JACK KEROUAC, Poetry for the Beat Generation, DOT, LP

$

1,500

This is the extremely rare DOT LP, 3154, "Poetry for the Beat Generation". It is Jack Kerouac reading previously-unpublished poetry, with Steve Allen on piano.

Fourteen of Kerouac's poems are contained in this album with Steve Allen's remarkably thoughtful background accompaniment of jazz here, the blues there, and of short, appropriate bridges between verses. By the way, that's a reflection on the record, left and above the label, not a mark or scratch, in the next photo:

We found this LP amongst a box of records we bought at an auction sale here in the Middle Tennessee area. We live about 8 miles from Gallatin, Tennessee, where Randy Wood was located. That may account for the record turning up here in this area.

The reason for this LP's being so rare goes something like this: Randy Wood, the owner of DOT was a good Bible Belt Christian living here in Gallatin, Tennessee, in the 1950's. Upon listening to the LP shortly after it was pressed he decided that it was "off colour" and not "good family entertainment". So he ordered all copies to be destroyed.

About 130 of the albums had already been sent out to reviewers and a few others. Wood was then able to recall most of the promotional copies that had been sent out.

Those few he was unable to retrieve are the only ones still existing. Probably, many of that number no long survive or are already owned by collectors.

We took the LP to The Great Escape in Nashvillle, where Kels, their vinyl expert, rated it as to condition. The Great Escape is located near Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. In business since 1977, it has established an international reputation for its incredible selection of previously-owned records...with hundreds of thousands of titles. They carry rare collectibles and a selection of vinyl unsurpassed in the Mid-South. They have been voted NASHVILLE SCENE's "Best Record Store" in the Non-Chain division for the last six years.

The condition is:

The LP itself "plays like new". There is one very small "purely cosmetic" scratch. He rates it VG+.

The labels are in excellent condition--very clean and bright with only a few light spindle marks. VG+

Kels rates the jacket VG+. The front cover has minor creasing in one place. The back is fine except for some mild aging and two very small light spots down near the corner. There is hardly any bumping to the corners. There are no markings anywhere on it. It is sound on the bottom and the closed side. In the top seam there is a 4" split and some flaking.

Kerouac himself has written a succinct account of this historic recording session:

"I came up to New York from Florida for the date which we arranged by mail...and went into the studio to meet Steve at 1 p.m. He was there. I was carrying a huge suitcase full of untyped manuscripts of prose and poetry. I said, 'What'll I read?' He said 'Anything you want'. He sat down and started to stroke chords on the piano. They were pretty. I reached into my suitcase as if blindfolded and picked out something and showed it to Steve, who glanced at it briefly, and said, 'Okay'. He started to play the piano, making a sign to the engineer. They turned the tape. I started to read. Between cuts I kept giving Steve some of my pint of Thunderbird, which he drank with a charitable gaiety. He was nice. We finished the session in an hour. The engineers came out and said, 'Great, that's a great first take!' I said, 'It's the only take.' Steve said, 'That's right,' and we all packed up and went home."

We have placed a very reasonable Reserve on this item.

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