| Product Summary | | Label: Ryko | | UPC: 00014431032929 | | Release Date: 4/8/1997 | | Buy.com Sku: 60015905 | | Item#: MQMKPN | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Kerouac - Morphine ~ Various Artists |  | | 2. Bowery Blues - Lydia Lunch ~ Various Artists | | | 3. My Gang - Michael Stipe ~ Various Artists | | | 4. Dream: "Us Kids Swim Off A Gray Pier" - Steven Tyler ~ Various Artists | | | 5. Letter To William S. Burroughs & Ode To Jack - Hunter S Thompson ~ Various Artists | | | 6. Skid Row Wine - Maggie Estep/The Spitters ~ Various Artists | | | 7. America's New Trinity Of Love: Dean, Brando, Presley - Richard Lewis ~ Various Artists | | | 8. Dream: "On A Sunny Afternoon..." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti/Helium ~ Various Artists | | | 9. MacDougal Street Blues - Jack Kerouac/Joe Strummer ~ Various Artists | | | 10. Brooklyn Bridge Blues, The (Choruses 1-9) - Allen Ginsberg ~ Various Artists | | | 11. Hymn - Eddie Vedder/Campbell 2000/Sadie 7 ~ Various Artists | | | 12. Old Western Movies - William Burroughs/Tomandandy ~ Various Artists | | | 13. Silly Goofball Pomes - Juliana Hatfield ~ Various Artists | | | 14. Moon, The - John Cale ~ Various Artists | | | 15. "Madroad Driving..." - Johnny Depp/Come ~ Various Artists | | | 16. "Have You Ever Seen Anyone Like Cody Pomeray? - Robert Hunter ~ Various Artists | | | 17. Letter To John Clellon Holmes - Lee Ranaldo/Dana Colley ~ Various Artists | | | 18. Pome On Doctor Sax - Anna Domino ~ Various Artists | | | 19. Mexico Rooftop - Rob Buck/Danny Chauvin ~ Various Artists | | | 20. Last Hotel, The - Patti Smith/Thurson Moore/Lenny Kaye ~ Various Artists | | | 21. Running Through-Chinese Poem Song - Warren Zevon/Michael Wolff ~ Various Artists | | | 22. Woman - Jim Carroll/Lee Ranaldo/Lenny Kaye/Anton Sanco ~ Various Artists | | | 23. Mexican Loneliness - Matt Dillon/Joey Altruda/Joe Gonzales/Pablo Calogero ~ Various Artists | | | 24. Angel Mine - Inger Lorre/Jeff Buckley ~ Various Artists | | | 25. Brooklyn Bridge Blues, The (Chorus 10) - Eric Andersen ~ Various Artists | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | KEROUAC: KICKS JOY DARKNESS is a collection of readings from beat poet Jack Kerouac's oeuvre. Most of these readings have musical backing. | | Engineers include: Mark Sandman, Lydia Lunch, Tom Lewis. | | Fourteen of the 25 tracks on this 79«-minute disc are drawn from Jack Kerouac's poetry book Pomes All Sizes; the rest come from his novels (nothing from On the Road, though) and letters, with some unpublished work is also included. The readers range from Kerouac's contemporaries, William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Allen Ginsberg, and literary offspring like Hunter S. Thompson, to such poet-rockers as Jim Carroll and Patti Smith, and a long list of rock stars including Michael Stipe, Steven Tyler, and Eddie Vedder. Kerouac was not a fan of rock music, instead preferring bebop jazz, so the closest tracks to what he himself would have preferred are associate producer and Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo's excerpt from a letter to John Clellon Holmes, accompanied by saxophonist Dana Colley, Warren Zevon's "Running Through -- Chinese Poem Song," accompanied by pianist Michael Wolff, and Matt Dillon's "Mexican Loneliness," with a jazzy sax and bongo accompaniment. (Kerouac probably wouldn't think much of the Joe Strummer background music tacked onto his own reading of excerpts from "MacDougal Street Blues.") But the closest to Kerouac's own sense of how his work should be read is comedian/actor Richard Lewis, who recites the previously unpublished "America's New Trinity of Love: Dean, Brando, Presley." The selections present a good sampling of Kerouac's literary concerns, and, whether appropriate or not, the recordings demonstrate his extensive influence. ~ William Ruhlmann | | Producer Jim Sampas presents a sampling of Kerouac's writing styles, including "pomes" (short snippets of poetry), "blues" (longer, jazz-influenced choruses of poetry), and "dreams" (snapshots from his dreams). There are also four previously-unpublished pieces. Kerouac's words are set against a variety of musical backgrounds with results as diverse and alive as Kerouac's poetry and prose itself. The tone ranges from the reverence of John Cale's voice and atmospheric keyboard playing on "The Moon" to Maggie Estep's furious, emotional reading of "Skid Row Wine," on which she is backed by the heavy, dark, rock noise of the Spitters. Several actors lend their voices to KICKS JOY DARKNESS, including Johnny Depp and Matt Dillon, as well as numerous rock icons, a few of Kerouac's contemporaries and Kerouac himself, from a scratchy late 1950s recording of "MacDougal Street Blues," with a new, synthy musical accompaniment by ex-Clash frontman Joe Strummer. |
Producer: Jim Sampas (Compilation) |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 04/08/1997 | | Original Release Date : 1997 | | Catalog ID : 10329 | | Label : Ryko Distribution | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00014431032929 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Entertainment Weekly (4/11/97, p.84)
- "An assemblage of writers, actors, and musicians contribute to this unexpectedly robust collection of Saint Jack's lesser-known `pomes'..." - Rating: B |
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