Allen Ginsberg

PoemTalk #4, Discussing Ginsberg's "The Garden of Love"

More info here.

From Kenning, Vol. 4 No. 3 Autumn/Winter 2002-2003, Issue #12

Allen Ginsberg recorded by Chris Funkhouser, 22 April 1994, Hudson, New York (Columbia-Greene Community College). The original version of "HUM BOM" appeared in The Fall of America (City Lights, 1972); this extended version was published in Cosmopolitan Greetings (Harper Collins, 1994).

HUM BOM (3:06): MP3

Recorded Live at the Knitting Factory, NYC

May 4, 1995

1. Howl - I, II, III (22:37): MP3
2. Howl Epilogue (2:58): MP3

May 5, 1995

1. Introduction to Kaddish (2:40): MP3
2. Kaddish I (10:11): MP3
3. Kaddish II (36:43): MP3
4. Kaddish - Hymmnn (1:37): MP3
5. Kaddish - III (1:46): MP3
6. Kaddish - IV (2:17): MP3
7. Kaddish - V (1:57): MP3
8. William Blake's Nurse's Song (4:45): MP3

May 6, 1995

1. Wichita Vortex Sutra I (3:14): MP3
2. Wichita Vortex Sutra II (12:52): MP3
3. Wichita Vortex Sutra III (5:51): MP3
4. Wichita Vortex Sutra IV (5:41): MP3

Reading and Discussion with Gregory Corso, and John Wieners, Small Press Book Fair, New York City, December 5, 1992

• Complete reading (1:03:40): MP3
• Ginsberg's reading (13:27): MP3

1. Retro Axioms (2:53): MP3
2. American Sentences (5:20): MP3
3. After Lalon (3:47): MP3
4. In the Benjo (0:35): MP3
5. Autumn Leaves (0:43): MP3

Discussion (41:25): MP3

1. Ginsberg on Rhino Records Box Set (2:23): MP3
2. Ginsberg on Teaching (1:08): MP3
3. Ginsberg on the Tenacity of his Movement (6:15): MP3
4. Ginberg on Idealism (1:46): MP3
5. Ginsberg on Poetry's Place in the Modernity (3:36): MP3
6. Ginsberg on his Prominence Among Poets (0:44): MP3
7. Corso on his Poetry (1:39): MP3
8. Corso on his Poetry cont'd (1:12): MP3
9. Ginsberg on Future Projects (3:23):MP3
10. Ginsberg on his Work Ethic (1:08): MP3
11. Ginsberg on Society's Progress (2:26): MP3
12. Ginsberg on the Small Press Book Fair (1:07): MP3
13. Corso on Meeting John Wieners (0:54): MP3
14. Discussion on Quitting Smoking (1:01): MP3
15. Corso on Reagan (0:14): MP3
16. Poets Discuss their Plans and Ginsberg Leaves (2:34): MP3
17. Corso and Others Discuss Charlie Parker, and Seating (2:29): MP3
18. Corso Greets Somebody (2:16): MP3
19. Corso and Others Discuss Games, Game Shows (1:41): MP3
20. Corso on Anubis, the Ankh, and the Ancient Egyptian Language (3:37): MP3

1. The Tyger (William Blake) (3:19): MP3
2. Gospel Noble Truths (3:15): MP3
3. "Don't Grow Old" (6:21): MP3
4. Father Death Blues (4:19): MP3
5. Introduction to Plutonian Ode (3:35): MP3
6. Plutonian Ode (11:43): MP3
7. Industrial Waves (introduced as "Industrial Air") (6:21): MP3
8. Those Two (introduced as "These Two") (0:36): MP3
9. Maturity (0:15): MP3
10. Arguments (0:33): MP3
11. Brown Rice Quatrains (0:45): MP3
12. Student Love (0:30): MP3
13. Written in My Dream by William Carlos Williams (1:38): MP3
14. China Bronchitis (part V of Reading Bai Juyi) (2:19): MP3
15. "Tho the body's heavy meat's sustained..." (part VI of Reading Bai Juyi) (0:37): MP3
16. Transformation of Bai's "A Night in Xingyang" (part VII of Reading Bai Juyi) (1:27): MP3
17. Moral Majority (1:51): MP3
18. Visiting Father and Friends (3:29): MP3
19. Sphincter (0:55): MP3
20. Proclamation (0:25): MP3
21. Elephant in the Meditation Hall (3:53): MP3
22. N.S.A. Dope Calypso / Just Say Yes Calypso (interspersed; parts II and III of CIA Dope Calypso) (5:24): MP3
23. Do the Meditation Rock (4:09): MP3
24. Hum Bom! (3:38): MP3
25. After the Big Parade (0:49): MP3
26. After Lalon (5:31): MP3
27. Research (2:25): MP3
28. Put Down Your Cigarette Rag (Don't Smoke) (7:18): MP3
29. Autumn Leaves (0:51): MP3
30. American Sentences (4:04): MP3
31. Nurse's Song (William Blake) (7:38): MP3

Complete recording (1:40:35): MP3

Recorded by Chris Funkhouser.

Interview with Dan Erwin on KPBS San Diego, c.1993

• Complete Recording, (53:03)MP3
• Recording courtesy of Michael Davidson

• Complete recording (48:00): MP3

Reading with Czeslaw Milosz, Location Unknown, June 12, 1992

• Complete reading (28:00): MP3

Featuring readings by Steven Taylor, Roddy Potter, Wanda Phipps, Andy Clausen, and Chris Funkhouser.

Complete recording (1:58:29): MP3

Recording courtesy of Chris Funkhouser.

Reading of Kissass in Syracuse, NY, 1988 or 1989

Kissass (0:34): MP3

Kissass (0:34): WAV

Dominic DeJoseph, who provided us with this recording, adds this comment: "This is not a public reading. I was attending film school at Ithaca College and I drove up to Syracuse to see Ginsberg perform. I approached him afterwards and ask him to record this poem for me. He did so graciously, and asked only that I get it into the hands of an archive going forward. I recorded him so as to sample the recording for use in a quadrophonic soundscape piece I was creating for my Experimental Music class, which Ginsberg was aware of and supported. That experimental soundscape was created using an early Korg sampling keyboard, and I sampled each word of the poem and played it back polyphonically. I then recorded it to 1/2" tape which was re-edited by cutting and splicing the tape. That original tape has been lost, but I'm in the process of recreating it for my archives."

Reading at The Knitting Factory, NYC, December 4, 1988

As captured in the film Jack Kerouac's "Mexico City Blues", produced by Vivien Bittencourt and Vincent Katz

High quality YouTube mirror: link

For full credits and list of readers, click here

• On "To Elsie" (1:28): MP3

William Carlos Williams Lecture, Buffalo, March 17, 1988

Complete recording (48:56): MP3

"Household Affairs," a film by Allen Ginsberg, edited by Steven Taylor, October-November 1987

More information on "Household Affairs" can be found here and here.

Reading "Howl" on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, Columbia University, NYC, November 14, 1981

• Side A (31:11): MP3
• Side B (30:42): MP3

Recorded live by Ulrik. Courtesy of Simon Pettet.

Reading "Popeye and Blake" with Kenneth Koch at St. Mark's Poetry Project, May 9, 1979

• Complete recording (8:18): MP3

Reading in San Francisco, March 1979

1. Punk Rock Your My Big Crybaby (incomplete) (0:46): MP3
2. Various Songs (4:10): MP3
3. Feeding Them Raspberries to Grow (3:27): MP3
4. A Love Letter (by Sakaki Nanao) (2:37): MP3
5. Fake Saint (1:44): MP3
6. On His Father's Death (7:01): MP3
7. Introduction to Tiger, Tiger (1:51): MP3
8. Singing Tiger, Tiger (2:16): MP3
9. Introduction to Plutonium Ode (7:42): MP3
10. Plutonium Ode (8:56): MP3

Complete reading (with a few incomplete works) (43:00): MP3

Concerned Citizens for Cerritos Benefit Reading, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, March 6, 1979

Reading with Robert Creeley, Peter Orlovsky, and Nanao Sakaki

1. The Rune (6:47): MP3
2. Mostly Sitting Haikus (4:19): MP3
3. Cabin in the Rockies (1:44): MP3
4. Land of Lakes, Wisconsin (1:22): MP3
5. Nagasaki Day Peace Protest (2:37): MP3
6. Blake's "My Pretty Rose Tree" (2:11): MP3
7. I Lay Love on My Knee (2:19): MP3
8. Love Replied (1:54): MP3
9. Love Returned (1:49): MP3
10. Guru Blues (3:55): MP3
11. Sickness Blues (5:04): MP3
12. Punk Rock You're My Big Crybaby (1:03): MP3
13. I Am Fake Saint (1:42): MP3
14. From "Don't Grow Old" (1:44): MP3
15. Father Death Blues (4:06): MP3
16. From "Don't Grow Old" (1:04): MP3
17. Blake's "Tiger" (4:26): MP3
18. Plutonium Ode (17:36): MP3
• Complete recording (2:12:13): MP3

Allen Ginsberg, Eugene Brooks, and Carl Soloman reading at The West End Bar, NYC, October 15, 1978

Courtesy of Simon Pettet.

• Side A (46:31): MP3
• Includes Allen Ginsberg introduction, including Steven Taylor and Andy Smith playing William Blake’s "Tyger", Ginsberg introducing Eugene Brooks, who reads "Pessimistic Poem" and "Consolation Prize", and Carl Soloman, who reads "Workday Ended 1976", "Partisan-y 1945", "The Game. 1975", "More Memories & Random Thoughts, 1948", as well as "Recent pieces": "Veduc", "Observations on Local Dress Customs", "Nostalgia", "Interesting Anecdote (on Alfred Jarry)", and "Dear Mr Hayes", as well as Ginsberg returning to sing and play "Don’t Grow Old", "Manhattan Mayday Midnight" (1978), comment on upcoming CBCG St. Mark’s Benefit, and read "Punk Rock You’re My Big Cry Baby"


• Side B (49:10): MP3
• Includes Ginsberg singing Blake’s "My Pretty Rose Tree" (including audible Peter Orlovsky), "After Basho- Ker-plunk", "Haikus of Ordinary Mind", Carl Soloman reading "About Joe Strip" and "A Heart-warming Memoir", Ginsberg’s comments on Soloman’s "totally original thought" and advertisement for upcoming session in recently-established Naropa Institute, and Ginsberg introducing his reading of "Plutonian Ode" with extensive "footnot[ing] of terminologies and numerologies" before reading "Plutonian Ode"

Reading with Leslie Fiedler, Irving Layton, Allen DeLoach, and Peter Orlovsky, Allentown Community Center, Buffalo, N.Y., October 6, 1978

1. Leslie Fiedler talks and reads a 1947 poem, "No Ghost Is True" (from Thou Shalt Truly Die), his first publication of any kind, in Poetry Magazine (text) and "Song for Buffalo" and "To Chookie" (13:26): MP3
2. Irving Layton (24:12): MP3
3. Allen Ginsberg (15:41): MP3

Introduction (00:55): MP3
Don't Grow Old (8:19): MP3
[excerpt from above, just "Father Death Blues" (3:08): MP3]
"Don't Grow Old" (5:04): MP3
Punk Rock Your My Big Crybaby (1:01): MP3

4. Allen DeLoach (15:46): MP3
5. Irving Layton, Second Reading (19:43): MP3
6. Allen Ginsberg with Peter Orlovsky: Blake's "The Tyger" (3:30): MP3
7. Ginsberg, "Plutonian Ode" (13:59): MP3

Complete recording (1:47:41): MP3

Reading on Stonewall Nation, WBFO-FM, October 6, 1978

With Peter Orlovsky, Alex Van Oss, and Al Hershberger

1. Introduction (5:21): MP3
2. On being closeted (2:09): MP3
3. Excerpts from "Don't Grow Old" (2:32): MP3
4. On coming out to his family (3:01): MP3
5. On desire and compassion (1:41): MP3
6. On the Briggs amendment (8:54): MP3
7. On the Beats and nature (3:24): MP3
8. On Rocky Flats (2:19): MP3
9. Ginsberg sings "Everybody Sing" (2:37): MP3
• Complete recording (31:56): MP3

This recording is part of the Creeley Tape Collection.

Reading in the Kiva Room, SUNY Buffalo, October 5, 1978

1. Blake's "My Pretty Rose Tree" (1:44): MP3
2. Poems on Silent Meditation (2:42): MP3
3. Gospel Noble Truths (4:52): MP3
4. Don't Grow Old (7:31): MP3
5. Father Death Blues (2:53): MP3
6. Don't Grow Old cont. (1:16): MP3
7. Drive All Blames Into One (1:18): MP3
8. From "The Contest of Bards" (5:27): MP3
9. I Lay Love on My Knee (3:34): MP3
10. Lack Love (1:19): MP3
11. Punk Rock You're My Big Crybaby (1:02): MP3
12. What's Dead? (2:07): MP3
13. Father Guru (0:35): MP3
14. Manhattan Mayday Midnight (2:37): MP3
15. Plutonium Ode (15:56): MP3
• Complete reading (55:56): MP3

This recording is part of the Creeley Tape Collection.

Reading at St. Mark's Poetry Project, 1977

1. Uluru, or Ayers Rock (2:08): MP3
2. Christmas Gift (0:54): MP3
3. Returning to the Country for a Brief Visit (0:44): MP3
4. I Don't Know who's Hoarding all this Rare Work (MP3
5. You Live Apart on Rivers and Seas (0:36): MP3
6. Cabin in the Rockies (1:33): MP3
7. November 5th, 1975 (0:54): MP3
8. News for Rolling Thunder Troop (0:57): MP3
9. Don't Grow Old [Part 1] (3:17): MP3
10. A Dream (1:36): MP3
11. Don't Grow Old [Part 2] (3:02): MP3
12. Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin: Vajrayana Seminary (0:52): MP3
13. For Creeley's Ear (0:19): MP3
14. Hearing "Lenore" Read Aloud at 203 Amity Street (1:35): MP3
15. Contest of Bards (12:31): MP3
16. I Nursed Love where He Lay (2:22): MP3

Complete recording (35:44): MP3

Interview with Studs Terkel, WFMT Studios, November 29, 1976

Complete recording (55:53): MP3

Courtesy of George Drury.

Reading and Mantra Singing at Buffalo State College, December 2, 1975

1. A Found Object (1:24): MP3
2. Bay Area (10:25): MP3
3. To Dallas Airport (12:46): MP3
4. Returning to the Country (2:36): MP3
5. Night Gleam (1:15): MP3
6. Thus Crosslegged On Round Pillow Sat in Teton Space (11:41): MP3
7. Sweet Boy, Gimme Yer Ass (2:13): MP3
8. Ah Mantra (9:32): MP3
9. Guru Blues (6:10): MP3
10. Sickness Blues (8:06): MP3
11. Come All Ye Brave Boys (4:50): MP3
12. To The Dead (3:23): MP3
13. Ego Confession (3:43): MP3
14. Written on Hotel Napkin (2:34): MP3
15. Hadda Be Playin' On The Jukebox (4:58): MP3
16. In the Realm of Great Bliss (1:54): MP3
17. Cabin in the Rockies (1:22): MP3
• Complete recording (1:33:53): MP3

Reading at Norton Union, University of Buffalo, c. 1974

On Reading Dylan's Writings in "First Blues: Rags, Ballads & Harmonium Songs 1971-74" (1:16): MP3


Courtesy of George Drury.

Reading with Ishmael Reed at the Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, April 29, 1974

Full Recording: External Link

Live at St. Mark’s N.Y.C., published 1976 by S-Press as tape #48/49, Recorded by Michael Köhler, New York, March 13, 1974



Written versions in: First Blues (1975) and Fall Of America (1974)

• Complete recording (41:23): MP3
• Contains: Introduction-Mantra; Flying to Fiji; Siratoka Beach Croon; Bus Ride Ballad Road to Suva; Returning to the Country for a Brief Visit; Thus Crosslegged on Round Pillow Sat; Flying Elegy; D.C. Mobiliziation; Stay Away From the White House; On Reading Dylan’s Writings; Jahwe and Allah Battle

Reading at National Poetry Festival, June 14-24, 1973

Objectivists and After

• Part One (33:02): MP3
Watch on Media.sas
• Part Two (33:01): MP3
Watch on Media.sas

Written for "Ten for Two: The John Sinclair Freedom Rally," Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, MI, December 10, 1971

Written for the event. This recording was issued on a 45 vinyl in 1971.

• Reading "Prayer for John Sinclair" with Peter Orlovsky (3:24): MP3

Reading at The Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, August, 1971

1. Stanzas Written at Night in Radio City (3:15): MP3
2. Gary Snyder Reading Poesy at Princeton (2:09): MP3
3. Eclogue (18:10): MP3
4. Guru Om (4:44): MP3
5. Have You Seen This Movie? (6:19): MP3
6. Two Haikus (Milarepa Taste) (0:27): MP3
7. Hum Bom! (very early version) (1:19): MP3
8. Nothing Personal (1:16): MP3
9. Sierras Hermitage (1:02): MP3
10. Bixby Canyon Ocean Path Word Breeze (7:03): MP3
11. At the Capri (1:34): MP3
12. An Open Window on Chicago (4:27): MP3
13. Elegy for Neal Cassady (5:33): MP3
14. Autumn Gold: New England Fall (7:03): MP3
15. Opium Peddling (published minus first line as "Over Laramie") (1:38): MP3
16. Howl (excerpt) (10:06): MP3

Recordings courtesy of Robert Creeley.

Ginsberg singing William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, NYC, December 15, 1969

Link here.

See also: PoemTalk Podcast #4 on Ginsberg's "The Garden of Love": MP3

Richard Moore USA: Poetry Documentary with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1966

Watch on Media.sas

Reading "Kaddish," from Atlantic Records LP recording, 1966

• Side A (35:23): MP3
• Side B (31:47): MP3

Courtesy of Simon Pettet.

Reading for Auerhahn Press at International Music Hall, November 26, 1963

• Patna-Benares Express (1:49): MP3
• May 22 [1962] Calcutta (3:45): MP3

Reading Early Poems, Location Unknown, 1963

• Complete recording (14:24): MP3

Reading at the Vancouver Conference, July 31, 1963

1. Early Poems (5:07): MP3
2. Marijuana Notation (1:03): MP3
3. The Brick Layers' Lunch Hour (1:30): MP3
4. How Come He Got Canned at the Ribbon Factory (2:25): MP3
5. Discussion of How Come He Got Canned at the Ribbon Factory (3:25): MP3
6. The Archetype Poem (1:56): MP3
7. Finally (0:43): MP3
8. My Alba (1:10): MP3
9. The Green Automobile (6:46): MP3
10. Love Poem on a Theme by Whitman (1:52): MP3
11. Song (2:44): MP3
12. Fragment 1956 (2:28): MP3
13. Howl (excerpt) (1:53): MP3
14. Transcription of Organ Music (5:01): MP3
15. Sunflower Sutra (5:28): MP3
16. In the Baggage Room at Greyhound (5:33): MP3
17. A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley (1:23): MP3
18. Psalm III (1:12): MP3
19. Tears (0:43): MP3
20. Back on Times Square, Dreaming of Times Square (1:46): MP3
21. My Sad Self (3:23): MP3
22. To an Old Poet in Peru (3:51): MP3
23. Kaddish (excerpt) (16:45): MP3

Complete reading (1:19:48): MP3

Reading "Sunflower Sutra," from a Jonas Mekas film, 1960

Complete recording (2:42): MP3

Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso at Harvard, 1959

• Part 1, Side A (30:41): MP3
• Part 1, Side B (34:07): MP3
• Part 2, Side A (30:45): MP3
• Part 2, Side B (13:10): MP3
• Part 3, Side A (27:44): MP3
• Part 3, Side B (31:46): MP3

Note: Part 1, Side B ends mid-sentence.

Courtesy of Simon Pettet

Reading Recent Poems at Robert Creeley's Home, likely 1959

1. Back on Times Square, Dreaming of Times Square (1:12): MP3
2. Laughing Gas, part I (4:39): MP3
3. My Sad Self (for Frank O'Hara) (3:03): MP3
4. To Aunt Rose (2:41): MP3
5. Kaddish, part I (10:23): MP3
6. Kaddish, part III (1:46): MP3
7. Kaddish, part IV (3:25): MP3
8. Kaddish, part V (1:03): MP3

Complete recording (28:12): MP3

Reading at the Poetry Center, San Francisco State University, February 27, 1959

1. Poem Rocket (4:25): MP3
2. Message from Paris (0:44): MP3
3. Squeal (1:21): MP3
4. Wrote This Last Night (1:06): MP3
5. The Lion for Real (4:14): MP3
6. To Aunt Rose (2:27): MP3
7. Ignu (6:50): MP3
8. To Lindsay (0:41): MP3
9. Kaddish (16:25): MP3

Complete reading (38:55): MP3

Reading from Howl and other Poems at UCSD, January, 1959

• Complete Recording, (53:46)MP3
• Recording courtesy of Michael Davidson

Big Table Chicago Reading, 1959

1. Howl (20:06): MP3
2. Sunflower Sutra (4:31): MP3
3. Footnote to Howl (2:47): MP3
4. A Supermarket in California (2:15): MP3
5. Transcription of Organ Music (3:55): MP3
6. America (4:41): MP3
7. In Back of the Real (0:49): MP3
8. A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley (0:46): MP3
9. Europe! Europe! (3:14): MP3
10. Kaddish, part 1 (9:50): MP3

Complete recording (53:20): MP3

Interview With Studs Terkel, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Peter Orlovsky on WFMT 1959


Photo of Studs Terkel with Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky,WFMT radio studio, Chicago, 1959

Transcript on The Allen Ginsberg Project:

1. Part 1
2. Part 2
3. Part 3
4. Part 4
5. Part 5
6. Part 6
7. Part 7

KPFA Pacifica Studio Recording, October 25, 1956

1. A Supermarket in California (2:21): MP3 [text-audio alignment]
2. In back of the real (0:44): MP3
3. Introduction to Howl (2:43): MP3
4. Howl I, II, III (18:27): MP3
1. Howl I (12:36): MP3
2. Howl II (3:30): MP3
3. Howl III ( 2:21): MP3

Complete recording (24:41): MP3

Reading at Six Gallery, San Francisco, 1956

America (8:45): MP3

Recordings by Allen Ginsberg from the Reed College archives, 1956

Howl Part I (edited): link

Complete recording (unedited): link

Reading with Gregory Corso, Date and Location Unknown

• Complete reading (48:16): MP3

Reading of Various Works, Date and Location Unknown

1. Wales Visitation (11:32): MP3
2. Wichita Vortex Sutra (28:00): MP3

Unknown Recording (labeled "Ginsberg #6"), date and location unknown

Recorded on audiocassette. Featured in the Joris and Peyrafitte tape collection.

Side A (1:03:23): MP3

Side B (1:03:25): MP3

Optic Nerve Videos, various dates

• Howl (4:48): link
• Kaddish (6:21): link
• Die When You Die (11:50): link
• Howl (Knitting Factory) (25:10): link
• Kaddish (Knitting Factory) (53:40): link
• Don't Grow Old (Knitting Factory) (13:04): link
• Father Death (4:50): link
• After Lalon (Albert Hall) (4:44): link
• Ballad of the Skeletons with Paul McCartney (8:35): link

Also Of Interest:

• Allen Ginsberg and Margaret Mead discuss the origin of the term "Beat": MP3
• In Conversation with Robert Creeley, Buffalo, October 1978 (1:53:29): MP3
• Rose Feliu Pettet - Allen Ginsberg Memorial, at St. Mark’s Church, April 1997
  Side A (10:53): MP3
  Side B (11:01): MP3

For Other Allen Ginsberg Recordings and Information:

• The Allen Ginsberg Project [external link]

Allen Ginsberg on PennSound Daily

• February 11, 2011: "Allen Ginsberg: Newly Segmented Reading, Intersection for the Arts, 1971"
• August 28, 2009: "Allen Ginsberg: Several New Recordings From the Creeley Archives"
• June 19, 2009: "Allen Ginsberg: New Recordings Courtesy of Robert Creeley"

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author's estate. Used with the permission of the Allen Ginsberg Trust. © 2008 Estate of Allen Ginsberg. Distributed by PennSound.