Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation) - Jack Kerouac
2. Beat Generation - Bob McFadden
3. Footloose in Greenwich Village
4. Blues Montage - Leonard Feather, Langston Hughes
5. Manhattan Fable - Babs Gonzales
6. Reaching into In - Ken Nordine
7. Parker's Mood - King Pleasure
8. Route 66 Theme - Nelson Riddle
9. Diamonds on My Windshield - Tom Waits
10. Naked Lunch [Excerpt] - William S. Burroughs
11. Bernie's Tune - Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan Quartet
12. Like Rumpelstiltskin - Don Morrow
13. Oop-Pop-A-Da - Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra
14. Basic Hip - John Brent, Del Close
15. Christopher Columbus Digs the Jive - John Barrymore
16. Clown - Charles Mingus, Jean Shepherd
17. Murder of Two Men by a Young Kid Wearing Lemon Colored Gloves - Chamber Jazz Sextet, Kenneth Patchen

Disc 2:

1. Hip Gahn - Lord Buckley
2. Twisted - Jon Hendricks, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Ross
3. Yip Roc Heresy - Slim Gaillard & His Middle Europeans,
4. Ha! - Charlie Ventura
5. Pull My Daisy - David Amram, Lynn Sheffield
6. October in the Railroad Earth - Steve Allen, Jack Kerouac
7. Cool Rebellion - Howard Smith, Howard Smith
8. Cosmic Rays - Charlie Parker
9. Kookie's Mad Pad - Edd Byrnes
10. Bebopper - Gordons, Hank Jones
11. Hunger Is From - Ken Nordine
12. No Pictures Please - Rod McKuen
13. Like Young - Mitchell Ayres, Perry Como
14. Married Blues - Kenneth Rexroth
15. Psychopathia Sezualis - Lenny Bruce

Disc 3:

1. Jack and Neal / California, Here I Come - Tom Waits
2. Readings from "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody" - Steve Allen, Jack Kerouac
3. Interview With Jack Kerouac - Ben Hecht
4. Kerouazy - Don Morrow
5. Cool - John Brent, Del Close
6. But I Was Cool - Oscar Brown, Jr.
7. Uncool - John Brent, Del Close
8. High School Drag - Phillipa Fallon
9. Oop-Bop SH-Bam - Kenny Clarke & His 52nd Street Boys
10. Professor Bop - Babs Gonzales, Three Bips & A Bop
11. Beatnik's Wish - Patsy Raye & The Beatniks,
12. Like Having Fun - Elmer Bernstein
13. On Beatniks - Carl Sandburg
14. Swinghouse - Gerry Mulligan, Gerry Mulligan Quartet
15. Greenwich Village Poets - Charles Kuralt
16. America - Allen Ginsberg

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132296 in Music
• Released on: 1992-11-17
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com
This three-disc set is a gold mine for anyone with even a passing interest in the music, the poetry, and the people of the beat era. The stars--Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs--are here, of course. But so are the players (Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan), the architects (Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth), the cutups (Lenny Bruce, Lord Buckley), the pretenders (Rod McKuen, Edd Byrnes), the critics (Carl Sandburg, Howard K. Smith), and the heirs (Tom Waits). What a great selection of vibrant poetry, hip music, and sonic ephemera. The well-annotated booklet offers classic photos, historical context, cool quotes, and, perhaps most important, an extensive "Beat Bookshelf" that will lead to further exploration. Dig this crazy box, man! --Michael Ruby

Customer Reviews

the end all
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 .

Root, Vout and Dig It ! ! !
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.)

It's 1957 Forever!
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!