Too fucking cool for school again......you cats know I don't dig that wot is 'IN'. That what is 'IN' is certainly 'OUT' in my opinion, and Kerouac sounds like a bit of a prick to me. I wondered how long it would take him to mention 'Bird' (Charlie Parker,for us 'uncool' cats), and he gets it in after a restrained eight minutes of vinyl time.
I'm a Poet daddio,one who talks 'Hip', who can barely contain his own recognition of his massive importance,and,consequently, self-importance.He wrote a book that still adorns coffee tables to this day,and unwittingly created a stencil for many a wanna-hipster-be to colour in.Casual Sex,hanging out,drug abuse, travelling for no particular reason,writing poetry.....you too can be a Beat Poet,in fact you probably ARE a beat poet;alas,the poetry of this age is more Beaten than Beat.In the French language, 'Bite' (Pronounced Beat) is the word for Prick,so in fact this is 'Prick Poetry'....and why not?
The fact that Kerouac has remained well and truly "IN" fifty years after drinking himself to death,very kool(?),is a testament to his works ability to still appeal to a certain part of the eternal adolescents brain.In this age when everyone dresses as if they were perpetual rock stars,yet we're all so rebellious that we're still willing slaves of our own concepts,juxtaposed.....ah haaaa,yes i've got an English Literature A'Level,what you gonna do about it?.....with an insatiable desire to surround ourselves with 'Plastic Stuff',to enhance our own shallow plastic ego's. We need fantasies that pricks like Kerouac provide for us,and fantasies are just what they are. Travelling is eroding the things that we wanna travel to,while at the same time creating a personal carbon footprint large enough to last sveral lifetimes of rising temperatures.Stick to photographs).Promiscuous sex is at the same level as it's always been....no it didn't all start in 1959. Drug abuse is now exclusively the property of the underclass,who can't afford a can of beans but can effortlessly chase the dragon in front of their plasma screen televisions watching Celebrity Love Island.The very same 'Underclass' are also the ones who are writing the sixth form poetry with a beat,now cleverly rebranded as Hip-Hop culture;the Culture part being somewhat of a misnomer.The Beats certainly has one over the Hip-Hop-hippity hop bop sqwiddely pooooow crew,comfortably outscoring the tracksuited rhymers in the realm of the sartorially elegant. This lot are certainly 'The Beaten Generation' for sure......yes even fucking Stormzy! FFS!
In its way, this album from the king of the Beats, is as funny as any of those many Beatsploitation releases in the same year of '59,and I don't mean Kerouac's lame attempts at humour either.It may have been fresh in 1959,but sixty years hence,you just can't comprehend if he was serious or not? I mean did they really think that Dave Brubeck was the swingingest?
Tracklist:
A1 October In The Railroad Earth 7:09
A2 Deadbelly 1:05
A3 Charlie Parker 3:45
A4 The Sounds Of The Universe Coming In My Window 3:17
A5 One Mother 0:49
A6 Goofing At The Table 1:45
A7 Bowery Blues 3:56
B1 Abraham 1:17
B2 Dave Brubeck 0:31
B3 I Had A Slouch Hat Too One Time 6:12
B4 The Wheel Of The Quivering Meat Conception 1:55
B5 McDougal Street Blues 3:23
B6 The Moon Her Majesty 1:36
B7 I'd Rather Be Thin Than Famous 0:37
B8 Readings From 'On The Road' And 'Visions Of Cody' 3:32
