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Allen Ginsberg

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

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

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

Public Reading, Hudson, April 22, 1994

  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

Discussion with Clemente, Location Unknown, June 12, 1992

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

  • Complete reading (28:00): MP3

Reading at the We Press/Gargoyle Mechanique Laboratory Benefit, held at Gargoyle Mechanique, NYC, December 1991

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

Voices and Visions PBS: William Carlos Williams, 1988