"There goes Dean Moriarty." The greatest book ever written. This is haunting and great and Kerouac is absolutely the best. I follow him, when my work travels me places. Eventually I'll have gone everywhere Jack went in On The Road.
However popular Kerouac may be, I think that the greatness of his work is still very underappreciated. For example, what Kerouac accomplished between 1951 & 1957 is very similar to what Kierkegaard did between 1842 & 1848 (at exactly the same ages: between 29 & 35). They both, of course, died young as a consequence, but in those 6 years they accomplished more than a normal lifetime of work anyway. They were both born into families of tragic gloom and then wrote works of love "for revival and increase of inwardness." Adios, King!
at 16 , I hitched across America ( 2 of us ) along route 66... we started from NY and picked up 66 in the midwest ....there were no Mcdonalds , Red Roof inns etc .th journey was dotted with 'mom& pop' establishments .. from sleeping on the open dessert , the characters we encountered , the awe inspiring beauty and a few dangers ( some imagined , some not ) it was an awakening experience ..so it seems all road movies pique my interest ...thanks for posting
Of course it is! Kerouac and the whole Beat Generation listened to jazz and smoked and drank and had sex and got high to jazz and Kerouac wrote On The Road listening to jazz music every single second. Of course jazz is meant to be the background music because Beat literature is all about that stream of consciousness and rythms of progressive jazz! Can't you hear Kerouac's rythm and style and way of speaking going along so naturally with jazz?
Natalia, you are so right. I love jazz. I love Jack. I even named my cat after him, because he was a stray hobo cat. But now my cat, Jack, sleeps on my 114 year old grand piano. People say Jack won the lottery because he went from being a homeless stay cat eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in the alley to living the good life inside my apartment and sleeping on a grand piano. But I say no way. He didn't win the lottery, I did. And now we both listen to jazz and Jack. What a life.
The fringe, those that stop and feel and reflect on the sorrow, the fleeting nature of youth and who respond by setting out to chase some of the joy that life gives in bursts. Kerouac will always speak to those and for those. The pooh bear line eludes me too.
I'm currently in the midst of FINALLY getting around to reading this, and man, what an experience. I have told people that this is the book that I would love to equate my life to. Written so beautifully, so honestly. It makes me dream of better times I never had a chance to experience, where people just picked up their friends and had only each other. If you don't read this you are only delaying your own progress.
I just finished On the Road. I went down to the basement, and I was looking through a collection of paperbacks that my wife's late uncle was involved in publishing somehow. Could you believe that I got a 50s paperback copy of On the Road and Dharma Bums? :)
This is audio from the Steve Allen Show - a precursor to the Tonight Show - and that is Steve playing piano. Jack would get nervous before a TV show and drink, but he made an album with Allen and Steve could get him to relax. The preamble is not in the book but starts after "Gone.." with..."So in America..." And he repeats..."I think of Dean Mor i ar ty"
This is audio from the Steve Allen Show - a precursor to the Tonight Show - and that is Steve playing piano. Jack would get nervous before a TV show and drink, but he made an album with Allen and Steve could get him to relax. The preamble is not in the book but starts after "Gone.." with..."So, in America when the sun goes down..." And he repeats..."I think of Dean Moriarty, I think of Dean Mor-i-ar-ty" Once upon a time in America!
Of course, you are right, I didn't express myself correctly. So, the last sentence, with "and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear?", still amazes me, and still takes me back to that time when I was very young and the Revolution was just a few months old thing... Regards!
I'm 21 years old. When I read just the first chapter of this book it brought about an epiphany for me, the same I suspect it did for people who first picked it up when it hit the shelves in the fifties. It's a timeless literary masterpiece.
Yeah, it is cool to actually hear the voice behind the words. I guess I'm not really sure what I pictured him sounding like, but I really get a kick out of the Massachusetts accent. Really authentic!
I just saw the documentaries: "What happened to Jack Kerouac?" and "The Source". The Source covers the whole crew of Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corsi, etc.., highly recommend these!
well, the first part of it is from Visions of Cody ... but the broken down river pier sitting sensing all that raw land rolling bulge stuff are the final words of "Road"
One of the most beautiful aspects of Kerouac's writing is his style. For me, his incredible, spontaneous prose reflects in some way, how life really is, or was in the 50's. Life isn't always clean, clear-cut, sometimes it's raw and dirty and wild. He developed his style of prose so he could better express himself as he was unsatisfied with more regular writing styles and structures. Also he didn't particularly want his writing to be attached to the Beat Generation, it just happened that way.
Hollywood can do plots.... and do them well but it can't do poetry that pulses and drives with the rhythm of what it is describing so that you know it in a way that no video/celluloid can ever bring forth. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and other beat poets and even Nelson Algren were writing an obituary for a reality that is now gone... Thank you Jack.
Kerouac should have made a tape where he spoke out the whole book like this, like those tapes you can get at the library. I love hearing Kerouac's monologue and hearing him speak out the book to the sound of a jazzy violin. Just an opinion.
@19Maks94 I just finished reading this for pleasure. The reason I would praise this book is due to the parallels I (as well as most young people) can draw to my own life: the overwhelming but suppressed urge I have to go out, explore the world and find meaning for my existence, and the realization that this search in and of itself is as close an answer as I will ever uncover to the great question of "Why am I here?" This is just one of the many themes Kerouac delves into.
Letter to Shannon Did you know that I love you madly. Far out gone gone love. Only the truly mad can love like that. But I also need you as much as I love you. I breath you in and forget how to breath on my own. You give life to me and awaken my senses. Love love love like some mad gone jazz cat playing in the cool rain. Thank you Jack for everything, JW Purdy
@MrJim12341121 Oh, MY BOY! To be able to say you never read any of Jack Kerouac's work means you are about, should you chose to, embark on a wonderful journey. In "Dharma Bums" there is an exceptional epiphany he has wherein he announces to God that he loves Him! It will bring you to tears. This man was an astute observer of human beings whose fame robbed him of his annonimity and hence his ability to observe. THAT is what prevented him from writing & ultimately drove him to drink & death.
he inspires me to no end... I dont think Id write nearly as often as I do if I weren't inspired to by his prolific ways. tom waits too... a couple geniuses that havent been matched by another in my opinion. as I write this I may as well mention that I posted a video contained a recitation of some of my writing, a piece called "days feel like dreams", if anyone would care to listen and leave their honest thoughts.honesty is welcome, I dont claim to be anything but an amateur..certainly no jack k
He sounds like a typical American of that time, with the unpronounced Rs. He sounds a lot like Alan Ginsberg reading "Howl." Kerouac's parents were French Canadians, he was born in Massachusetts, and he didn't speak English until he was 6. He supposedly wasn't comfortable with English until his late teens! But this sounds like typical American English of the time.
This is audio from the Steve Allen Show - a precursor to the Tonight Show. Before a TV spot Jack would get nervous, but he made an album with Steve and would eventually relax. The preamble is not in the book but starts after "Gone.." with..."So, in America when the sun goes down..." And he ends, "I think of Dean Moriarty,I think of Dean Mor-i-ar-ty" Once upon a time in America! ed note: once a winner our jack got beaten down by the people that do those sorts of tings. A beat beat down = irony.
(to) swing (verb): To achieve the highest state of well-being. To soar free and clear. Bobby Rydell attended a "Swinging' School." Bruce and Sinatra graduated.
I am just finishing listening to Matt Dillon reading the entire novel on CD, having listened to it on a cross country road trip. I think everyone should do that. Dillon is terrific, but I only wish Kerouac himself had recorded it.
@HeadfulOfHollow I'm glad you did! I am not sure if I'm happy that a film is being made, but I definitely am nervous. I feel that if the movie is a hit, the Twilight fans will all read On The Road because it will be the "hip" thing to do. It's not that I don't want the book to get more exposure, but come on!
Damn... I didn't know he was so hot! Heard about him and started reading On The Road this summer... got too much to read for class now but loved the first half!
![[TH] Esports World Cup : Point Rush Stage](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eLU-jnYp3Zs/mqdefault.jpg)
Man I wish I could spend a couple years in the mid beat generation just hopping from jazz club to jazz club.
I found Jack at 15 when I read On The Road in 69 - so nice to be able to re-visit him here. He rocks!
"There goes Dean Moriarty." The greatest book ever written. This is haunting and great and Kerouac is absolutely the best. I follow him, when my work travels me places. Eventually I'll have gone everywhere Jack went in On The Road.
However popular Kerouac may be, I think that the greatness of his work is still very underappreciated. For example, what Kerouac accomplished between 1951 & 1957 is very similar to what Kierkegaard did between 1842 & 1848 (at exactly the same ages: between 29 & 35). They both, of course, died young as a consequence, but in those 6 years they accomplished more than a normal lifetime of work anyway. They were both born into families of tragic gloom and then wrote works of love "for revival and increase of inwardness." Adios, King!
well said
Beautiful! Imo "On the Road" was a book that made you feel different after having read it.
Rest in peace tonight jackie,would have been 92.
Jack kerouac you STILL are genius, your writings are still being read and enjoyed. It is a pleasure and a privilege for me. Thank you.
Rest in Peace ...May your Beat go on forever!
just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in.....Ti Jean
beautiful and powerful, i like his voice, great reader...
at 16 , I hitched across America ( 2 of us ) along route 66... we started from NY and picked up 66 in the midwest ....there were no Mcdonalds , Red Roof inns etc .th journey was dotted with 'mom& pop' establishments .. from sleeping on the open dessert , the characters we encountered , the awe inspiring beauty and a few dangers ( some imagined , some not ) it was an awakening experience ..so it seems all road movies pique my interest ...thanks for posting
Of course it is! Kerouac and the whole Beat Generation listened to jazz and smoked and drank and had sex and got high to jazz and Kerouac wrote On The Road listening to jazz music every single second. Of course jazz is meant to be the background music because Beat literature is all about that stream of consciousness and rythms of progressive jazz! Can't you hear Kerouac's rythm and style and way of speaking going along so naturally with jazz?
Excuse me,do you know lyrics?❤
Natalia, you are so right. I love jazz. I love Jack. I even named my cat after him, because he was a stray hobo cat. But now my cat, Jack, sleeps on my 114 year old grand piano. People say Jack won the lottery because he went from being a homeless stay cat eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in the alley to living the good life inside my apartment and sleeping on a grand piano. But I say no way. He didn't win the lottery, I did. And now we both listen to jazz and Jack. What a life.
it is the last page brother but don't despair, it never gets old
I just learned of Jack Kerouac. This is cool. This is good. I want to learn more of Jack Kerouac.
"All we need is Kerouac and a glass of sweet tea"
Thank you for posting this.
In the early 1990s, "and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear?" was the first beat generation sentence I've ever read.
the greatest rapper ever...
This is an amazing book. I'm 13. I'm reading it. It makes me want to go out and explore the world.
How is that feeling now?
thank you. It is great to hear the authors voice. The word is now alive..again
The fringe, those that stop and feel and reflect on the sorrow, the fleeting nature of youth and who respond by setting out to chase some of the joy that life gives in bursts. Kerouac will always speak to those and for those. The pooh bear line eludes me too.
I'm currently in the midst of FINALLY getting around to reading this, and man, what an experience. I have told people that this is the book that I would love to equate my life to. Written so beautifully, so honestly. It makes me dream of better times I never had a chance to experience, where people just picked up their friends and had only each other. If you don't read this you are only delaying your own progress.
One of my favourite TH-cam videos of all time
i wish i could listen to the whole book like this, music and all.
Great book. Thanks for uploading!
Saw the scroll for this book once. Was cool. Never really had much respect for Kerouac until that day. Kudos to his sheer typing skill.
i am in the middle of reading on the road. so freaking awesome, as 31 yr old i love it. i bought a copy that was a 25th anniversary cover
Kerouac is so inspiring! Love.
Jack Kerouac... R.I.P. Gone But Not Forgotten!!!!
this video makes me want to put on a beanie, get some coffee, and go chill
Fantastic !!
Goosebumps, man.
Thank you for that!
I just finished On the Road. I went down to the basement, and I was looking through a collection of paperbacks that my wife's late uncle was involved in publishing somehow. Could you believe that I got a 50s paperback copy of On the Road and Dharma Bums? :)
Oh man, this is great.
" so in america when the sun goes down ..........." RIP - neal cassidy (dean moriarty). the father of my america.
Amen to this, just love Kerouac one of the kings of the beat era.
Many thanks.
It was on the Steve Allen show. Steve Allen is playing the piano.
this is just beautiful
Read it, made me sad. I realized how far we are from home without having ever stepped of the stoop...
This is audio from the Steve Allen Show - a precursor to the Tonight Show - and that is Steve playing piano. Jack would get nervous before a TV show and drink, but he made an album with Allen and Steve could get him to relax.
The preamble is not in the book but starts after "Gone.." with..."So in America..."
And he repeats..."I think of Dean Mor i ar ty"
This is audio from the Steve Allen Show - a precursor to the Tonight Show - and that is Steve playing piano. Jack would get nervous before a TV show and drink, but he made an album with Allen and Steve could get him to relax.
The preamble is not in the book but starts after "Gone.." with..."So, in America when the sun goes down..."
And he repeats..."I think of Dean Moriarty, I think of Dean Mor-i-ar-ty"
Once upon a time in America!
Beautiful...
with your poem
I agree
he taught people to be free, there's no loss in that
jack was the man
Of course, you are right, I didn't express myself correctly. So, the last sentence, with "and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear?", still amazes me, and still takes me back to that time when I was very young and the Revolution was just a few months old thing... Regards!
R.I.P. Jack. 10.21.69.... i still think of ol Dean Moriarty
I'm 21 years old. When I read just the first chapter of this book it brought about an epiphany for me, the same I suspect it did for people who first picked it up when it hit the shelves in the fifties. It's a timeless literary masterpiece.
Very cool !
Awesome.
Yeah, it is cool to actually hear the voice
behind the words. I guess I'm not really sure
what I pictured him sounding like, but I really
get a kick out of the Massachusetts accent.
Really authentic!
I just saw the documentaries: "What happened to Jack Kerouac?" and "The Source". The Source covers the whole crew of Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corsi, etc.., highly recommend these!
Kerouac= Legend
well, the first part of it is from Visions of Cody ... but the broken down river pier sitting sensing all that raw land rolling bulge stuff are the final words of "Road"
true freestyle... the first spontaneous poet
One of the most beautiful aspects of Kerouac's writing is his style. For me, his incredible, spontaneous prose reflects in some way, how life really is, or was in the 50's. Life isn't always clean, clear-cut, sometimes it's raw and dirty and wild. He developed his style of prose so he could better express himself as he was unsatisfied with more regular writing styles and structures. Also he didn't particularly want his writing to be attached to the Beat Generation, it just happened that way.
There's a DVD now selliing on-line: Beat Angel. A fine story with Kerouac at the center, starring the great Vincent Balestri.
Well said!!!
genius. a great inspiration to my own writing.
Hollywood can do plots.... and do them well but it can't do poetry that pulses and drives with the rhythm of what it is describing so that you know it in a way that no video/celluloid can ever bring forth. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and other beat poets and even Nelson Algren were writing an obituary for a reality that is now gone... Thank you Jack.
. . .I think of Dean Moriarty. I will never forget that finish line. Inmortal book. From the creator of the kickwriting-
Thanks for posting.
oh god, i can only dream of this existing!!
Kerouac should have made a tape where he spoke out the whole book like this, like those tapes you can get at the library. I love hearing Kerouac's monologue and hearing him speak out the book to the sound of a jazzy violin. Just an opinion.
i love hearing jack talk with steve playing
it sounds great when he reads it with the piano
@19Maks94 I just finished reading this for pleasure. The reason I would praise this book is due to the parallels I (as well as most young people) can draw to my own life: the overwhelming but suppressed urge I have to go out, explore the world and find meaning for my existence, and the realization that this search in and of itself is as close an answer as I will ever uncover to the great question of "Why am I here?"
This is just one of the many themes Kerouac delves into.
There's a bit of Kerouac in all of us.
Letter to Shannon
Did you know that I love you madly. Far out gone gone love. Only the truly mad can love like that. But I also need you as much as I love you. I breath you in and forget how to breath on my own. You give life to me and awaken my senses. Love love love like some mad gone jazz cat playing in the cool rain.
Thank you Jack for everything,
JW Purdy
Classic..And Truly Unmeasurably Hip.
GO JACK GO
and the beat goes on .......
@MrJim12341121
Oh, MY BOY!
To be able to say you never read any of Jack Kerouac's work means you are about, should you chose to, embark on a wonderful journey. In "Dharma Bums" there is an exceptional epiphany he has wherein he announces to God that he loves Him! It will bring you to tears. This man was an astute observer of human beings whose fame robbed him of his annonimity and hence his ability to observe. THAT is what prevented him from writing & ultimately drove him to drink & death.
he inspires me to no end... I dont think Id write nearly as often as I do if I weren't inspired to by his prolific ways. tom waits too... a couple geniuses that havent been matched by another in my opinion. as I write this I may as well mention that I posted a video contained a recitation of some of my writing, a piece called "days feel like dreams", if anyone would care to listen and leave their honest thoughts.honesty is welcome, I dont claim to be anything but an amateur..certainly no jack k
I'm In Love)))!
That's been my dream to have one and drive it coast to coast. :)
So much better spoken than heard.
He sounds like a typical American of that time, with the unpronounced Rs. He sounds a lot like Alan Ginsberg reading "Howl." Kerouac's parents were French Canadians, he was born in Massachusetts, and he didn't speak English until he was 6. He supposedly wasn't comfortable with English until his late teens! But this sounds like typical American English of the time.
To me Kerouac was all about kindness to one another in the face of the great sadness that is life
jackemlyn062 word
This is audio from the Steve Allen Show - a precursor to the Tonight Show. Before a TV spot Jack would get nervous, but he made an album with Steve and would eventually relax.
The preamble is not in the book but starts after "Gone.." with..."So, in America when the sun goes down..."
And he ends, "I think of Dean Moriarty,I think of Dean Mor-i-ar-ty"
Once upon a time in America!
ed note: once a winner our jack got beaten down by the people that do those sorts of tings.
A beat beat down = irony.
Yes, if there was a god and it was Pooh bear I just might become a believer :-D
The disc is great, if you ever get the chance to check it out!
Yessss, yesss, yess, what a mad cat!
@Cemalson very well said!
(to) swing (verb): To achieve the highest state of well-being. To soar free and clear. Bobby Rydell attended a "Swinging' School." Bruce and Sinatra graduated.
As someone mentioned if at least six of us give him a "thumbs down" it will suppress his freefall into delusion.
I am just finishing listening to Matt Dillon reading the entire novel on CD, having listened to it on a cross country road trip. I think everyone should do that. Dillon is terrific, but I only wish Kerouac himself had recorded it.
is it possible to miss someone you never met?
reading that book was the most worthwhile act ive done in a long time
one day i'm gonna buy me a hudson hornet and ball that jack down the interstate in a blaze of battered glory.
Someone def needs to do an audiobook with jazz
love when he says 'rags'
wow, had to get that outta the way.
the way he says rags is cool
This guy was a fucking Genius
amen
♥♥♥
Exactly.
@HeadfulOfHollow I'm glad you did! I am not sure if I'm happy that a film is being made, but I definitely am nervous. I feel that if the movie is a hit, the Twilight fans will all read On The Road because it will be the "hip" thing to do. It's not that I don't want the book to get more exposure, but come on!
too cool for school
Damn... I didn't know he was so hot! Heard about him and started reading On The Road this summer... got too much to read for class now but loved the first half!
I saw the original when it passed through at Indiana University!
It said "no flash photography" but I had to
40 year old man tired with working all the time, got some money saved, I am gonna get the hell out ta here
Take me with ya!!
New Mexico desert hotels
Pretty crazy these days. Off the planet sounds good to me