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Apr 20, 2021 Web Exclusive By Dustin Krcatovich

Allen Ginsberg’s poems have often been considered a touch anachronistic compared to the work of some of his peers. Of the Beat Generation’s major figures, though, one could argue that they—and he—are actually the most sturdy when held up to modern scrutiny: sure, he had one eye to the romantic pastoralism of Whitman, but where Kerouac has become a signpost for fuckboi toxicity and Burroughs’ excesses appear increasingly gnarly in the rearview, Ginsberg just seems sweeter as time has worn off the shock of his preoccupations. Put more succinctly: Ginsberg is a queer beacon of light, however imperfect, and the layers of taboo being slowly peeled away have only made that light shine brighter.

This 1956 recording of Ginsberg’s most iconic work, in a form somewhat divergent from what was ultimately published, was forgotten for decades, until John Suiter found it in a box in 2007. Recorded on the campus of Portland, Oregon’s second-most toney liberal arts institution (alma mater of Steve Jobs, Ry Cooder, and Dr. Demento) while traveling with fellow poet and Zen dabbler Gary Snyder, it’s an intimate affair, with Ginsberg sounding hungry but at ease, already confident in his voice. The other, shorter poems in the reading are a pleasure, gems of observation and comic timing. Just as the legends of its first reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco in 1955 would have it, though, “HOWL” is something else entirely. This is Ginsberg as strident, libertine, revolutionary force, funny and dirty and boiling over, exploding with arms-splayed, jazz-damaged shrapnel in all directions. Ginsberg could be droll or precious in his other work, but here he has no time for such niceties.

Time has smiled upon Allen Ginsberg’s work, especially in its spoken iterations. This isn’t the definitive Ginsberg recording, or even the definitive recording of its centerpiece, but it is a fascinating piece of his overall puzzle and an exemplar of why his work was powerful and important. (www.allenginsberg.org)

Author rating: 8/10