VA - The Beat Generation (1992)

The Beat Generation, a three-CD anthology on Rhino Word Beat Records, highlights the legacy of the Beat era in all its manifestations. It gives glimpses of seminal Beat influences like Langston Hughes and Lord Buckley and re-creates, through poetry, jazz, comedy and interview segments, the aura of "hipness" that came to define the Beat Generation. The collection weaves the bop and postbop melodies of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan and others together with classic spoken-word and comedy performances by notables including Kerouac, Kenneth Rexroth and Lenny Bruce. Indeed, when Kerouac, who allegedly coined the term Beat, mouths that his compatriot Herbert Huncke was "ready to introduce a new world with a shrug," he is obliquely alluding to the Beats' invasion of the mainstream. As if to drive that point home, The Beat Generation juxtaposes Beat gods with the murmurings of "77 Sunset Strip" star Ed "Kookie" Byrnes and the confessional lyricism of Rod McKuen. This effect, lumped with vintage documentary excerpts narrated by the likes of Charles Kuralt and Howard K. Smith, illustrates how firmly the Beats gripped the American psyche and confirms their historical significance.

Tracklist:

Disc 1
1. Jack Kerouac - San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation) (1959) (3:09)
2. Bob Mcfadden & Dor - The Beat Generation (1959) (2:03)
3. Footloose in Greenwich Village (1960) (12:32)
4. Langston Hughes with Leonard Feather - Blues Montage (1958) (3:13)
5. Babs Gonzales - Manhattan Fable (1954) (2:37)
6. Ken Nordine - Reaching Into In (1960) (1:53)
7. King Pleasure - Parker's Mood (1953) (2:57)
8. Nelson Riddle - Route 66 Theme (1962) (2:07)
9. Tom Waits - Diamonds on My Windshield (1974) (3:11)
10. William Burroughs - Naked Lunch (Excerpt) (1966) (6:26)
11. Lee Konitz with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Bernie's Tune (1953) (3:32)
12. Don Morrow - Like Rumpelstiltskin (1961) (6:19)
13. Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra - Oop-Pop-A-Da (1947) (3:09)
14. Del Close & John Brent - Basic Hip (1961) (1:11)
15. John Drew Barrymore - Christopher Columbus Digs the Jive (1958) (3:04)
16. Charles Mingus with Jean Shepherd - The Clown (1957) (12:11)
17. Kenneth Patchen with The Chamber Jazz Sextet - The Murder of Two Men by a Young Kid Wearing Lemon Colored Gloves (1958) (1:16)

Disc 2
1. Lord Buckley - The Hip Gahn (1951) (6:10)
2. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - Twisted (1959) (2:15)
3. Slim Gaillard & His Middle Europeans - Yip Roc Heresy (1951) (2:29)
4. Charlie Ventura & His Orchestra - Ha (1949) (2:47)
5. David Amram Quintet with Lynn Sheffield - Pull My Daisy (1971) (4:30)
6. Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen - October in the Railroad Earth (1958) (7:06)
7. Howard K. Smith - The Cool Rebellion (1960) (20:13)
8. Charlie Parker Quartet - Cosmic Rays (1952) (3:05)
9. Edd Byrnes - Kookie's Mad Pad (1959) (2:03)
10. The Gordons with Hank Jones Trio - Bebopper (1953) (2:44)
11. Ken Nordine - Hunger Is From (1957) (3:48)
12. Rod McKuen - No Pictures, Please (1959) (4:04)
13. Perry Como with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra - Like Young (1961) (2:53)
14. Kenneth Rexroth - Married Blues (1960) (3:23)
15. Lenny Bruce - Psychopathia Sexualis (1958) (2:25)

Disc 3
1. Tom Waits - Jack & Neal/California Here I Come (1977) (4:58)
2. Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen - Readings from "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody" (1959) (3:29)
3. Ben Hecht - Interview with Jack Kerouac (1958) (15:30)
4. Don Morrow - Kerouazy (1961) (2:07)
5. Del Close & John Brent - Cool (1961) (3:51)
6. Oscar Brown Jr. - But I Was Cool (1960) (2:54)
7. Del Close & John Brent - Uncool (1961) (0:58)
8. Phillipa Fallon - High School Drag (1958) (2:14)
9. Kenny Clarke & His 52nd Street Boys - Opp-Bop Sh-Bam (1946) (3:04)
10. Three Bips & A Bop, featuring Babs Gonzales - Professor Bop (1949) (2:26)
11. Patsy Raye & The Beatniks - Beatnik's Wish (1959) (2:28)
12. Elmer Bernstein - Like Having Fun (1959) (2:17)
13. Carl Sandburg - On Beatniks (1959) (0:28)
14. Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Swinghouse (1953) (2:54)
15. Charles Kuralt - The Greenwich Village Poets (1959) (1:37)
16. Allen Ginsberg - America (1959) (4:47)