Having less slept bare-headed outside, Jack Kerouac would perhaps have celebrated his centenary himself in the most cozy anonymity. Such was not his fate, and the great Jack is for all eternity the one who represents the “beaten” generation of the post-war period. Next March, therefore, will be the breaking anniversary. At Bear Family, archives-rich, we already offer two discs overflowing with everything beatnik, be-bop and vociferous poetry, including Kerouac himself in solo recitative or accompanied by TV host Steve Allen. We are casting a wide net here: pure and hard Charlie Parker Quartet (Cosmic Rays) to the very ridiculous Edd Byrnes (Kookie’s Mad Pad), the fierce satire of a Lenny Bruce (Psychopathia Sexualis) to the coolest theme of the film Beat girl by the John Barry Seven, it is the portrait of a cultural phenomenon that we paint. A world where fomenters (including Ginsberg, reciting America) and recuperators. Perry Como beatnik? Eh yes. Crazy, man.
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