Howl And Other Poems Catonsville MD

Howl And Other Poems

Allen Ginsberg

Fantasy Records, 1998

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/01/1998

Having a member of "the Pepsi generation" try and explain poetry from one of the fathers of "the Beat Generation" is almost like having Andrew "Dice" Clay be the keynote speaker at the national convention for NOW. The generation gap between myself and the works of such poets as Jack Kerouac, William S. Borroughs and Allen Ginsberg might keep me from understanding exactly what the poet was trying to say. (Boy, had I said this in my high school English Literature classes, I would have flunked for sure.)

So when Fantasy Records sent me the first CD release of Ginsberg's classic album "Howl" And Other Poems, I have to admit I was hesitant about listening to it. It's not that I hate poetry - some of the best works I've heard have been in modern-day poetry "slams" held around Chicago. But I didn't know both what to expect from Ginsberg and how I should react to his works and words.

Truth is, you don't have to understand exactly what Ginsberg is trying to say - hell, you don't have to agree with a word of it. But "Howl" And Other Poems is a monument to the joy of the English language, the melody of its words - and the freedom of expression we so often take for granted.

A poem that found itself the center of a Supreme Court case deciding what defines obscene or pornographic work, "Howl" is an auditory landslide on your brain. Twenty-plus minutes of Ginsberg praising his generation's co-patriots while damning the system that was threatening to wreck havoc on society in general. The language contained herein could be seen as strong - but frankly, it's nothing compared to some of the shit that passes for "music" today. It's hardly titillating, even scandalous, in 1998, but in the mid-'50s, hearing words like "cock," "balls," "cunt" and "fuck" in poetry was a lead brick over the head of the literature snobs.