Notes & Personnel Info |  | Recorded in San Francisco, California in 1959. | | Personnel: Allen Ginsberg (vocals). | | Audio Remasterer: Joe Tarantino. | | Liner Note Authors: Anne Waldman; Allen Ginsberg. | | Recording information: Big Table Reading, Shaw Festival, Chicago, IL (01/1959-06/1959); Fantasy Stuidos, Natoma Street, San Francisco, CA (01/1959-06/1959). | | Photographer: Peter Orlovsky. | | Allen Ginsberg was the poet laureate of the beat generation and a figurehead of the counter-cultural movement of the '50s and '60s. He was as much--if not more--a social force (whose causes included gay liberation, the legalization of drugs, and the general protestation of any obstacles to the freeing of the human spirit) as he was a literary figure. Ginsberg travelled tirelessly in his crusade for higher consciousness, leading talks, hosting happenings, and giving readings. | | This collection, recorded in 1959, is the definitive beat poetry document. HOWL gathers some of Ginsberg's best and best-known poetry (characterized by long strophes and associative imagery)--covering pieces as celebrated as "America," "A Supermarket In California," and "Howl" itself, the poem that came to define a generation. Throughout, Ginsberg's wry tenor invests his works with alternately stentorian, tortured, hushed, and good-naturedly humorous slants. A portrait of Ginsberg, the man, emerges alongside that of Ginsberg, the artist. To his immortal credit, Ginsberg went to great lengths to merge the two, and HOWL is a riveting, historically significant, and enduring testament to his rare gift. |
Producer: Bill Belmont (Reissue) |
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