by Robert Wilkinson
Yes, the great Allen Ginsberg would have been 98 today.
Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was one of the original Beat Generation poets, and a major figure in almost every “countercultural” movement since the 50s, from gay rights to the psychedelic era and beyond. He was passionately antiwar, as well as opposed to predatory capitalism and the sexually repressed American culture. His most famous work was “Howl,” which landed him in legal hot water and was a turning point in how homosexuality was viewed by the American public.
I had the privilege of hosting Allen and his partner Peter Orlovsky for an event on the University of Texas campus in 1979 at my second Texas Festival of Metaphysics and Music. Those yearly Festivals were a multi-day series of events involving dozens of various types of musical performances, art shows, poetry readings, Eastern and Western philosophical and metaphysical talks, and other non-classifiable cultural events around the city, all for free. While it was daunting at times, it certainly proved that a group of people working together could put on some world class shows without spending a fortune!
In the event featuring Allen and Peter on the UT campus, I saw hundreds of students show up on the West Mall for what they believed was a curiosity, and had their minds blown when the two went into “New York City - Get Your Shit Together.” (Yes, it flipped out the Young Republicans handing out propaganda on the mall.) We then adjourned to another venue, where Gregory Corso offered his own magic in a feast of wordplay. Those events were unique in the history of Austin!
Anyway, here are a few clips of this seminal figure of 20th century Beat culture.
His 25 minute video from 1956, Allen Ginsberg - Reading at the Poetry Center, San Francisco State University, October 25, 1956 has disappeared. I could only find this one piece, A Supermarket in California from that 3 part performance. “In Back of the Real” was the second part, and “Howl I, II, III” the third part.
I found this 30 minute film clip of NET Presents USA Poetry – Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I still have his 20 minute Big Table Chicago Reading in 1959 of Howl
Here’s a few minutes of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady at City Lights Bookstore
Last year I had the complete 27 minute video of his 1994 interview on the BBC. This year I found it in two clips.
An Interview with Allen Ginsberg Pt. 1 An Interview with Allen Ginsberg Pt. 2This year something strange happened. 2 years ago I had 53 minutes of Allen being interviewed at ACTV in Austin, where I was an indie producer and (for a year) the program director when I worked there from 1985-1989. That show was titled Allen Ginsberg on “Writers Uncensored”. This year it’s gone. However, I found part one of Allen Ginsberg’s 1978 Interview on ACTV.
From, Buckley’s television show Firing Line, Allen Ginsberg reads his LSD poem to William F Buckley
This is great! It's definitely a statement about the US government, the military industrial complex, capitalists, manipulators, and religion, all set to playful music by Macca! From the BBC in 1994,
Allen Ginsberg and Paul McCartney – The Ballad of the Skeletons (You can find these amazing lyrics at this link: Ballad of the Skeletons)
Here’s a movie from 2006 of amazing footage of this equally amazing man of arts and letters! An Elegy for Allen Ginsberg
Here’s a great blog with a bunch of links to Allen Ginsberg performances and interviews! The Allen Ginsberg Project
Thanks for everything, Allen. You and Jack and Neal and David and Gregory and William and the rest blew my young mind, blew America’s mind, and kicked open the doors to all we regard as “counterculture.” You definitely pushed the envelope, and saw America grow up just a little because you refused to accept the uptight repression of the button down “Mad Men” Republican culture of the era. Thanks for sticking your neck out. But for that, none of us would have known the liberation that stared us in the face.
Copyright © 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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