Now I understand why, as a student in 1970, I never quite trusted the “knowingness” of some of my trendy, “way-out” contemporaries. Salvaging at least something from the ruins, as an admirer of Ginsberg’s Whitman-esque expansiveness and honesty, I have picked up something of the atmosphere of the period which could be both visionary and sometimes shoddy. And of course, from his manner, I guess that Ginsberg IS playing bard and seer (unless he is cynically “playing” his audience). Worst of all are the HOWLS of mirth from those listening, I guess from “fellow-travellers”, who might not normally go near a poem, but are here to support a sage-guru and are possibly a little embarrassed about it all, when not in awe of the Master.

Ginsberg’s delivery is slurring and indistinct. So I won't.įor some reason, Audible won’t let me return this. I rarely watch the new or get involved in politics, because it's mostly noise to me that I can no longer afford to pay attention to for my own sanity. I appreciate it for what it was, but it had no use for me. The kind of emotions a teenager or one who has long been bitter and never healed from trauma might express. But I didn't feel like he contributed much to these topics other than raw anger or disgust. They are at least cohesive in the sense that they swirl around a particular subject war, tragedy, personal and pollical greed, injustice, and so on. All the poems had the feel of someone taking a stab at automatic writing, very free-associative, stream of consciousness stuff. I don't know if it would have been possible, some of the recordings are just so muddy and I didn't like the way in which the audience reactions sometimes drowned out the readings. The audio quality was just bad, nothing done to clean these up. The poems are delivered by the original author and the recordings are clearly taken from his public appearances where he performed these pieces.

This was recommended to me by a friend and it clearly resonated with him, so I bought it as we have similar tastes.

Howl and other poems