Jack Benny-EMI Comedy [Import]

jack benny-emi comedy [import]

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
UK budget-price compilation on EMI Gold. This collection of live recordings includes several classic moments with Mary Livingston, Rochester, Phil Harris, Don Wilson, Dennis Day, Mel Blanc & Bob Crosby. 2002.

Jack Benny-EMI Comedy,Jack Benny,EMI Gold,Comedy,Soundtrack

Jack Benny-EMI Comedy [Import]

Average customer rating:

Had the Universe in his Hand.
A Superb Voice Searches for and Finds Itself
Jack the Great
This is the greatest treat of the beatnik era.
joy & sorrow

The Jack Kerouac Collection
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

What Happened to Kerouac?
Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation
Reads on the Road
The Windblown World: The Journals Of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954
Desolation Angels

ASIN: B0000032RQ
Release Date: 1990-06-12

Tracks:

October In The Railroad Earth - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
Deadbelly - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
Charlie Parker - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
The Sounds Of The Universe Coming In My Window - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
One Mother - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
Goofing At The Table - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
Bowery Blues - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
Abraham - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
Dave Brubeck - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
I Had A Slouch Hat Too One Time - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
The Wheel Of The Quivering Meat Conception - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
McDougal Street Blues - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
The Moon Her Majesty - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
I'd Rather Be Thin Than Famous - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen
Readings From 'On The Road' and 'Visions Of Cody' - Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen

Tracks:

American Haikus - Jack Kerouac
Hard Hearted Old Farmer - Jack Kerouac
The Last Hotel & Some Of The Dharma - Jack Kerouac
Poems From The Unpublished 'Book Of Blues' - Jack Kerouac
Old Western Movies - Jack Kerouac
Conclusion Of The Railroad Earth - Jack Kerouac

Tracks:

The Beat Generation - Jack Kerouac
Poems (Fragments): San Francisco/Street Scene/Money Honey/Westinghouse Elevators/Old Age... - Jack Kerouac
Lucien Midnight: The Sounds Of The Universe In My Window, Pt. 1 - Jack Kerouac
Lucien Midnight: The Sounds Of The Universe In My Window, Pt. II - Jack Kerouac
Fantasy: The Early History Of Bop - Jack Kerouac
Excerpts From 'The Subterraneans' - Jack Kerouac
Visions Of Neal: Neal And The Three Stooges, Pt. I - Jack Kerouac
Visions Of Neal: Neal And The Three Stooges, Pt.II - Jack Kerouac
Is There A Beat Generation? - Jack Kerouac

Amazon.com

As a reader and performer of his own words, Kerouac wasn't as potent as his beat-generation pals. He lacked the greasy charisma of Allen Ginsberg or the razor squawk of William Burroughs. But what Kerouac did have was real joy, a certain innocence (despite his wild experiences), and an Everyman's charm. This last quality infects these historic recordings, making Kerouac's freethinking, beautiful words and images jump out of the past with as much potency as when he laid them down in the late 1950s. The Collection gathers Kerouac's three albums (which feature the author riffing alongside jazzmen Steve Allen, Zoot Sims, and Al Cohn) and a brace of bonus tracks. The performances are coupled with expansive liner notes, photos, and commentary. This set is required beat listening. --Michael Ruby

Customer Reviews:

Had the Universe in his Hand........2007-07-01

I can't express enough how spell binding this experience was for me. I am a poet and listening to this was pure ecstasy. He speaks the language of the street with the rhythm of nature. He had his hands on the pulse of America and his ears were open to the invisible words of the ancients. Its not enough to explain it. You have to listen to it yourself. It is purely timeless and not a relic at all. It is still relevant for these times. You will waft on magic winds going deep into the heart of the cities and looking right into the souls of the people you meet along the way.
That being said this set is beautifully packaged. At first when it came in the mail I thought it was a vinyl and the seller had made a mistake. It was just a big package and as big as a vinyl. Inside there is a big book that gives lots of interesting information on Jack and the recordings inside. All recorded in 1959, they were controversial for the time. As you will hear there is sex and drug references in the poetry. "Poetry for the Beat Generation" has Jack spitting out his poetry like words of a God and Steve Allen adding piano to the background. The piano is a beautiful touch and adds a magical and melodic ripple to the poetry. Yes it is that Steve Allen who had his own TV show. The president of Dot records the label it was originally on, deemed it obscene and wanted only family oriented stuff. Rob Thiele one of the producers of the album got pissed and quit Dot because of that. Steve and Rob got the masters back and started their own company Hanover/signature and released it independently. Next they did "Blues and Haikus" which is different for the fact that Jack has sax backing his words this time. Al Cohn and Zoot Sims performing the honors, providing a jazzy backdrop to Jack's rapid fire Haikus and poems. "On the Beat Generation" is just Jack and his voice, this proves he doesn't need instruments for his poetry to have power. His voice is a instrument in it's self and it has a calming rhythm all its own. It has in it the working man's dreams, a god's conversation and a mind's wanderings. This was great and this set does perfect justice to the man and to the legend who inspired so many.

A Superb Voice Searches for and Finds Itself.......2006-12-19

A friend gave me this great CD collection and photo book for Christmas 2000 a month after we met. I listened to it sparingly then, but lately when I have trouble sleeping, I put one of its three great CDs on to soothe me to sleep and encounter my own personal Book of Dreams. There is Kerouac with Steve Allen riffing "October in the Railroad Earth" from "Lonesome Traveler", scatting Charlie Parker and Dave Brubeck, and most spectacular of all, a bonus track with Jack reading from "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody." I never have heard anything quite as haunting and poignant as Jack reading the final passage from "On The Road" ... "Dean Moriarty the father we never found," followed by applause. Having read almost all of Kerouac in the ten years of my foolish youth beginning at age 15, I grew disenchanted with him as the years dragged on. These audios are a new inspiration to us burn-outs; it will be quite a while before I listen to that final passage again, delivered with sober humbleness, and thought for new appraisal of the blazing artistry behind the man. The second CD is the Verve recording of "The Beat Generation" with finely honed rapid=fire haikus and other bebop poetry as well as "Visions of Neal" and bonus track "Is There A Beat Generation" at Brandeis in November 1959. The third CD has haikus, and very notably some of the very late posthumously released gargantuan "Some of (the) Dharma" and also "Conclusion of the Railroad Earth". There subsequently have been several other Kerouac CDs worth searching out; all prove his true genius and that he was not just another drunken bum. Hearing his voice, sober, clear, racing, and spooky, gives a whole new light to his written art, indelibly making clear that he was in fact a great true scat and jazz artist. Nobody should miss this one. It raised my opinion of him as an editor-sanitized pretender to one of the most important voices and writers of American literature ever.

Jack the Great.......2006-08-31

Jack Kerouac is not my favorite "Beat" writer...that goes to Lawrence Ferlinghetti...but Jack has a style that many have tried and have successfully failed to imitate. He's an original. He's one-of-a-kind. He's totally his own. I mean, we all are, but his originality goes deeper than his footprints...his is right at the core and whenever you come from the core of beingness, you stamp everything you touch with a kind of sacred beauty.

Mind you, it does not make everything flawless. But that's the beauty of life, there is perfection in imperfection. Perfection is not stingy. It is not greedy. Perfection flows through everything even though it may be channeled through some pretty imperfect channels.

"Jack Kerouac. Bum saint. Priest of the down 'n out. Reluctant messiah of the spoken/broken word that cries everytime someone crucifies it with form and arrangement and rules...what fools who do this for they miss the elegance, the beauty, the dance that comes from a mind fixed on trance being...seeing only ironic catholic statues weeping at the lost and the sleeping...."

There's my tribute to a man that I deeply cherish.

This collection is quite good. It really paints a great picture of the artist and gives you almost a voyeuristic view of a guy who really didn't want to be the "leader" of the "Beat Generation".

He's gone now and the literary world has somehow never been quite the same. Somehow writers nowadays think that all their writing has to be of a high gloss sheen...that it has to be perfect...that it has to be over-edited...get raw...seek awe...and you will glorify the "I" of the soul.

This is the greatest treat of the beatnik era........2005-09-09

From the first sound of the piano on "October in the Railroad Earth", you will know then that your money was well spent on this set. The book inside with all of the pictures and quotes from fellow beats such as Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and many others along with 3 discs of Jack reading his poetry and prose, what could be better?
The first disc is Jack reading accompanied by Steve Allen on piano. His best pieces are found here, such as "October", "Charlie Parker", "I had a slouch hat too one time", and the famous reading of "On the Road" from The Steve Allen Show.
The second disc is when Jack is in the studio with Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, two brilliant sax players, and it has a loose feel with the restarts and the talking in the background before a take. The jewel on here is the readings from the then unpublished Book of Blues.
The last disc is simply Jack reading with no music, but the rhythm of his speech is easily heard and it is a joy to listen to.
this is the essential set for fans of Kerouac or anyone interested in the beat era. A must buy!

joy & sorrow.......2004-02-12

The first album in this box set, which contains 15 tracks of Kerouac reciting prose while Steve Allen plays beautiful jazz piano, is dazzling. There is something magical and heartbreaking about the record.. Listening to it makes you feel as if you're sitting next to Jack himself at a bar, drinking, as he tells you these stories and talks to you. For any fan of Kerouac's writing, this album is a must. Once you've heard this, you will read his books knowing the sweet voice that is talking emphatically.

Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation

Average customer rating:

Wow!
Outstanding Reading By The Premier Beat Poet
The King of Beat Defines Beat
"The angel bone is connected to the God bone...."
this be beat

Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Poetry | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Spoken Word | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Reads on the Road
The Jack Kerouac Collection
Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness
Howl and Other Poems (Pocket Poets)
What Happened to Kerouac?

ASIN: B0000047EY
Release Date: 1997-10-28

Tracks:

San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation)
San Francisco Blues (Fragments)
Lucien Midnight: The Sounds Of The Universe In My Window
History Of Bop
The Subterraneans
Visions Of Neal (Neal And The Three Stooges)

Customer Reviews:

Wow!.......2007-01-17

I was prepared to like the content; I've been a Kerouac fan for 40 years. What blew me away was the packaging. Included are postcards describing the various tracks, with photos and quotations. The combination of the tracks and the way the CD is packaged make it irrestible. What a great gift for a fan this would be!

Outstanding Reading By The Premier Beat Poet.......2004-04-27

If you've read any of Kerouac's books, and likely if you're reading this review and considering this purchase, you have - then you are truly in for a treat.

This is an excellent Spoken Word disc.

Hearing Kerouac reading his own words, the wonderful cadence of his voice, the slight Massachusetts accent coming through, the improvised jazz be-bop, and even the very crisp noise registered when he turns the page of his ever present notebook - this is the Kerouac you've wanted to hear since you first read "On The Road".

He expounds on San Francisco, Allen Ginsburg, Jazz and Be-Bop, and impressively The Beats.

Hearing him describe the "beat" in the opening track, the tempo he uses, the tonality in his voice, you'll hear what the "Beat Generation" is all about.

The excellent liner notes and packing, some of which are presented as postcards, indicate this recording was made sometime in 1958 or 1959 and Mr. Jack Kerouac is at his prime.

This is a treasure, a real gift for the Kerouac fan.

I strongly suggest you purchase this excellent recording. The production values are very high. The sound is crisp and clean.

Thank you Verve Records for this real historic find.

The King of Beat Defines Beat.......1999-08-16

Since I read On The Road, Kerouac has changed the way that I viewed prose and poetry. It is here in these recordings that I heard the voice of Jack himself. Often humorous--at times even daring to be silly, he shows how literature isn't dead and dusty meant to be spoonfed to school-children--But it breathes, slides jumps from the soul to the tongue to soul of others. These works are pieces of Jack's vision of the "American Night." They are real, gritty, and intense. Unedited, and bleeding. No cliches. No reliance on sentiment. So if your ready for real art, put down that Tom Clancy novel, and check this CD out for yourself.

"The angel bone is connected to the God bone....".......1999-08-07

The words seem to flow from an other wordly source much as mantras flow from the mouths of tired old bhikkus. It's nice to hear Jack himself read his works not some later day rock musicians posing as "literary types" who probably read On the Road once just to tell their friends they are "hip." You can get stoned from this CD alone.

this be beat.......1998-11-22

Almost certainly (benzedrine?) charged by something illicit in the bloodstream Kerouac here rumbles and clear throatedly gives a word-slinging embrace to the microphone, there's power in these words, he punctuates it by stops and hesitations you can hear the paper rustling as he moves on. It was my first time hearing his voice and as that tired whiskey broken tone carried over the jazz and the beautiful women I can again understand the allure of beat again.

Average customer rating:

Excellent set of Kerouac rarities
Outstanding view of Kerouac's "other" talent.
No one reads Kerouac like Kerouac.
This "Jack" Misses The High Notes
Kerouac good. Amram bad.

Reads on the Road
Jack Kerouac
Manufacturer: Rykodisc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Poetry | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Spoken Word | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Comedy & Spoken Word | Miscellaneous | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation
The Jack Kerouac Collection
Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness
What Happened to Kerouac?
Jack Kerouac - King of the Beats

ASIN: B00001IVLG
Release Date: 1999-09-14

Tracks:

Ain't We Got Fun
On The Road (Jazz Of The Beat Generation)
On The Road (Song)
Come Rain Or Shine
Orizaba 210 Blues
When A Woman Loves A Man
Leavin' Town
Washington D.C. Blues
On The Road

Amazon.com

This collection scrapes the bottom of the Jack Kerouac barrel, unearthing Kerouac documents both worthy of public scrutiny and ones that are not. The title to this CD is a tad misleading, as it begins with a late-1950s session of Kerouac singing, to jazz accompaniment, a song written for him by Sammy Kahn. There are several jump jazz tunes with Kerouac's scat-flavored vocalizings; they will be of interest solely to fans. Hipster music is added to several works, by avant-funk keyboardist John Medeski and the jazz musician David Amram, who'd collaborated with Kerouac on Robert Frank's magnificent beat-era film Pull My Daisy. The meat of the collection is the 28-plus-minute previously unreleased reading of On the Road, a section that depicts the novel's two central protagonists in the jazz haunts of San Francisco. Kerouac's enthused (if affected) and likable jive-bop poesy really comes alive on this cleaned-up acetate recording; thankfully there is no '90s hipster music added to it. The other work of interest is a fragmentary song called "On the Road," which appears in a pseudo-original state (with Medeski organ added) and in a bluesy, ballsy interpretation by Tom Waits backed by Ralph Carney and Primus. --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews:

Excellent set of Kerouac rarities.......2006-09-07

When Rykodisc released their excellent Kerouac tribute CD, Kicks Joy Darkness many people felt that they would be hard pressed to top that album. Well, we were wrong; they have indeed topped it, and with a CD of rare material by Jack Kerouac himself.

The stand-out item on this set has got to be Jack's thirty minute reading of the "Jazz of the Beat Generation" section from On the Road. Although Kerouac recorded extracts from his most famous book almost fifty years ago, none were ever released and the tapes were thought to be lost. A complete On the Road album was planned at the time, but never materialized, and there has long been a search for the recordings that Jack made at his Verve session in the last week of February 1958. During that week in New York, Kerouac recorded an album with Steve Allen on piano, released on the Dot and Hanover labels, and enough material for three other LPs of unaccompanied readings for Verve: "Four goddam albums in one week," as Jack wrote to his poet friend Philip Whalen. One of the three Verve LPs ("Readings on the Beat Generation") was issued by the company at the time, but the other two, including the planned On the Road set, did not appear; the master tapes have never been located.

Now that an extract from On the Road has finally been released on CD, can it be from the lost session? The answer has to be almost certainly yes. The liner notes tell us it came from (mislabelled) acetates in the possession of the Kerouac estate. These acetate discs were the sort of thing that record companies would quickly press from their master tapes in order to allow the performer to listen to their recordings prior to release. There's evidence from Kerouac's letters to friends in the summer of 1958 that he had been listening to these acetates at home, and was eagerly awaiting their release. "Greatest poetry records since Dylan Thomas ... I really read like a bitch," he told Ginsberg. Two 12-inch acetates recently found amongst Kerouac's possessions contain, according to handwritten titles on the labels: "Early History of Jazz", "Excerpts from The Subterraneans", "Zoot Sims", and "Charlie Parker" (in two parts). It is the "Charlie Parker" tracks which are mislabelled and actually play the On the Road extract. The first two tracks listed appeared on the single Verve LP released at the time, and this helps confirm that the On the Road reading comes from that same February 1958 session. "Zoot Sims", so far unreleased, is a short poem called "Hurrah for Zoot Sims", actually chorus #32 of Orlanda Blues, which Jack wrote in Florida just a few days before travelling to New York for his recording sessions.

But how come the mistitling of the On the Road extract as "Charlie Parker"? When Jack was anticipating these recordings in January 1958, he wrote to friends that he was going to be recording for Verve "in front of unreleased [Charlie] Parker tape," so this may explain the labelling. In fact, this did not happen, and in June he told Philip Whalen that "the three albums I made for Norman Granz [at Verve] are being listened to by Shorty Rodgers and Jimmy Giuffre, and then they're going to compose scores over it." Rodgers and Giuffre, prominent jazz musicians, would no doubt have been given similar acetates from which to hear Jack's voice and compose their accompaniments. Again, nothing came of this plan, and, apart from the one unaccompanied Verve LP by Jack, no other material from that session was ever released -- until now. So, although the master tapes have still not been found -- the search will hopefully continue -- we are indeed lucky that we are able to hear a section of the missing material courtesy of these acetate discs.

Jack's reading of this item is as magnificent as expected, and it has to be the highlight of the CD. Strictly speaking, what Jack reads is "Jazz of the Beat Generation", a piece he wrote for publication in New World Writing in 1955, which mixes together extracts from On the Road and Visions of Cody. There are large sections of the text in On the Road as well as subtle differences. The unnamed tenorman/singer who Kerouac describes himself and Neal digging in 1949 at a San Francisco jazz-club in On the Road becomes two separate people in this reading -- a tenorman, and a singer named Freddy, who has recently been identified, from a Neal Cassady letter, as Freddy Strong, a vocalist and conga drum player who went on to tour and record with Dizzy Gillespie two years later.

Jack mimics Freddy's singing well in this reading, and there are more examples of his vocal work to come. The following track is a home recording of Jack singing a song called "On the Road", which includes lines from the one to be found in Part Four of the book as well as others from the short story The Rumbling, Rambling Blues, backed by a simple but effective dubbed-on guitar and keyboard accompaniment. The album finishes with another version of the same song, this time performed by Tom Waits with the band Primus. There are four other songs on the CD, all sung by Jack, backed by jazz musicians in his friend Jerry Newman's New York recording studio in the late 1950s or early '60s. On these standard ballads, although obviously high, Jack performs creditably, even if he does invent some lyrics of his own along the way, and the quality of his singing voice is bound to be a pleasant surprise for many.

Two further tracks feature Jack reading his blues poems Orizaba 210 Blues (the first thirteen choruses), and Washington D.C. Blues, and for these performances David Amram, an old friend of Kerouac's, has composed special soundtracks to accompany and enhance Jack's readings. Although it is suggested in the notes that the original tape of Orizaba 210 Blues was also made at Jerry Newman's, it is now thought that both blues poems were probably recorded by Jack at home. As was common with Kerouac's home recordings, a record, usually by Sinatra, was playing in the background. This was felt by the producers to be a distraction to Jack's readings and so was reduced using the latest digital technology, with Amram's sensitive musical score further masking the intrusions, although small bursts can occasionally still be heard under the added music. It's good to hear Jack read from Orizaba 210 Blues, the only other performance from that poem so far available being the "Slouch Hat" section on the album with Steve Allen. The Washington D.C. Blues reading is also lively, and includes the delightful little poem "Schatzi is a Dachshund", a version of which, illustrated by artist Teura Maffei, is in the Fales Collection at New York University.

So, an altogether fascinating collection of 75 minutes of the rarest Kerouac material, expertly performed by the master himself, and a must for all enthusiasts. Producers Jim Sampas and Lee Ranaldo are to be congratulated on putting it all together so well, and the hope must be that even more of the same is to follow.

Outstanding view of Kerouac's "other" talent........2005-09-09

Very few people know that Jack Kerouac sang on a few recordings. I bought this CD thinking that it was all poetry readings, but soon found out that only 3 tracks are of him reading poetry, 5 are of him singing bop songs and lastly, a seriously crap version of the "On the road" song by Tom Waits. If you buy it for the readings, which most do, be warned that only 3 tracks are of his poetry, but the combined 3 readings contain over 50 minutes of his reading. Most people enjoy the reading of "On the Road", which is aroung 29 minutes long, but that time flies by as you are envisioning what Jack saw on the road. The conflicting part lies in the other two readings, where the reading is backed by Dave Amram, who leads the jazz behind. I have to admit that sometimes the music kind of strays from what Kerouac is saying, but it is still just a filler to back the emotion of Jack's words, and that is all that matters. Now for the songs. Even though it is easy to tell that Jack had an untrained singing voice, he still had the talent. The best example is his version of "When a Woman loves a Man". "Ain't we got fun" is a good opener, with the humorous dedication to "lovely, shapely, skinny Sue Evans, with the beautiful box." The only problem on here is Tom Waits. Hearing Jack sing the song "On the Road" which he wrote is simply beautiful to hear. Mr. Waits on the other hand runs the song into the ground. It is truly an insult to that song.
The Conclusion is that this CD is well worth the price. It has the feel of cold evening walks, like in early winter, when it is sprinkling outside. An essential disc for any Kerouac fan.

No one reads Kerouac like Kerouac........2004-10-01

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Track 1: 'Ain't We Got Fun' 2:31

Imagine if you will a small dimly lit club on the lower east side - not far from the docks. It's drizzling outside, a dark winters night. We're inside, with or without our lady friends, there's a chink of glasses, but no murmur of conversation as there aren't many of us in that night. A four piece group on stage: sax, piano, bass, and drums have just eased up from playing a slow improvised blues. A cop car wails outside in the night and a girl at the bar is about to tell her feller what she'd said to her brother that day.
The pianist rises from his stool and beckons Jack Kerouac to come up on stage and join them for a couple numbers. The barman, the club manager, and one or two customers recognise Jack as the newly published author but generally it's a low key introduction, no applause, and Jack needs encouragement from the small group of friends he's with to get up there. He says something to the musicians, leans his backside against the high stool, feet apart and square on the ground, reaches out, takes the microphone from it's stand and announces: "Jack Kerouac is dedicating this number to lovely, beautiful, skinny, shapely, Sue Evans - with the beautiful box!"
The pianist has left his piano and introduces the number on a jaunty xylophone. "In The Evening ain't we got fun " start's Jack. He's had a couple to overcome his stage nerves and after straining the first few words, he improvises and cracks some good humoured jokes to "Sue Evans" allowing himself to relax a little and settle into the groove of the song. The straying from the lyric and frequent flat-notes strangely make it more appealing as though through it all it's evident that Jack loves this kind of night club jazz and the effort and soul are there if the slick professionalism is not. His mind has been formed by digging this music for the past twenty years, so he sings no other. It's Buddy Greco meets Billy Holiday. (My mother said, on hearing Billy Holiday - this is how women sing when they're drunk). Jack sings jazz like you'd sing jazz if you forgot yourself for a moment.
He sings jazz like Fred Flintstone sings jazz only with a single-malt smoothed talking, singing voice: 'They're having troubles in old London Town, Oh eee .. Cold roast beef and Worcester Sauce", Jack is such a universalist, eventually he makes it all his own: "Da boppajah de baby... Wop a do be do do do"
Beautiful sweet rhythm playing by the quartet gets the customers clapping along to the swing. By the end of the tune it's jumping.

Track 2: "On the Road" (Jazz of the Beat Generation) 28:40
Now Jack's home alone much later that same night, Sue Evans droped him off in her car as she's got work the following morning, as it is she won't get much sleep, it must be 3am already. Jack settles down with a final drink by the dying embers of a fire, takes up a proof copy of a soon to be published book, turns on his tape recorder and keeping his voice down so as not to wake Memere upstairs, starts to read:

"Out we jumped in the warm mad night, hearing a wild ten nerman's balling horn across the way going eee-ya eee-ya and hands clapping" Jack starts a little nervously, finding his voice, which as we noticed in the club earlier - is beautiful, not guttural-beat as you might imagine but with a lightness to it like a young preacher telling you - 'yes, there is a thing called love...', there becomes an urgency to it.

He's describing a "sawdust saloon" and we're back in the 'fifties, on wooden floorboards, beer stains all over, piss stains in the 'jon', bent bottle tops lying around. It's a wonderful 'down home' scene that Sal (the narrator), Dean Moriarty (his friend) and their girlfriends Galatia and Alice have hit to ball the night away. And of course Jack describes it brilliantly: "strange floppy women wandering around" does that mean fat women sloppily dressed in loose frocks? I ask myself. Where,in a poem somewhere (on another C.D.) Jack says: "and the flop comes on" does he mean evening falls and everybody relaxes and lets it all hang out? It's an American thing.
But we're back circa 1947 maybe in that barn of a pub with Sal, Dean and the girls digging the jazz band and chasing it around. Wonderful descriptions of the band playing and the place jumping with seemingly not a person in the audience undescribed until your heads spinning and you're there with them. Jack building the scene in words so that that venue in 1949 exists here in 1999! (or should I say here in the new Millennium). And Jack, bent over in the chair now, tape wheels turning, hot embers in front and cold night steeling in behind him unnoticed as now he's lost in warm summer evening '49 as his warm honeyed tones toast that night with the rhythm and flow that Jacks writing, unique in the world, has.

There's remarkably good characterisation in Jack's reading voice effortlessly changing from the parlance of the black singer "Freddy" to the white fan "Dean", a wonderful ear for dialect and ethnic mannerism. I love it when describing Freddy as being dressed "like a pimp in Mecca" he checks himself realising that Mecca is a holy city and not wishing to offend Muslims out of plain courtesy he adds: "where there are no pimps".

It's not just description, but like a great painter he includes his impression of what he see's with an original honest eye. Also displaying the aforementioned ceaseless flow and rhythm so without even catching his breath Jack sends the words cascading and swirling down into the black hole which is all our hearts. But we're not finished yet as Sal and Dean abandoned by the girls join some of the musicians in jumping in a car to ball it clear across San Francisco to another jumping club, with great in-car conversations and Jack becomes the master actor and proves that nobody reads Kerouac like Kerouac!

So what kind of a C.D. is "Jack Kerouac reads On The Road"? Well, you remember how back in 1960 after Buddy Holly died they released on album of the singers rough cuts and demo's with backings dubbed on by (I think) The Crickets. How at first, & when you read the reviews you thought: "This won't be no good" yet when you finally heard the record, Holly's genius shone through the scratchy under produced tracks like "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and you new even this L.P. consisting of sweepings from the studio floor would in time become a classic, and it did.
Well "Kerouac reads On The Road" is that kind of a disc: something of a curates egg (good in parts). I find I have to be in the mood to appreciate it, but as a late-night mood complimentor it's up there with the best. You have to be able to let your mind go with it & by the time I got to "Leaving Town" (track 7) my mind had wandered off it, (but that was at 11 o'clock in the morning!). Apparently these tracks were lifted from some acetate discs that Jack had cut privately back in the early sixties. The half-hour (track 2) reading of "On the Road" being fabled but overlooked for some thirty years because it was wrongly labelled "Charlie Parker"! But the C.D has a terrific extensive sleeve note by Douglas Brinkley which explains this and a whole lot more. On the C.D. there are four tracks of Jack singing night-club style backed by an unknown jazz combo (and they're good). Up to now I'd been suspicious of David Amrarns' talents (one fan's jealousy of another?) but here he provides dubbed on musical backings to Jack reading two poems which are highly sensitive to the themes and stand as beautiful melodies in there own right. The C.D is produced by Jim Sampas and Lee Ranaldo, and they've done us a great service.

This "Jack" Misses The High Notes.......2003-07-16

All I have to say about this one is "What the hell were they thinking?" Having picked up "The Jack Kerouac Collection" box recently, I was surprised to come across this CD of more material and was hoping I'd find more of Jack's classic jazzy beatness. And I did...sort of.

The readings here (like Jack's selections from "On The Road") are as crisp as I'd expected and would fit in nicely with "Readings From The Beat Generation". And I love the obscure jazz tunes they dug up by Jack. They work much better than some of the "singing" he tries on for size in his "Blues & Haikus". Here, he's no Sinatra but what Jack lacks in actual pipes, he makes up for in plain old enthusiasm.

But why, oh why did the producers think it was such a hot idea to throw some of David Amram's jarring jazz pieces over Jack's readings on "Orizaba 210 Blues" or "Washington D.C. Blues"? They don't even match the readings or belong there in the first place. What makes it worse is the two tracks go on forever. I could handle a brief experiment...but half an hour of this 90s noodling is just enough already. And hey, I love Waits, but what's he doing here? They should've saved him for the Jack tribute album that came out a few years back.

I wish somehow they'd clean this one up and add it to "The Jack Kerouac Collection" to make it complete - but I know that isn't gonna happen. If you want some advice, save your money for the brilliant boxed set and give this one the pass.

Kerouac good. Amram bad........2000-05-10

Everything on this cd is absolutely amazing except for the music composed by David Amran on tracks 5 and 8. His music does not compliment Kerouac's incredible readings at all. The remaining tracks make this cd a worthwhile purchase. Especially track 3, On the Road (song) and track 6, When a Woman Loves a Man.

Average customer rating:

EMI Comedy: Benny, Burns & Allen
George Burns , Gracie Allen , and Jack Benny
Manufacturer: EMI Gold Imports
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Radio Stars of America
The Golden Age of Comedy
EMI Comedy

ASIN: B000GCGA0Q
Release Date: 2006-11-13

Tracks:

George & Jack Go to College
Jack Sings George's Song
Gracie Blackmails Jack

Album Details

Jack Benny Had One of the Longest Running and Most Popular Comedy Shows of the 20th Century which Ran from 1932 To1955 on the Radio and from 1950 to 1965 on TV. His Best Friends George Burns and Gracie Allen also Had One of the Longest Running and Most Popular Comedy Shows of the 20th Century which Ran from 1934 to 1950 on the Radio and from 1950 To1958 on Television. Therefore, Here is a Rare Selection Recordings featuring all Three! Listen Beyond the Classic Comedy to the Close Friends, all Renowned for their Impeccable Timing, Simply Having Fun and Doing What They Do Best with the Person They Love Most.

Wolfman Jack's Halloween Special: Monster Mash Bash

Average customer rating:

Wolfman Jack's Halloween Special: Monster Mash Bash
Lousy!

Wolfman Jack's Halloween Special: Monster Mash Bash
Various Artists
Manufacturer: St. Clair Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Halloween Hits

ASIN: B00005YOM7
Release Date: 2001-08-28

Tracks:

Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett
Haunted House - Jumpin' Gene Simmons
Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
In the Midnight Hour - Martha Reeves
Witch Doctor - Sha Na Na
Li'l Red Riding Hood
Doin' the Zombie - Chubby Checker
Spooky - Classics IV, Dennis Yost
Supernatural Thing - Ben E. King
Dead Man's Curve - Jan & Dean

Customer Reviews:

Wolfman Jack's Halloween Special: Monster Mash Bash.......2006-10-14

My children and I just love every single song on this CD. We have such a good time listening to them.

Lousy!.......2005-10-21

What a rip-off! This is just another compilation of people doing covers of other people's songs. This was not Bobby "Boris" Pickett at all. In fact, only tracks 4, 5 and 7 are the originals. Don't bother!

Golden Throats 3: Sweet Hearts Of Rodeo Drive { Various Artists }

Average customer rating:

"Golden Throats" Goes Country
Great songs
Celebrities sing classic country!
not as good as the previous two, but entertaining
Not really worth the money

Golden Throats 3: Sweet Hearts Of Rodeo Drive { Various Artists }

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Golden Throats 2: More Celebrity Rock Oddities! { Various Artists }
Golden Throats 4: Celebrities Butcher the Beatles
Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing Off
In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy
Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner

ASIN: B0000033GJ
Release Date: 1995-02-28

Tracks:

I Walk The Line - Leonard Nimoy
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Goldie Hawn
Hey, Good Lookin' - John Davidson
The Green, Green Grass Of Home - Jack Palance
Back Street Affair - Carol Channing & Webb Pierce
San Antonio Rose - Michael Parks
Almost Persuaded - Louis Armstrong
Ringo (French Version) - Lorne Greene
Tumbling Tumbleweeds - Merv Griffin
Your Cheatin' Heart - Buddy Ebsen
Mule Train - Rod McKuen
Cool Water - Walter Brennan
Folsom Prison Blues - Living Marimbas Plus Voices
Desperados Waiting For A Train - Slim Pickens
I Walk The Line - Telly Savalas
Peace In The Valley - Wink Martindale
Games People Play - Jim Nabors

Customer Reviews:

"Golden Throats" Goes Country.......2006-08-11

Certain artists never should sing country music. Louis Armstrong and Carol Channing come to mind. On the other hand, there are many noted performers who simply should not sing -- regardless of genre. Leonard Nimoy, Goldie Hawn and Jack Palance remain standouts in this particular category. If you want celebrity vocal prowess, look no further than "Golden Throats 3: Sweet Hearts of Rodeo Drive." Along with these aforementioned entertainers, you get mind-boggling rarities such as Merv Griffin's "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," Telly Savalas' "I Walk the Line" and Lorne Greene's French interpretation of "Ringo." Order now -- operators are standing by!

Great songs.......2005-09-14

If you like something a little different you will like this. Worth the price for Slim Pickens alone (Desperados Waiting for a Train).

Celebrities sing classic country!.......2003-07-07

The Golden Throats series continues with celebrities singing some truly bad versions of country songs. If you are like me, you find this sort of thing hilarious. I'd like to mention a few of the "highlights". "Hey, Good Looking" is performed here by John Davidson, who makes Pat Boone sound soulful. In one of the most misguided ideas ever, Merv Griffin sings a "twist" version of "Tumbling Tumbleweeds". Broadway legend Carol Channing & country music legend Webb Pierce team up for one of the most unlikely duets of all time. And you get two versions of "I Walk the Line". Whose is worse, Leonard Nimoy's or Telly Savalas's? It's close, but Kojak beats Spock by a nose (or a lollipop). If you like the other Golden Throats volumes, you should enjoy this, especially if you have an interest in country music.

not as good as the previous two, but entertaining.......2003-06-21

this, the third cd in the golden throats series, doesnt measure up to the inspired lunacy of the first two. its not the choice of material or the limits of using only mangled country music, its just that nothing on here matches the sebastian cabot/william shatner/sammy davis cuts of vols. 1 & 2. theres still plenty to enjoy here, if yer into that kind of thing. the hip swingin take on "hey good lookin" by john davidson which makes the rounds during martini hour at my house, the appalling attempt by louis armstrong to bray "almost persuaded" as if its from porgy & bess, the BAFFLING choice to use lorne greenes FRENCH version of "ringo", & walter brennan literally sounding like he's about to keel over in desperation for "cool water" are all phenomenally awe inspiring. one of my personal favorites is everyones favorite bomb riding yahoo, slim pickens, "interpretation" of "desperados waiting on a train", sounding like he got to the studio after a 2 week bender & handed the lyric sheet. when he cuts loose at the end with actual SINGING, your jaw will be scraping the floor. in a nutshell, (or more approriately, in an outhouse), if you love the first 2 golden throats, you'll like this, but its not essential.

Not really worth the money.......2002-08-15

Country music,good or bad, leaves me cold - the standout performances in this gawdawful compilation are Buddy Ebsen warbling through classic Hank Williams (Your Cheating Heart) and Lorne Greene's alien-sounding "French" version of Ringo. I am French myself, and I can tell you he speaks it with a truly unusual accent. The Wink Martindale number is a specially nauseating brand of treacle that should be avoided at all costs.

I special-ordered the item to have all three Golden Throats compilations, but would not do so again...

Golden Throats 2: More Celebrity Rock Oddities! { Various Artists }
Average customer rating:

FALL DOWN ON THE FLOOR FUNNY!!!!!

Why don't you just arrange your chairs and come up close?

Caveat - with a huge grin

Caveat - with a huge grin

Golden Throats 2: More Celebrity Rock Oddities! { Various Artists }

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing Off

Golden Throats 3: Sweet Hearts Of Rodeo Drive { Various Artists }

Golden Throats 4: Celebrities Butcher the Beatles

Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner

Ultra-Lounge: Wild, Cool & Swingin' - Artist Series Vol 3

ASIN: B0000032U4
Release Date: 1991-07-02

Tracks:

John Shaft - Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sunshine Superman - Mel Torme
Light My Fire - Mae West
Hey Jude - Bing Crosby
All I Really Want To Do - Sebastian Cabot
Put A Little Love In Your Heart - Leonard Nimoy
It Was A Very Good Year - William Shatner
Dixie Chicken - Jack Jones
In The Ghetto - Sammy Davis, Jr.
Nights On Broadway - Chad Everett
Stand By Me - Cassius Clay
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Phyllis Diller
Give Peace A Chance - Mitch Miller & The Gang

Customer Reviews:

FALL DOWN ON THE FLOOR FUNNY!!!!!.......2005-03-18

Folks, you simply haven't LIVED 'till you've heard Sammy Davis Jr. do the "Theme From Shaft!" Imagine the Samster with his ultra-proper diction trying Isaac Hayes delivery and you will really whoop it up over this one! Bring your buddies for beer and pizza for this!

Then there is Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) with an outrageously hoarse rendidtion of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." When he goes, "I won't be o-fraid!" and really starts singling sourly near the end, it's another floor pounder in the extreme!

Bing Crosby doing the beatles and Sebastion Cabot (Mister French from "Family Affair" to my generation) doing Dylan add to the fun fun FUN! All I have have further to say about this is JUST GET IT AND LAUGH!

Why don't you just arrange your chairs and come up close?.......2005-01-15

This second volume of Golden Throats isn't quite the classic the first one is, but it's still pretty damn good. There are plenty of hilariously bad versions of classic songs here. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy and Sebastian Cabot are back, and while their songs aren't quite as funny as the ones on the first Golden Throats, they are still quite amusing. Mae West is also back, and her contribution this time is actually funnier than the one on the first volume. There are two tracks here by Sammy Davis, which are both hilarious. Mel Torme's version of "Sunshine Superman" is bizarre, trippy and funny. Bing Crosby "pum pum pum pums" his way through "Hey Jude". The songs by Cassius Clay, Phyllis Diller and Mitch Miller are also very funny. But I have to say that although the songs by Jack Jones and Chad Everett are bad, I don't find them to be particularly funny. If you enjoy songs that are "so bad they're funny", you should get this CD.

Caveat - with a huge grin.......2002-08-15

These songs are funny, but some folks may find them painful to listen to. What can I say, I've listened to this material repeatedly - not only do I get a huge kick from it, but I also enjoy springing it on unsuspecting coworkers. There's no question that this is bad music, but if you have a sense of humour, the Chad Everett version of the BeeGees classic Nights on Broadway is worth the price of admission. I thought the Sammy Davis Jr. selections were unkind, as they lack the howling qualities of (who else) Will Shatner or Phyllis Diller...

Caveat - with a huge grin.......2002-08-15

I had to special order this item and haven't regretted it one bit. If you have a sick fascination for horrible music, this one is a must (see also the original Golden Throats). I confess Volume 3 left me a bit cold, but then I am partial to the joyful enthusiasm with which these unsung (no pun intended, believe me) heroes hurl themselves at rock covers... while G.T. 3 was dedicated to country & western.

There's No One Like Nomo
Average customer rating:
There's No One Like Nomo
Jack Sheldon
Manufacturer: Gnp Crescendo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music
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General | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000008RG1
Release Date: 1995-10-17

Tracks:

There's No One Like Nomo
There's No One Like Nomo (Instrumental Version)

Average customer rating:

Jack Buck: Voice of the Cardinals
Pat Hughes
Manufacturer: Baseball Voices
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000LC4COC
Release Date: 2006-11-07

Average customer rating:

Radio Stars of America
Jack Benny
Manufacturer: Asv Living Era
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Poetry, Spoken Word & Interviews | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Nostalgia | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Comedy | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Radio Shows | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

General | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music
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EMI Comedy
Jack Benny Journeys
Radio Stars of America

ASIN: B000A2M1JQ
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Tracks:

Jack Dines at the Colmans/A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody [Excerpt] - Jack Benny, Benita Colman, Ronald Colman
Incident at the Drugstore Counter/Lucky Strike Commercial - Jack Benny,
Jack Gets a New Car/Happy Birthday to You [Excerpt] - Jack Benny
Bumped at the Studio/Again, This Couldn't Happen Again [Excerpt] - Amos & Andy, Jack Benny, , Mel Blanc, , Red Skelton

Album Description

Includes 4 excerpts from the Jack Benny Show including 'Bumped At The Studio', 'Incident At The Drugstore Counter', 'Jack Dines At The Colman's' & 'Jack Gets A New Car'. Recorded from 1949-1952 and features Ronald Colman, Mel Blanc, Amos & Andy & Red Ske

Music:

Music

music