Jack Kerouac – The Northport Tapes

Audio of Jack Kerouac is priceless and so we’re very happy to feature this weekend (courtesy of Counter Culture Chronicles and the remarkable Ubu Web

As Ubu Web notes:

“Counter Culture Chronicles has released on cassette a rare recording of Jack Kerouac at home in Northport, (Long Island), where he lived from 1958 to 1964. We hear Kerouac reading from his work while getting drunk and occasionally singing along with Frank Sinatra records that are being played in the background. Kerouac is clearly having a good time and takes the listener on a lucid deconstructionist trip, in which American popular culture is turned upside down and inside out. The recording covers the full ninety minutes the material. Have a seat and get filled to the brim with Kerouac’s intoxicated mind. You won’t get up again.

Side A of “The Northport Tapes”  can be heard here
Side B can be heard here 

Jack’s Last Call –  Say Goodbye to Kerouac, written by Patrick Fenton and directed by Sue Zizza, with music by David Amram, a dramatization based on these tapes may be listened to here

George  Wallace’s account of Jack Kerouac in Northport, in Polarity magazine, can be read here  – and his video – a tour of Kerouac’s Northport -can be viewed here. (Fenton’s tour of Kerouac’s Queens, incidentally can be accessed here)

Here’s further background (from Christopher Twarowski  &  Spencer Rumsey) in the local paper – Jack Kerouac – The Long Island Years