are real, gritty, and intense. Unedited, and bleeding. No cliches. No reliance on sentiment. So if your ready for real art, put down that Tom Clancy novel, and check this CD out for yourself.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The angel bone is connected to the God bone....", August 7, 1999

By A Customer

The words seem to flow from an other wordly source much as mantras flow from the mouths of tired old bhikkus. It's nice to hear Jack himself read his works not some later day rock musicians posing as "literary types" who probably read On the Road once just to tell their friends they are "hip." You can get stoned from this CD alone.