Neal Cassady’s Birthday

Neal Cassady’s birthday today, “cocksman and Adonis of Denver”. Had he lived, he would have been 88 years old.

Hear him with The Grateful Dead quietly noodling behind him (recorded live at The Strait Theater, San Francisco, July 23 1967)

Listen again, driving the bus for the Merry Pranksters, rapping some more

 

Hear some recollections from some of his friends

Here‘s Beat artist Robert Branaman recalling his friendship with Neal Cassady – filmed by poet Marc Olmsted in August of last year in Santa Monica, California, a few months before Branaman’s 80th birthday. Here‘s our friend Andy Clausen evoking the spirit of Cassady.

Heather Dalton’s Neal Cassady movie, Neal Cassady – The Denver Years  is now pretty much completed.  Catch the highly-informative trailer for it here.

Allen and Neal’s letters came out from Creative Arts Press in Berkeley in 1977 under the title As Ever – The Collected Correspondence of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady

The first full-length Cassady biography, William Plummer’s appeared in 1981

Dave Moore’s collection of Neal Cassady – Collected Letters, 1944-1967 appeared in 2004

Here’s a little something on the Cassady kin – Jami Cassady Ratto and John Allen Cassady– and not forgetting, of course, Carolyn, their indomintable mother,Carolyn, who passed away late last year.

Fatboy Slim’s Neal Cassady Starts Here is strangely soothing

Check out also our other previous Neal Cassady  postings here andhere