Jack Kerouac shooting pool (1967)

[PlayIt4MeAgainSam]

This is a wonderful presentation of Kerouac; The Hustler of Poetry!

[Misterrize]

thank you youhavegeniusshins, I haven't seen that poem since college. Gwendolyn Brooks. Good stuff. Find some Langston Hughes, More good stuff

[HumaneAnon]

The mere idea that not long ago people talked like this is hilarious. That trans-atlantic voice was used so much in radio, tv and the news of the day. Now if you do that voice people think your a twit poser. Shit just got real ^_^

[MrCaioliz]

I'd like met him and I didn't read all his books until,I'm the only ´person in the earth I guess,that thinks ''Book Odf Dreams'' is one of his master-pieces for have captured the spirit of his soul ainside his dreams and like he said''whatis the life :?if not a big and a strange dream''.Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac.I feel sorry for the movie.

[rupertwalker]

Just realised that Passion Pit sample this in their song "Sleepy Head".

[vincikd007bg008]

first time hearing jack kerouac those last few lines ''the beat'' very onomatopoeic with a crucial element, rhythm, conveying a sense of a slave generation slaves to the beat. Very impressive look forward to hearing more. thanks for uploading.

[thewinebottle]

brian eno "another green world" detected at the beggining

[rnwepc]

Passion Pit Sleepy Head Sample 0:26 seconds in

[MrWhak]

Yeah, Kerouac. You can talk about going on the road and living the free life in America, sure, but your momma was waiting back at home with a nice house for you and a type writer, rich boy.

[Brocksongs]

@MrWhak he pissed more life out of his dick than you will ever live...bank on it...deaf boy.

[MrWhak]

@Brocksongs i love you

[kasiiiatjarina]

@MrWhak that is not entirely true. while having one aunt always taking care of him in case of emergency (via penny postcards..) and being well-educated, he spoke in enigmatic sentences and had enjoyed a colourful life of carefree travel during which he'd worked as : security guard, scullion, gas station attendant, construction worker, sailor, railroad brakeman, baggage handler, synopsizer of film scripts, soda jerk, short-order cook, dishwasher and a sports journalist.

[deschenes108]

we lurk late. we strike straight. we real cool. we play pool

[youhavegeniusshins]

@deschenes108 We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.

[Jonannellejul]

@youhavegeniusshins Gwendolyn

[youhavegeniusshins]

@Jonannellejul Mmhm.

[theghostofbuddyholly]

smooth SLAM  BAM

[swantonist]

"and everything is going to the beat" is this where that band sampled it from

[Trageikeman116]

0:27-0:29. That's the sample from the beginning of Passion Pit's Sleepyhead!

[orbis2009]

Hate to tell you, but in his later years before Florida he used to go up to the Grotto behind the Franco-American school and make the Stations of the Cross on his knees. He left the old scene completely, returned very sick to mother---literal mother and Lowell.

[sanchez64]

@DaniboyBR2 I've read all his books mate, even the poetry and a couple of biographies. Try to read them in order of publishing release as they sort of follow on from each other and you get an idea how his life was changing. I think Big Sur is my next favourite after On The Road but they are all excellent. Subteraraneans, Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels........so many great books, I might read them again!

[lupine22]

@sanchez64 Yes, you could read them in the order they were released, or else you could read them in the order of his intended Duluoz Legend, which traces his life story in chronological order. So, you'd start with Visions of Gerard, then Doctor Sax, Maggie Cassidy, Vanity of Duluoz, On the Road, Visions of Cody, Subterraneans, Tristessa, Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels, Big Sur, Satori in Paris.

[filmerado]

@lupine22 In between Doc Sax & Maggie Cassidy (more or less) would be The Town and the City

[lupine22]

@filmerado Yes - except that The Town & the City (his first published novel) was more fictional than the others. It overlapped events covered in Visions of Gerard, Doctor Sax, Maggie Cassidy, and Vanity of Duluoz, and finished with the main character about to set out on the road ...

[bicycledays]

@sanchez64

Big Sur is my favorite Kerouac book.

Then, The Subterraneans.

[sanchez64]

Im so glad he didnt play football instead - my life would be poorer wirthout having read On The Road.

[DaniboyBR2]

@sanchez64 Yeah, mine too, the Original Scroll is legendary man! Any other books by him you like? I just bought Big Sur and Dharma Bums but I've heard great things about The Subterraneans too.

[osvelhos]

see: Os Velhos da Montanha

[mrspatrickcampbell]

Jack was so gorgeous!  Are there any nude photos of Jack?

Discuss!

[ioriorioriorio]

Dunno pal, I'm from(and live in ) waterbury ct.....alot like lowell mass. up the way...we all drink hard, play pool hard,....b.t.w. I still take acid and once in a while pull dharma bums off the shelf....oreo from waterbury

[PhilipSkovgaard]

Let's just not see the film, okay?

[npspec34]

Well, he was a full blown alcie by 1967,

and the America he wrote about in "On the Road"

was a 1940's country that was gone

by 1957 when the book came out.

How would a film capture an

America

that is not there?

[MrThreshold2009]

@npspec34 He was "a full blown alcie" way before 1967. In his early days it would appear to be dipsomania, but if you read Big Sur (from '62), anyone who suffers delirium tremens like that has reached the advanced stages of alcoholism.

[davidoffon]

@MrThreshold2009 Alcohol advances at its own pace, the disease has nothing to do with DTs in terms of advancement, it's the mind. The Dt's can be had from 3 or four bottles of vodka over a weekend, followed swiftly by old turkey. Feud poisoning.

[MrThreshold2009]

@davidoffon I disagree that it is a disease. It's an addiction, and there are differences. The delrium tremens occur to to the excessive, constant intake of alcohol - parituclarly over a short period of time, and especially with a lack of food. A drinker needs to have gone through around 5 years (this is scientific research, incidentally) of advanced drinking to be susceptible. This is why Kerouac refers to the "early stages". DTs just shows an individual is now, indeed, an "aclie".

[davidoffon]

@MrThreshold2009 I have no interest in scientific research, I have better methods

[MrThreshold2009]

@davidoffon The best method is not to drink your way into delerium tremens. Not nice at all.

[davidoffon]

@MrThreshold2009 you need to give the advice a lot more than my need to hear it.

[lupine22]

@npspec34 From what I hear, the film is being shot in Canada.

[shimokita2]

@lupine22 - He never made it to Canada.

[lupine22]

@shimokita2 - He made it to Canada several times, including Montreal in 1967 for a TV interview. Some of the footage of this is available on YT.

[brandobum9]

@shimokita2 filming in canada because some of their towns can be more easily transfered to look like towns of the late 40's than american towns can. the photos on the internet show that they are filmed in canada, but are said to be, at that part of the movie, an american town

[JeanDuluoz]

@npspec34 The America Jack experienced in the 40's is still here. It's changed, but America exists the same. Jack's America is alive and well in modern day. I have found this to be true.

[filmerado]

@npspec34 Probably could shoot scenes in Mexico, a lot of looks like America in the 40s.

[CountThrillhammer]

Listen to jack reading his own stuff - that's the best way.

[poetrybay1]

happy birthday jack!

[ostricalungimirante]

happy b-day Mr K

[JanetEyre9]

Happy birthday Jack. I will never thank you enough :)

[jkasprzak1]

@Shellback41: Agreed. It's funny, we all get a different imaginary picture in our head of the story. It'd be a shame for all of us to share the same photo. I remember when I saw "Fear and Loathing..." I liked the image I gave myself from reading Thompson's book, rather than the one the book gave me. I guess in essence, I don't want to have an image of "On The Road" with movie stars.

[hiddeninromance]

@jkasprzak1

I agree thoughFear and Loathing wasn't so catastrophic though I guess, as it came with illustrations. On the road, is far too immaterial to be confined by tape.

[Shellback41]

I hate to sound pessimistic, but somehow I don't want them to produce 'On the Road' as a film - it would interfere too much with the imaginary landscape which accompanies the book in my head. Great footage by the way, thanks for posting!

[cingle2004jp]

Fascinated by this film

[lowaces]

hey jack-- i got some books published !

i say good things about you !

hope you enjoy reading them in the spirit realm !

[jandean61]

WINTER PARK FL

[shiftintoGTRR]

When I was younger I tried to read his books but I couldn't follow it well, I think I will try again, I'm actually related to him, it's incredible to see these videos of him. I've read about him, just haven't read all of his work. There was a thing in our Provincial paper about a movie that was about Jack Kerouac, infact I think Johnny Depp was going to play him? But I never saw anything after that. Could be what Melchersson was talking about in his or her comments.

[MrFartboy79]

Ah Kerouac- love him. No one writes America like him! No one writes about the sad, quaint New England towns he loved so much- growing up in cold autumn New England, and jumping New York City or the Midwestern towns of the desolate wilderness! Also wrote about mysterious shadows of childhood, love, sex, music, Kerouac one of the last truly great poet writers. The man had so much romance and love for everything he couldn't deal- and it killed him. A classic revolutionary Romantic! READ KEROUAC

[DRCudmore]

One Fast Move or I'm Gone

What Happened To Kerouac?

Kerouac

On the Road (Pre-production)

[tooeyotoole1]

hey jack fans, u should check out this site. I can't write the link cos it won't let me but use ur imagination if you can...

w w w (dot) donotlookatthesun (dot) com

He submitted in the first episode a story... Et je croix qu'il a créé cette site internet

do not look at the sun (dot) com

[jbearden]

what it is.

[ManilaSyndicate]

Close to the end. Jack was a mess.

[southfork40]

Oh, I just saw that it was shot in Lowell, Mass. The year he died I think.

[Melchersson]

I have seen so many picture and film-sequences at Jack during his last years and this cannot been shoot in 1967? He had put on way more weight in 67 and by the quality of the film it seems a few years before!

[southfork40]

I think 'ole Jack just got old and worn out trying to live up to people's expectations - that guy in "On The Road" and that guy in "Dharma Bums". His 'friends' had died or otherwise moved on. He got stuck and drank hisself through it. I wonder if this clip was shot in Florida when he was staying with his sister.

[tomvband]

Pool Shootin' Man - tomvband

[dBanuelos77]

why is jack's commentary on the Beat generation sped up? If anything, the VIDEO should have been slowed down to fit his reading.

His voice sounds like a shitty snot-nosed brat!

...and not the angel-headed hipster that he was!

BOO!!!

[drfitzenstein]

sounds like you dont know anything about him, first thing he says is "now its jazz", have you ever heard 50's bebop jazz? or heard kerouac or cassady talk? its all fast stream of consciousness, FAST!

[kuso1426]

@drfitzenstein Where can i hear this conversation!

[BrunoCoelho]

Awesome

[Bowoglo]

Ostie que cest hot que se soit un QUEBECOIS!!

[logansGT]

"Oh hope, oh Pope.....oh nope !"

R.I.P. Jack, where ever the hell you are.

[Mazurka1001]

Poor Jack was sooo blue-collar 50's American! Then that silly, talentless bearded kike got a hold of him...

Sweet and sad.

[AhYaOk]

Good ol' Jack. Damn, I want to cry.

[Darkcore2008]

Alright so I had something stupid, I admit, don't have to bitch about it.

[RideMyBMW]

Kerouac could been anything in life (he went to Columbia University for Pete´s sake!!!)but opted for the drunken bum denoument. Shoulda stuck to college ball. Woulda gone pro in ´47no doubt.

[fadedfuck]

he got injured and was benched a whole season tho so tats why he opted career change

[metrodash]

had phlebitis, no doubt they gave him M. He tried to get off booze at Big Sur but it wasn't possible for ti Jean

[JamesD567]

He did this world a greater service as a writer then he ever would have done as a football player. Although, he was a really good athlete.

[Darkcore2008]

Kerouac may be a good writer, but he's very sexist and is obviously a deadbeat father. Alot of the beat writers are sexist anyway, i'd rather read De Sade

[nealcassady13]

jack is a teller of the truth. he saw and wrote about america....also "a lot" is two words...

[theblackparade1039]

oh, come on. stop thinking you're a revolutionaire visionary whatever. Sade is demented vomit.

[LukeDinan]

Are you kidding me? The term SADIST comes from De Sade. He wrote about rape and necrophilia for christ sake. And Kerouac was sexist?! De Sade literally used woman as objects of pleasure. He was a fucking lunatic. And as for Kerouac being a deadbeat father, joan left him while she was pregnant! It wasnt even confirmed that the child was his until the poor thing was 9 years old. If you're going to spew facts and name drop (De Sade) like that, try not to be an ignorant fool about it.

[CrazyJustin2006]

did you speed the audio up? It sounds faster then i remember it.

[insidefeever]

eh, maybe the jack was sped up : D

[YOBRO79]

i think jack is great and all

but his writing was nearly all done on speed!

maybe his was beter than ours but speed is dirty dirty dirty!

[insidefeever]

so were his shoes. i don't hold that against him.

[retread01]

He claimed that he wrote On The Road on coffee. He was quite insistent on that. I am not trying to paint a rosier picture of him as I know full well he was into all that shit.

[JamesD567]

I am pretty sure he wrote it on benzedrine tubes over the course of 3 days on Teletype paper, one long roll. The orginal is now owned by Jim Irsey - the owner of the Indy Colts.

[retread01]

It was 3 weeks, not 3 days! I have read the original scroll version which is where I read about him saying he wrote it on coffee. It goes into detail about how he didn't simply sit down and write for 3 weeks, there was years of notes and planning and several starts and restarts before finally getting it done. But even then it took years of revisions before it was accepted to be printed.

[JamesD567]

Opps. Yeah, I meant 3 weeks. haha. Calm the hell down.

[danrob10]

But he did write The Subterraneans in 3 days on Benzedrine.

[JamesD567]

Cool. Did you read that? Ive only read On the Road, Dharma Bums and Tristesa. I heard Big Sur is really good. So I guess I will either read that or the Subs for my next JK read.

[danrob10]

Yeah I read it a few weeks ago. I'd recommend reading Subterraneans before Big Sur. I say that because I think it's good to read his novels in the order that they were written - you get a good sense of his development that way.

[TheOneThatFlewOver]

Big Sur is probably my favourite of his smaller books. I really enjoyed his play, "Beat Generation", as well. Recommended.

[rockraccoon311]

I agree with you on that. Big Sur was a deliriously drunken excursion for jack, and it was written with such dark undertones of loss and emptiness. Definately his rawest novel.

[nukes27]

Jack hated the hippies. Clearly some of you cannot grasp that which was beat- Jack had a Lowell, Mass Catholic working class ethic which shines in his prolific body of work. Yes he spent most of his 47 years drunk and travelling but he also spent them writing and selling or attempting to sell his work. The haters will be outshined..we all die in the end.

[someonenoticeimdead]

thats why ginsbergbecame so outcasted by everyone in the 60s. He had joined the hippie movement where kids shoved lsd, made bombs and became so political and claimed it to beat. Beat it letting loose, gaining knowledge, being prolific like you said. Kerouac did hate the hippies and I dont blame him.

[hippygangster]

Kerouac had the right, you dont.Kerouac was just hung up on his white working class anti-hero junk. He was really just jelous cause he knew that we were having more fun then the beats, and we were experiencing more. It was relevent in the different drugs of choice. The beats liked heroin-alcohol-speed, and we liked marijuana and lsd.

[tainoaz]

I like this comment because the only reason I am what I am and not what I despise is because I have lived lived from 'This' perspective and not 'That' perspective. If my father had left me more patrimony and social status maybe I would be a Con-servative Punk. As it turned out I have suffered enough to have some pity for them and be glad I don't have the option to be an idiot. Am I making any sense?

[hippygangster]

I hear you 100%, you are making a lot of sense. Regardless of what one feels about Kerouac, and/or beats and hippies, he was a good writer. He communicated well because he lived it.

[Melchersson]

Is there anyone who knows if they done any movies about Kerouac? They been talking about doing "On the road" for years but nothing´s happening?

[maaadelineee]

there's a documentary movie called "kerouac" that's been out for a while.

[subterranean47]

I would be really interested to see one of his books made into a movie- I have a feeling it'd be poor quality with bad actors and a worse director but that'd be awesome if someone like the cohen brothers did it.

Surely someone has written a screenplay for on the road

[Melchersson]

Well I think they did even start to shoot a couple of scenes from "On the road" in the early 90´s ! But I´ll guess they feel a lot pressure shooting a movie of the book #1 of the last century!

[subterranean47]

haha yeah- it seems like a pretty daunting task

[6eeyore9]

They just came out with a documentary which is awesome, called "One Fast Move Or I'm Gone, Jack Kerouac's Big Sur" that has music by Jay Farrar from Son Volt & Ben Gibbard form Death Cab For Cutie. I Highly recommend both the album and the documentary

[Peacelovelennon1]

I think I read somewhere that production for the "On the road" movie is scheduled to begin in 2011...But since I don't want to pay for IMDB Pro, I know nothing else. But like you said, they have been talking about it for years...They will probably push the date back again a few more times.

[joet88]

did u kno Kerouac wanted to make movies? it's so sad he died so young- i bet his movies woulda been nuts

[faranby]

ha! was that brian enos little fishes i heard in the begining? if you havnt heard it check out brian eno's another green world album great stuff

[jowkdd]

ha! was that brian enos little fishes i heard in the begining? i'm an indie hipster who knows eno so if you don't know him - i do - go check him out it's great stuff

[baytamusic]

i like to play pool.

[PanemetCirenses]

the chicken or the egg? the drink or the defeatist's posture? oh poor jack, pour him on the road. shall we feel sorry for the man that saw to his own demise? or, shall we rejoice in the fella that said the things, like "he was beat", that others were afraid to? well, blame him for the hippies (and chavs, etc.), but don't blame the hippies for him. my rythym.

[randomnamefive]

blame him for the hippies and chavs? how could one person create two polar opposites?

[RideMyBMW]

"i wish i could have been there" - unsane

Jack woulda beat the crap outta yuz with his pool cue ya "joik".

[johnbourbon]

dead 2 years later. dead as deadsville.

[mordentimes54]

Checked out channel now I know why you think he's a bum

[trewqwert]

no good beatnik bum

[greenglowingbanana]

October 21 1969

Once again on the road

looking for it

we miss you.

Thank you for everything!!!!!!!

[RideMyBMW]

"King of the Beats" ? Uh, king of the "dead-beat" dads maybe...

[goouttothemeadow]

wow! it's Jack!

[memorybabe63]

thanks lupine 22 for sharing such beautiful videos.....

[mc2201at]

wow! great sex simbol

great rock star!!!!

[ruotze]

This is really great!

[oi32df]

Saviez pas ca mes chers Ricain que Jack était un "frenchie" !

[antoine214]

Check out Paul Maher Jr.'s wondrous biography of the man and his work and the tragedy...

[RideMyBMW]

Kerouac could been anything in life (he went to Columbia University for frick´s sake!!!)but opted for the drunken bum denoument. Ended up a "literatti" truck driver.

[sbali76]

.....ended up being one of the greatest names in American history and literature.

[RideMyBMW]

Kerouac could been anything in life (he went to Columbia University for frick´s sake!!!)but opted for the drunken bum denoument. Shoulda stuck to college ball. Woulda gone pro in ´47.

[sbali76]

well, if being a drunken bum gets one what it got kerouac, maybe i need to reconsider my career choice lol. if only all of the drunken bums of the world were more like him.....man.

[heymistah01]

man, a drunken bum is a drunken bum, beatific or not. dig man?

[heymistah01]

ur clearly a dick head

[sbali76]

you guys are clearly taking me way too seriously. i was joking. woosah.

[johnbourbon]

kerouac said his biggest mistake was giving up football for pomes.

[lupine22]

Really? Where did he say that?

[johnbourbon]

new jersey

[lupine22]

Any further details?

[davidoffon]

@johnbourbon Old shirt.

[RideMyBMW]

"kerouac said his biggest mistake was giving up football for pomes." - Johm

I knew it! A Columbia "Letter man" hanging out with those friggin losers in Times Square (Burroughs,Cassady, Ginsberg)...Jack´s heart had been broken too many times I guess (lil´ bro dying, his mom´s over posessiveness, dad losing his business, flunking outta Ivy League, etc). Poor dude.

[johnbourbon]

yeah, and i think he was totally depressed and possibly mortified about his life 'on the road'; as if he felt betrayed by his choices. a lot of regret to be sure.

poor dude indeed!

[RideMyBMW]

"as if he felt betrayed by his choices. a lot of regret to be sure." - John

You read "Lonesome Traveller" ? Good book but you get the sense that this whole livin´ life like a hobo deal is kinda bogus. Sorta of an "escapist" mindset.

[johnbourbon]

exactamundo! wellsaid.

can you imagine? livin like a hobo?

[RideMyBMW]

"can you imagine? livin like a hobo?"

Sure I could. I´d like to have a million in the bank and live off the interest while travellin´ across America.

[johnbourbon]

thats called a 'vacation'.

[insidefeever]

a hobo scratches change together, dude. bum it right!

[4crows]

Kerouac was not "trying to live the life of a hobo" he was looking for experiences, living life unconventionally, meeting and studying people..how they live ..how they talk...how they suffer, how they love all the good & bad and writing it down for us to read.... seems so simple..but then just try it yourself...see what you come up with.

[4crows]

"escapist"!!!! Kerouac an escapist!!! He threw himself into the ring...overindulged in life entirely and payed for it.. but created an amazing and original body of work that has yet to be matched...he had a voice and sense of compassion that was truely unique.

[DREWJAMES1234]

sounds like you've fallen for the myth. would you call a man who denies the existence of his daughter, attempts to avoid giving any support to her while he's raking it in and she's living in poverty and cuts her out of his will, compassionate? remember by the way this is the offspring of the young woman he writes all sentimentally about at the end of On the Road and who he was to marry and treat like complete shit.

[ThreeShampooBottles]

Yeah. Those damn pomes.

[johnbourbon]

@ThreeShampooBottles pomes all sizes

[aztiff]

The film is an excerpt from a TV piece from Canada in the 60s, available on myspacetv called Jack Kerouac - Le Sel De La Semaine, a great interview in French.

[HarryTheHippo]

This is interesting. I never seen this before. Nice footage.

[bigsurjune]

The only people for me are the mad ones....

[4usinsay]

Thanks 4 postin

[ArthurJimbo]

when your stripped bare and you ve got nothing to lose and nobody cares you ll swing around and you ll feel the blues and in it freedom that is raw and untouchable to boot

[romance923]

beauteous.

[unsane86]

i wish i could have been there