Dear David. Back in 1970-71 I spent a year cataloguing Allen Ginsberg's tape archives, most of which consisted of recordings of readings. Sometimes we had 25 or 30 recordings of the same poem to choose from. I recall at least four, possibly even six examples of this poem so it was not that uncommon for him to read it. He tended to avoid really short poems as they had to found in his papers or books onstage so he preferred something a bit longer so as not to interrupt the flow of poetry.
Thanks for that insight. That is useful to know, especially about avoiding short poems. I went through a few hundred recordings but only found this one. No doubt there are others that I missed for various reasons. Indeed the reading of this one accompanied various other short works so it must have been a deliberate choice for that event.
A wonderful read, thanks for this. I can imagine Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Cassady and Carr playing with this idea in their endless ongoing conversations, just as Kerouac depicted it in On The Road.
Dear David. Back in 1970-71 I spent a year cataloguing Allen Ginsberg's tape archives, most of which consisted of recordings of readings. Sometimes we had 25 or 30 recordings of the same poem to choose from. I recall at least four, possibly even six examples of this poem so it was not that uncommon for him to read it. He tended to avoid really short poems as they had to found in his papers or books onstage so he preferred something a bit longer so as not to interrupt the flow of poetry.
All the best
Barry Miles
Thanks for that insight. That is useful to know, especially about avoiding short poems. I went through a few hundred recordings but only found this one. No doubt there are others that I missed for various reasons. Indeed the reading of this one accompanied various other short works so it must have been a deliberate choice for that event.
Wow, this is some great research! Well done!
This was an amazing read. Fantastic work!
Thank you. It was a lot of work but at the same time it was a fun process.
A wonderful read, thanks for this. I can imagine Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Cassady and Carr playing with this idea in their endless ongoing conversations, just as Kerouac depicted it in On The Road.
Absolutely. I would've loved to hear them riff on this topic at length.