Today we're highlighting a very exciting new addition to the site from legendary Beat poet Gregory Corso: tracks from a 1969 recording session at Fantasy Records' San Francisco studios on Natoma Street.
In total there were eight tracks recorded for this session, ostensibly for a planned album release that never materialized — you'll recall that Fantasy also released records by Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Kenneth Rexroth, among others. They include "In the Fleeting Hand of Time," "Vision of Rotterdam," "The Last Warmth of Arnold," "Mexican Impressions," "Botticelli Spring," "Sun — A Spontaneous Poem," "Ode to Coit Tower," and, perhaps most exciting of all, "I Am 25."
We launched our Gregory Corso author page in June 2017, with assistance from Raymond Foye. There, you'll find five full readings plus one individual poem recorded between the 1970s and 1990s. The earliest recording is an April 1971 reading at Duke University, which is followed by an August 1985 appearance at the San Francisco Art Institute as part of their "Art of Poetry" series. Jumping forward to the 90s, there's a March 1991 Brooklyn College reading notable for the appearance of Corso's iconic late poem "The Whole Mess ... Almost" and for the half-hour candid conversation recorded in the car on the way home. From December 1992, there's a stellar reading in New York City also featuring Herbert Huncke, John Wieners, and Allen Ginsberg, and finally, from March 1993, we have a half-hour reading from Rutgers University including "I Met This Guy Who Died," "Earliest Memory," "Youthful Religious Experiences," and "Friends," among other poems.
Click here to start listening to this new Fantasy Records session on PennSound's Gregory Corso author page.
