By request. Allen Ginsberg makes his only appearance on Late Night, first chatting with Dave and then performing "Capitol Air" with the band. Subbing for Hiram Bullock and Will Lee are Steve Khan and Neil Jason.
“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.” ― Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Part I
I suspect Letterman's audience, expecting a night of quirky and over the top silliness, were impatiently making the childish most of their frustrations at the behest of Mr Letterman. Ginsberg, rightly, couldn't have cared less.
This reminds me of the Dick Cavett show when he had Dali on. Dali had a very thick Catalonian accent and was difficult to understand, but what made him more difficult was that his remarks were absolutely brilliant and Cavet openly mocked Dali. Cavett had no idea what Dali was saying. But Dali said things that could only be understood in the context of art and neither Cavett nor his artist got it.
In fairness, the Phoenix appearance was a prepared joke, designed to elicit a certain response. In a subsequent appearance, he apologized for looking and sounding like a complete idiot.
Aw, poor Ginsberg! This just goes to show man, the Beats really were intellectual dudes. This guy is one of the most important literary figures of the modern era, he’s totally serious about his craft and his spirituality, and these morons are treating him like he’s an idiot. ...but it’s just a testament to what a badass he was - by the end of his performance, they love him.
That ignorant giggling audience is REALLY annoying -- Bless Ginsberg for keeping his composure. If it'd been Kerouac up there, I'm guessing he'd have given them something they wouldn't have been prepared for.
You all probably dont care but does anyone know a trick to log back into an instagram account? I somehow lost my account password. I love any tips you can offer me
The audience's natural instinct to laugh at Allen and his ideas is 100% accurate and right to do. Deep down they know he's a fool and treat him accordingly.
Thanks for the post. I saw this on its original broadcast in 1982, and didn't view it again until yesterday! The interview, and performance stayed with me. Dave's response to the question about On the Road was weak. I (and a friend) met Allen Ginsberg at the Boulder Bookstore in April 1985, where he had much the same direct presence (I also saw him at several other readings, and signings, in the 80s and 90s).
The thing I learned from reading Alan's poetry, is that you have to be extraordinarily courageous and let the heart offend. His astonishing Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg is a heartbreaking confessional.
I met him and he seemed very humble, despite his fame. He smiled wide and, despite the fact that he was missing many teeth, without guile or embarrassment.
He was a diseased pedo. And you call that a force? His poetry was horseshit...just like Kerouac's. Truman Capote was right...that's not writing, that's typing.
If you want, I can download this video for you and edit out all the laughter so you can get a "clean" read. But the irony of the audience (some) being clueless is actually part of what Ginsberg would have accepted as the norm.
So true. People still aren't ready to embrace boy lovers, that's why we still desperately need organisations like NAMBLA which Ginsberg was a fierce supporter of.
Capitol Air appeared on the album "First Blues", which had contributions from a number of other artists including Bob Dylan, Arthur Russell and David Amram. I played at a show in NYC in 2013 with a number of people who worked with Ginsberg to celebrate a re-issue of the record. David Amram was on the bill as well (writer of the music for The Manchurian Candidate, among other great accomplishments) - Lou Reed was supposed to play but health issues, that were announced shortly after the show, prevented him from performing. I got to meet and hang out a bit David Amram. Thanks for posting this footage!
A wise, elegant, beautifully spoken treasure was Allen Ginsberg. So far above this audience, who finally began to listen. How we miss his presence in the world.
To those who decry the audience, I sympathize. Still, as someone who grew up in that time, I suggest you consider how by the 80s it had become exceedingly rare to have someone like Ginsberg on basic tv, especially someone espousing his politics. On linear tv, at least, the situation has only gotten worse since.
My favorite thing Ginsberg ever did was put the songs of innocence and experience into music. So beautiful! You can look up a recording of those pieces here on RU-vid. Quite a document. Robert Bly said that Blake himself would sing his poems, and was even said to sing one on his deathbed.
It’s kind of relieving to know that audiences aren’t getting worse nowadays, cause this one was pretty bad. I’m really interested in all of this, and hearing random laughing and stuff while I’m listening makes my already lingering headache worse.
Allen, your howl is a calling that the future will continuously hear, and your message will forever vibrate throughout the echo chambers of humanity's conscious. Thank you.
Great display of his work. In The Clash's track "Ghetto Defendant" you can hear him similarly utilizing the "measure of the breath" he is showing here. Very cool stuff.
That audience sounds high as a fleet of kites. Hidden genre of music discovered: Rebellious Jewish Hippie Punk I love it. I have to try to write music like this, but for today's issues! Whoa, mankind, indeed.
The audience's natural instinct to laugh at Allen and his ideas is 100% accurate and right to do. Deep down they know he's a fool and treat him accordingly.
They laughed when he did his mantra sounds, which most of the audience probably knew nothing about, so it just sounded like he was making random noises.
Has anyone taken the time to decipher the lyrics or found them published? I'd love to read them. I'll have a squizz around the web and see if i can come up with any.
Ginsberg's Collected Poems 1947-1980 contains the Poem/Lyrics on page 743 in hardcover....A excellent example of Allen's thoughts and political fervor in the early 80's...Obviously still relevant today....
Live audiences are "warmed up" before the show, so they are ready to giggle at the slightest thing. Good for Letterman but not always good for his guests.
Parts of the audience remind me about something Crumb talked about about when 80's yuppies would be patronizing and say things like "you 60's guys are so wacky!".
Why are the audience laughing when Ginsberg is discussing mantras. Ginsberg is a Buddhist. Mantras are important in Buddhism like Hymns are important in Christianity.
I couldn’t think of exact what I wanted to say. It’s not completely lost but it’s still very relevant today. It would be good if more people knew Ginsberg sang a punk rock song in 82’ on the Letterman show.
Great interview. And gutsy for Letterman to have a poet on his show, who isn't going to 'dumb down' his speech so as to appease a studio audience of New Yorkers. Great to see the poster for the ON THE ROAD Conference at Naropa in late July of 1982. Many folks have asked me "Why wasn't Jack Collom's name on that billboard? Why didn't he read there?" For starters, he was living in New York City at the time! Not Boulder. In fact, his apartment on Ludlow Street -- 2 blocks from Katz's Deli (on the 'Lower East side') -- was a short cab ride from where this very episode was being aired on June 10th. Less than a week later, I arrived in The Big Apple to visit my father Jack. Little did I know this show had been broadcast on TV just before I climbed aboard a 747 at Stapleton Airport in Denver, CO to fly out east. I might've mentioned it, otherwise. But I was ignorant, and in that blissful state we visited all the great spots (Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Bronx Zoo, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Grand Central Station, even Central Park bird watching. Most nostalgic ... we took the elevator up to the 111th Floor observation deck of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. As it may be, we wrote some better-than-average poems together on that trip, one of which we composed just 11 days after this Letterman show; you can see us reading it together in this video made at Chataquah Park in Boulder about 4 years before Jack passed away in 2017: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eunGUz9ShEY.html
The audience's natural instinct to laugh at Allen and his ideas is 100% accurate and right to do. Deep down they know he's a fool and treat him accordingly.
The problem in the beginning is he was attempting to explain the Dharma. This should never be attempted, especially on American Television. A shame to lose so many eyebrows at once.
Celebrating Allen's good friend Jack Kerouac's 100th birthday today....Kerouac said Ginsberg was the dark force in many of his books because Kerouac believed there was a core of light, beauty and magic somewhere in America with all the Post World War 2 despondency and morose disappointment that the Beat's wrote about. At their heart, they did explore their spontaneous experiences and their meaning. Yet in the gluttony of booze, sex and drugs, they fell apart, but despite their weaknesses, Kerouac and to some smaller degree Ginsberg, had an illuminating fire that lit up a generation.
True. They might not have realized Ginsberg wasn't there to get ranked on like some of Dave's more eccentric guests in those days. Or maybe there were just some giggly teenagers in the audience that night.
All writers and poets have a past both used by themselves and by outside observers. The trick, I think, is to gain knowledge and virtue so the past does not need to be at the center. That is not easy. In a sense you give yourself and expect nothing back. In societies like the US that has a service based approach that offers no friendship it is disasterous to start on a path where no one else stands.
@@dongiller I saw an article in a magazine that said it was the same person ,but this documentary said he was in San Francisco around 1952 .Lionel Corp. Was in NJ .Thank you .
I know everyone else has commented on it, but why the hell are people laughing? Was Letterman considered the equivalent of a night at The Comedy Strip? I remember the same thing happened with Don Van Vliet.. I guess they assumed it was a comedy show, which it is in some respects, late night that is, but come on.. He's not trying to be funny. Extremely cringeworthy.
