It's amazing to see Neal's mannerisms while speaking. Kerouac talks about the fact that no-one was as fast as Neal. You can see thar in this video. He speaks so fluidly, almost like he's composing music - one of the best ways to convey thoughts I think. Thankyou so much for putting this up.
Well dude, I find it interesting within context. This is quite an interesting period for the history of thought. There is an intellectual trend that extends far past Neal and the beats. The beats brought this trend into popular culture. Cassady is expressing a sort of philosophical pessimism here. I heard a story of Cassady reading Schopenhauer in a library. Schopenhauer is considered a philosophical pessimist. Schopenhauer was counter to the culture in his own time - circa 1800 ( Schopenhauer influenced Nietzsche, who influenced postmodern thought, which influenced anyone interested in thinking counter to tradition e.g. the beats). Outside of this context - sure its nonsense. However, every meaning exists in a context from which it derives its meaning. So ultimately the pessimist agrees with you ...Just another Twack! The question is why the pessimist says this, or why Neal is saying what he is saying in the video. - Cheers plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/
@@karlhungus5436 It is intresting, sure. Darkly comic too. But the truth is Neal's babel in this clip is more Charlie Mansion than philosophical pessimism. Ginsburg uses the word pessimism because he's being nice. Neal was going on about getting rid of people he finds extremist and mentions civil rights activists a few times. His ego is oblivious to the fact that he's being extremist here himself -- and yet for a creepy moment he was about to implicate his pal Ginsburg as being an extremist in need of some weeding. The nicest thing you can call this is drugged up bullshit. The Beats were awesome and amazing, but they also had plenty of bullshit, like this, or like Kerouac at the end. Atleast Ginsburg had integrity and compassion.
@@karlhungus5436 this guy yapping his high and mighty “I’m the decider on who’s philosophy and thoughts are superior” is complete bullshit. I’m sure he’s well versed on all the drug/drunk rants he’s critiqued over the years but he doesn’t understand intellectual thought and prose and that’s very clear here. Neal was one of the greatest ever and they all knew that and they were all inspired by him in some way. Who cares what some hack on RUclips comments has to critique about him. There’s this guy and thens there’s Neal Cassidy. Who’s shooting shit with Ginsberg right here? Like would Gins waste his time just shooting with any fast talking person? Na I don’t think so. He’s knew what he was doing here.
I was blessed to have met Allen Ginsberg on several occasions: A really great courageous and righteous mensch-especially when he bravely risked his life chanting OM and leading a group meditation, creating a palpable vibration of Peace amid all the violent chaos of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago; definitely reducing the degree of violence and probably saving lives. And he was really a very nice kindhearted guy. It meant alot to me that he actually took my poetry seriously-more than I did at the time. I was so young and shy and self-conscious; when he was first reading my poetry, I kept defensively murmuring and making excuses and disclaimers; until he admonished me with loving exasperation “Will you shuttup already! I'm trying to read, and this is good!" He showed me line-by-line where I was really “making-it” and where I was just talking-about-it in conceptual terms. He brought it home to me that every line needs to be painting-a-picture and making music. Good advice that I instinctively apply in all of my writing.
Neal reminds me of the enigmatic homeless figures I've come across in SF and LA who lure you into genuinely wondering if they're speaking higher truths or babbling lunacy.
Around this time I spent a couple of years with these two word shamans,running with señor Cassady in and out of the woods of La Honda, California and living,hanging out with Allen in NYC for the following year. Allen's mind was brilliantly mystical and his essence was pure kindness, Neal was brilliantly mad and maddening, fascinating to listen to, a testosterone driven driver who almost made sense..some of the time..Neal could be the cleverest fox in the hen house and the ladies loved his vulpine ways...Allen was your old dear Jewish grandfather even if you weren't Jewish.
knowing cassady himself, what's your personal opinion on his matter of death? did he walk into the desert until he collapsed? did he lay down on the tracks and face the barrage of a speeding train?
According to his former wife, Carolyn (R.I.P) was told by Mexican authorities that Neal collapsed near the train tracks just "yards" out of San Miguel Allende. According to the autopsy he died due to "general congestion of all systems" after attending a friend's wedding party that day. Guests at the party said Neal had been using a powerful barbiturate sold under the brand name Seconal - which you could buy without prescription in Mexico, although Carolyn thinks it was most likely, Nembutal - a drug Neal was fond of using. Apparently Neal never used to drink heavily because of his sensitive stomach. Carolyn once said that Neal would only have a few drinks to be sociable and the Mexican authorities did not write up a detailed coroner's report due to the fact that he was a foreigner with drugs in his system. She suspected he died of renal failure and not exposure or hypothermia, but agrees he felt his life had been a failure and wished it would end.
@@changstein The usually accepted version (verified by Ken Kesey) is that Cassady accepted a dare to count all the railroad ties from Celaya (about fifteen miles away, where he'd gone to retrieve some luggage) and San Miguel de Allende. According to this story, his last words were "64,928" -- the point at which he's stopped counting.
"enjoy it", Cassady says half-heartedly. He understood everything would always be corrupt and the best thing to do is enjoy as much as you can while you can. Yet there was always Ginsberg there to say something can be done. Still not exactly sure who was/is right
@@papa_pt Depends on your definition of sustainable. If you think that humans can harm the planet beyond the point that we can feasibly exist then you haven't been paying attention to the last 20,000 years of history. Humans are the largest cockroaches that have ever existed. When paradigms shift we adapt. We've survived famine, drought, disease, and war on apocalyptic scales already. The question isn't will we persist, but how destructive are we destined to be. In the game of checks and balances climate change is the check, and the balancing will be deserved. It probably won't be the end though. We're capable of some pretty amazing things, but look where that's got us so far. For everything's sake I hope we never achieve interstellar travel. We've completely bastardized the ecosystem of the Earth for our own gain, and we're bound to continue that streak unceasingly unless stopped by a greater apocalyptic event.
Thanks for re-uploading this, it's just marvellous. So much on show about the relationship and contrasts between these two and obviously it's fantastic to have video of Neal.
Thank you for posting this. It makes Kerouac's description of Cassady more alive. He really was a force of nature! He completely steals the whole room, just like Jack described.
That was brilliant between Ginsberg and Cowboy Neal. I have heard of both men, but never got to see them in person until now. Both are intellectual giants and I'm very glad to see this. Thanx for posting this.
Came across this from a L.A. Times article: "Hidden in an otherwise joking, high-on-pot, mocking letter to Allen Ginsberg in 1947, Neal Cassady offhandedly gives the key to his life: "[S]ee how I write on several confused levels at once, so do I think, so do I live, so what, so let me act out my part at the same time I’m straightening it out, so as to reach an authentic destiny.”
Thank you for this . Fascinating. I think Neil must have been perceived like the living truth that Alan and Jack was searching for . A bright mind unrestrained by society and free from conditioning that I suspect a strict formal education does to you . I’ve known people on the street and they chat like Neil . There’s no holding back . That street upbringing with that intelligence must have been a revelation to more restrained minds searching to break free and write in a more spontaneous and genuine way 💚Xx
Ginsberg had been knocking it out of the park promoting the beats for 10 years by the time of the recording. Yet his loyalty to his tiny San Fran publisher meant that he was the least-read most famous poet in America ever. Howl's effortless destruction of the era's obscenity law was solid evidence for the excellence of his best poems
'The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom...for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough' - William Blake. Coincidentally Blake was one of Ginsberg's favourite poets. Whatever you believe about the 'Beats' and their lives, and attacking them personally, all that is left of them is writing. They all took that road to excess in their own personal journey and wrote about it - that's the wisdom they left behind, and that's all there is to it.
Nice use of my favorite WB Quote in context, LeBretto. Thank you. The only other time I heard the 'Palace of Wisdom from the road of excess' used effectively was when Eric Clapton brought it up in 1986 on the BBC South Bank Show to host: Melvyn Bragg who assisted with the WB reference. That is a good show if you can ever find it via Google. Thanks again.
Thank you. I never heard the entire quote until now. It reminds me of a Hunter S. Thompson quote which I bet it inspired: The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Neal reminds me of a few people I have met over the course of my life that are ultra intelligent and their brains are constantly in motion with thoughts. My experience with those type of individuals is they use drugs as a way to escape their own minds. If you think about how restrictive it must be to have your mind constantly in motion, it must be awful. Just a very unique person and if I could ever get a ride on a time machine it would be one person I would like to go back and watch him interact in a room.
How could a mind NOT constantly be in motion,I wonder? Do some people's minds just think of nothing at times,do thoughts just stop in some people's minds and be...blank or something?
+Ron Miller putting it mildly, yes. his lifestyle and personality inspired the beat movement, so i think there is something to be said of him. he's not the same kind of genius as Isaac Newton obviously.
+Ron Miller yeah, we tend to reap what we sow. he died in a sad but timely manner, freezing to death drunk right as the hippie movement collapsed. I think he served his purpose
I just reread "Visions of Cody" in which Kerouac taped several conversations while high on MJ living with the Cassadys. Jack hoped to uncover some magic insight into Cassady's mind. What it does is show me a fun guy to party with but nothing genius-like whatsoever. Lots and lots of near psycho-babble from Cassady and Kerouac, too.
Hi. The whole 25 minutes is an Extra on my 8 hours DVD set, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALLEN GINSBERG which will be re-released this March or April. It contains the full 85 minute feature and over 6 hours of lots of amazing Extras.
those who live careful lives, who marry careful wives...living in homes with carefully manicured lawns who upon their death let out careful yawns. you are not the ones to judge those who came before you, those who never walked the careful path.
I was there, at the time and ended up careful. Careful lasts, these clowns were rockets, bright light for a while but ended up signifying nothing. Updike, Cheever et al were careful and had significance. Just my judgment!
"who threw potato salad at lecture on Dada" was a great line. The point being that any self respecting Dadaist would have done the same. Dada tried to destroy the art establishment, but later was incorperated into it, very much against it's original spirit.
@@Vingul The country isn't being run, iT's being looted wherever loot can be had. Where 1%'ers control all the money they also control just about everyone's money. They save on storage by letting people transport iT around back and forth buying things like mutant enzymes dissolving reality away. Ook kook a chook.
@@andrewfrankovic6821 «corporation t-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday...» I don’t disagree with the looting bit. The U.S. is experiencing a slow collapse, and is now in what many call the «looting phase».
@@Vingul I think what iT really boils down to is not acknowledging the fact that people worship entertainment more than anything else. Heaven will be the ultimate entertainment capital where everyone gets instantaneous, perfect room service. Some people can entertain themselves and make something worth making and having, while too many people just want to make money or just be entertained and iT's all but entirely subjective as to how shallow or deep any entertainment is.
I think a Beat Poets biography film should be produced: David Cross as Gingsberg Woody Harrellson as Cassady Clive Owen as Kerouac James Cromwell as Burroughs
I read "the first third", Neal's writing is really coherent, different to his spiels. Here he looks and sounds first and third person at the same time...
I haven't ignored them. That's why I've apparently caused a firestorm of comments from devoted Beat acolytes who enjoy reading about Allen Ginsberg's STD-causing adventures and also his cussing people out( see "In Society", "Anger"). The 3 Musketeers of Doped-Up Literature did leave a lasting impression, but that is only because people's artistic sense was going down the toilet.
In Carolyn Cassady’s memoir Off The Road she says that Neal had a near photographic memory for things he had read many years before, quoting whole passages of poetry, novels, even railroad manuals and letters from friends and not just recite but give an intelligent commentary on those recitations. Obvs the drugs ruined it a bit but you get a damaged glimpse of it here where he recites a little and comments on John 15:1. I think some of the commenters here who don’t see what was great about him was that Ginsberg and Kerouac knew him as a young man in the 1940s before stresses of life and drugs took some of the magic away. Back then he would have been undeniably intriguing and I guess mind blowing.
@@Shroomeryslearyfan yes there was. It used to be on RUclips. It starts with Ginsberg chanting and then a few minutes later Cassady walks in. There's even a reference to the Kesey bust and Kerouac being in Brittany.
Ginsberg plays the 'straight man' (no pun intended) while Neal riffs all these ideas from the ether in a perfect stream of consciousness. The depopulation theme from the Jesus fig tree parable and how the Pentagon controls the world -bring a gushing reaction by Ginsberg. Perfect timing. One of my favorite parts.
Interesting to hear Neal Cassady rambling in the way Dean Moriarty does in On the Road. Looks as though he might have calmed down a bit by this time, though...
@@jordanjodge Were you listening to what he was saying though? "They're going to kill a lot of people off in the next year or two." He basically predicts the Vietnam War and the subsequent events.
@@HARDL3FT That's interesting, i didn't take that from it. i guess I'm struck by the facial expressions that seem to indicate he doesn't know what he's talking about really, "forms"?
I like Greg Corso's assessment as he was credited along with Ginsberg and Kerouac as the poets and writers who forged the Beat movement: "Three people does not a generation make." The Beats were sorta like the Zoot Suit kids who were not part of the Greatest Generation who served and saw combat during WWII. The were misfits and the original modern-day non-conformists. Their greatest accomplishment showing the Baby Boomers how to rebel the right way - loudly and with passion.
The women of the Beat Generation, although few in number, had a major impact. Diane di Prima, wrote lots of essays and 1000s of poems. I've read some of their assessments of the times and most think the men were largely misogynists and downright mean to women. See Kerouac, Burroughs and especially, Cassady. The Beat women thought Cassady, the hero of the movement, was a sociopath and dangerous.
Neal Cassady comes across like an awkward two bit hustler whos afraid his BS will be found out by a wider audience. I think Jack K. had a better commanding presence in front of the camera than Neal.
This is great! Thanks. Just remember this. All of the Beats--Burroughs, Kerouac, Cassady, and Ginsberg--were also part of The Greatest Generation. Think about that. That's the "Contradiction" that you need to understand. When you understand this "Contradiction," your life will get a lot easier because of your acceptance. Only a few will understand this.
I never met Ginsberg, I was a chubby nerdy girl born in 1984, but the three biggest influences on my art and writing are Walt Whitman, Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G.) and Ginsberg. Thank you, beat poets, for helping me get through this cruel world.
Do you have the video of an old b/w film that he played where there was a character called Morrissey and the police were after him? He played it at the Edinburgh Playhouse. I think it was on the Tormentors tour
The bespectacled guy over Ginsberg's right shoulder looks like Ginsberg from 20 years earlier. I wonder if Allen was content to have Neal blather on and on (when others wouldn't be) purely because his love for Neal was so consuming.
If you're a fan of all things Beat and you haven't read Carolyn Cassady's book "Off the Road," you have a real treat ahead of you. You'll learn a lot about her husband Neal and so many other things you never knew.
But it was more than just 'poisoning one's nervous system.' It's just that, for you, that's all you choose to see. The 40s and 50s saw the development of the 'dream of abundance,' and this eventually led to Yates' Revolutionary Road. I'm not criticising the people, it came after years of depression and war, it was only natural that what might follow was a boom for commercialism. These writers were trying to find something beyond the physical thing that they believed had taken over
Thank you for trying to explain Beat allure, but what you have said is all very vague: "new way of thinking", "walked differently". Anyone who wants to can go to a library and read the writings of Ginsberg and Burroughs to see the truth of what they were really like. You can look them up online, too. Better yet, type in Allen Ginsberg NAMBLA and see what comes up!
I don't recall any of those things in the Sunflower Sutra. I would like, totally go on about how beautiful I think it to be, but you seem to just really dislike Allen Ginsberg anyway and that's perfectly okay. because you're a beautiful golden sunflower.
The Beats were the drop outs of the Greatest Generation. From all that I've read about them, none of the prominent ones were ever in the military in a combat situation or saw much if any action during WWII. Over fifteen million American men served and all but the Beats, Zoot Suits, and a scant few others who suffered from PTSD, became alcoholic or got hooked on their GI issued morphine, conformed to societies "standards." The returning military vets used the GI Bill as a launching pad to create a prosperous future for themselves from which spawned the Baby Boom Generation which, worldwide, was the most populous in earth's history. The way military training breaks down the recruits ego and forces total conformity to a common cause, is the antithesis of what Beats or Hippies stood for. The two don't jive.
Good observations. The beats are interesting to me because of their non-conformity in what was supposed to be the land of the free which is really the land of the controlled. If they did anything of value, it was to fight back against those who broke the social contract of freedom and imposed their will on others. At the same time, they had pretty messed up personal lives and I'm not sure they were very happy people.
He's right but the hippie movement was paved by the beats since in the core both were non-conformists. The difference between the beats and hippies is that the beats deliberately tried to keep a low profile and not draw attention to themselves. Hippies were deliberately the opposite.
Violence is the ultimate retarded behavior. Nothing valuable is ever produced by it that could not have been produced much better through non-violent means. The progress of humanity is measured by the degree to which it rejects violence.
I know you address PTSD and alcoholism but I think you underestimate how broken many of those returning vets were. My grandfather saw combat in France and Belgium then returned home, finished college, got married, bought a house, had five children and financial success and retired from the Army Reserves as a Lt Colonel. But eventually alcoholism and PTSD became too much for him and nearly destroyed him. I knew him only as a gruff, taciturn man glued to his armchair. The post-war era was disguised by a golden veneer, undeniably prosperous but ripe with dissatisfaction and repression bubbling beneath the gilded image of Mr. and Mrs Johnson with little Bobby and Sally and the white picket fence. There was healthy dose of pseudo intellectualism in the Beat movement, but we shouldn't dismiss the cultural contributions they made
The Beats, with their non-conformity, drug use, bongo drums and coffee-shops, were a fad much like the Zoot Suits and later, the Bossa Nova music and dance style. The Beats did have elements that stuck and were picked up by the Hippies such as environmental awareness and Buddhism, Hinduism and a whole litany of "isms."
Are many people reading their works today? Furthermore, are people reading at all? I suppose that's another cool trait of the Beats in that they were intellectuals and loved reading and discussing literature. They were trying to figure out the meaning of life and many died young in the process.
Hi +Carlos Miguel In English will be fine, so I could translate it by myself (i'm french). I find difficult to understand 75% of what Neal say, even if i understand English pretty good
Could folks be overthinking things?, Neal was referred to as a pill-head and I recognize a little of my own ADHD too. Neal followed cerebral writers and poets around for a good patch and I suspect it wore off. Look below at this "gibberish" rant. Some of this is in fact poetic, if you choose to consider that possibility. Well, it’s just you’ve got to get rid of the sloth, you know awful lot of skin there’s a lot of people around that are dead already may as well be dead. Free will’s a great thing. Well all the extremists all the civil rights, all the kitty anybody on any extreme on every side, that’s right. We’ve got to have a panoramic view to this thing. The earth is going to tilt a little bit, the natural catastrophes are happening everywhere, all the forms are dead. I mean uh, you can handle, say you talk to a policeman you know, all forms are known. I come in here yesterday and jump and jittery around and so it looked like I was high so I just let people think I was high. Everybody has forms, if everything’s known then the forms are changing there’s no life in the forms. Life goes where the new forms are. So you’re not going to have uh, I mean all this, this is all hind sight that you’re talking about. Its already too late, the pentagon is taking care of it all, we’re doing this deliberately as far as that goes. some Quotes from Neal Cassady during an interview with Alan Ginsberg
I sincerely believe Cassady was bipolar -- his insatiable sexuality, his tendency to "go straight" for a while (hold down the household with Carolyn and the kids, keep a straight job, etc.) and then suddenly "blow his top" and take off across the country in a car he bought on impulse, balling countless women and hustling/conning countless men along the way, certainly indicate a man in the throes of a manic episode.
While teaching in Africa, the village had a bunch of books in boxes that I used to start a library. Oddly, one was letters written by Cassady to his wife while he was in jail. I don't know when they were written, but there was more to him than we are seeing in this video. Maybe at this stage the life of drugs and alcohol had made him something else, but he sure seemed to have a religious perspective taken from the Catholic tradition that showed at one time he was not all gibberish in the way he expressed himself.
=2 LEGENDS:* in their own time and many times to come and only had to do is stand up, be strong, fight to be hear, be honest:even if hardcore, and be themselves! - Trip Lucid
Dean Moriarty and Carlo Marx have a conversation.
Shit like this just doesn't happen anymore.
Hell yes!
No. Dean and Carlos were constructs inspired by them, in the mind of kerouac
@@dharmabum8549 yeah it does you just don’t see it.
@@ericmuschlitz7619 I think it was a joke
It's amazing to see Neal's mannerisms while speaking. Kerouac talks about the fact that no-one was as fast as Neal. You can see thar in this video. He speaks so fluidly, almost like he's composing music - one of the best ways to convey thoughts I think. Thankyou so much for putting this up.
He talks that fast and has those mannerisms because he's twacked out.. every tweaked acts just like that.. I don't see anything special about it.
Well dude, I find it interesting within context. This is quite an
interesting period for the history of thought. There is an intellectual
trend that extends far past Neal and the beats. The beats brought this
trend into popular culture. Cassady is expressing a sort of
philosophical pessimism here. I heard a story of Cassady reading
Schopenhauer in a library. Schopenhauer is considered a philosophical
pessimist. Schopenhauer was counter to the culture in his own time -
circa 1800 ( Schopenhauer influenced Nietzsche, who influenced
postmodern thought, which influenced anyone interested in thinking
counter to tradition e.g. the beats). Outside of this context - sure its
nonsense. However, every meaning exists in a context from which it
derives its meaning. So ultimately the pessimist agrees with you
...Just another Twack! The question is why the pessimist says this, or
why Neal is saying what he is saying in the video. - Cheers plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/
@@karlhungus5436 It is intresting, sure. Darkly comic too. But the truth is Neal's babel in this clip is more Charlie Mansion than philosophical pessimism. Ginsburg uses the word pessimism because he's being nice. Neal was going on about getting rid of people he finds extremist and mentions civil rights activists a few times. His ego is oblivious to the fact that he's being extremist here himself -- and yet for a creepy moment he was about to implicate his pal Ginsburg as being an extremist in need of some weeding. The nicest thing you can call this is drugged up bullshit. The Beats were awesome and amazing, but they also had plenty of bullshit, like this, or like Kerouac at the end. Atleast Ginsburg had integrity and compassion.
@@jiles7726 it is always surprising how so many people are quick to downplay Neal's intelligence. Like why are you so offended by it?
@@karlhungus5436 this guy yapping his high and mighty “I’m the decider on who’s philosophy and thoughts are superior” is complete bullshit. I’m sure he’s well versed on all the
drug/drunk rants he’s critiqued over the years but he doesn’t understand intellectual thought and prose and that’s very clear here. Neal was one of the greatest ever and they all knew that and they were all inspired by him in some way. Who cares what some hack on RUclips comments has to critique about him. There’s this guy and thens there’s Neal Cassidy. Who’s shooting shit with Ginsberg right here? Like would Gins waste his time just shooting with any fast talking person? Na I don’t think so. He’s knew what he was doing here.
I was blessed to have met Allen Ginsberg on several occasions: A really great courageous and righteous mensch-especially when he bravely risked his life chanting OM and leading a group meditation, creating a palpable vibration of Peace amid all the violent chaos of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago; definitely reducing the degree of violence and probably saving lives.
And he was really a very nice kindhearted guy. It meant alot to me that he actually took my poetry seriously-more than I did at the time. I was so young and shy and self-conscious; when he was first reading my poetry,
I kept defensively murmuring and making excuses and disclaimers; until he admonished me with loving exasperation “Will you shuttup already! I'm trying to read, and this is good!" He showed me line-by-line where I was really “making-it” and where I was just talking-about-it in conceptual terms. He brought it home to me that every line needs to be painting-a-picture and making music. Good advice that I instinctively apply in all of my writing.
Allen was wise but not necessarily that nice.
And promoted doing boys. To the work camp he goes.
@@clovergrass9439lol
He was a "boy lover" aka pedo who supported NAMBLA
@@clovergrass9439 is there any evidence he actually participated in illegal sex, or is it more guilt by association?
Neal reminds me of the enigmatic homeless figures I've come across in SF and LA who lure you into genuinely wondering if they're speaking higher truths or babbling lunacy.
Nick Montana broooooo
Probably lunacy, although they do have a lot of time and impetus to contemplate the great mysteries.
True that
Neal was the first one of those.
Both are true and at the same time.
Around this time I spent a couple of years with these two word shamans,running with señor Cassady in and out of the woods of La Honda, California and living,hanging out with Allen in NYC for the following year. Allen's mind was brilliantly mystical and his essence was pure kindness, Neal was brilliantly mad and maddening, fascinating to listen to, a testosterone driven driver who almost made sense..some of the time..Neal could be the cleverest fox in the hen house and the ladies loved his vulpine ways...Allen was your old dear Jewish grandfather even if you weren't Jewish.
knowing cassady himself, what's your personal opinion on his matter of death? did he walk into the desert until he collapsed? did he lay down on the tracks and face the barrage of a speeding train?
wow. very cool. Did Allen Ever call out Cassidy's nonsense?
According to his former wife, Carolyn (R.I.P) was told by Mexican authorities that Neal collapsed near the train tracks just "yards" out of San Miguel Allende. According to the autopsy he died due to "general congestion of all systems" after attending a friend's wedding party that day. Guests at the party said Neal had been using a powerful barbiturate sold under the brand name Seconal - which you could buy without prescription in Mexico, although Carolyn thinks it was most likely, Nembutal - a drug Neal was fond of using. Apparently Neal never used to drink heavily because of his sensitive stomach. Carolyn once said that Neal would only have a few drinks to be sociable and the Mexican authorities did not write up a detailed coroner's report due to the fact that he was a foreigner with drugs in his system. She suspected he died of renal failure and not exposure or hypothermia, but agrees he felt his life had been a failure and wished it would end.
@@changstein The usually accepted version (verified by Ken Kesey) is that Cassady accepted a dare to count all the railroad ties from Celaya (about fifteen miles away, where he'd gone to retrieve some luggage) and San Miguel de Allende. According to this story, his last words were "64,928" -- the point at which he's stopped counting.
David Whiteis and then what happened? How did he actually die?
"enjoy it", Cassady says half-heartedly. He understood everything would always be corrupt and the best thing to do is enjoy as much as you can while you can. Yet there was always Ginsberg there to say something can be done. Still not exactly sure who was/is right
Maybe both? Or .aybe turn your back on it all, let it all burn down, & create something new to take it's place?
@@papa_pt it has been since the beginning of time.
@@papa_pt Depends on your definition of sustainable. If you think that humans can harm the planet beyond the point that we can feasibly exist then you haven't been paying attention to the last 20,000 years of history. Humans are the largest cockroaches that have ever existed. When paradigms shift we adapt. We've survived famine, drought, disease, and war on apocalyptic scales already. The question isn't will we persist, but how destructive are we destined to be. In the game of checks and balances climate change is the check, and the balancing will be deserved. It probably won't be the end though.
We're capable of some pretty amazing things, but look where that's got us so far. For everything's sake I hope we never achieve interstellar travel. We've completely bastardized the ecosystem of the Earth for our own gain, and we're bound to continue that streak unceasingly unless stopped by a greater apocalyptic event.
Del Flo. yes! You dig Neal perfectly.
My lifetime conundrum. But I've learned the universe is controlling everything. Nothing the ego can do about it. Neal is right. Enjoy it.
"I had to put this back on youtube...."
Well we're glad you did. It keeps a fascinating time, culture and people alive.
Neal was cracked ( a consequence of being intelligent and beautiful and born poor.) but I get the impression he was refreshingly honest
Thanks for re-uploading this, it's just marvellous. So much on show about the relationship and contrasts between these two and obviously it's fantastic to have video of Neal.
Thank you for posting this. It makes Kerouac's description of Cassady more alive. He really was a force of nature! He completely steals the whole room, just like Jack described.
That was brilliant between Ginsberg and Cowboy Neal. I have heard of both men, but never got to see them in person until now. Both are intellectual giants and I'm very glad to see this. Thanx for posting this.
I fucking love Allen Ginsberg's voice
Cassady was the artist and the art.
Came across this from a L.A. Times article: "Hidden in an otherwise joking, high-on-pot, mocking letter to Allen Ginsberg in 1947, Neal Cassady offhandedly gives the key to his life: "[S]ee how I write on several confused levels at once, so do I think, so do I live, so what, so let me act out my part at the same time I’m straightening it out, so as to reach an authentic destiny.”
nice find
thanks for sharing
The Dean moriarty, thanks very much for uploading this
This is great. Ann Murphy at his side. I recall seeing a longer version of this at one point, where Cassady first arrives as Ginsberg is talking.
Geez, I'd love to see that
Thank you for this . Fascinating. I think Neil must have been perceived like the living truth that Alan and Jack was searching for . A bright mind unrestrained by society and free from conditioning that I suspect a strict formal education does to you . I’ve known people on the street and they chat like Neil . There’s no holding back . That street upbringing with that intelligence must have been a revelation to more restrained minds searching to break free and write in a more spontaneous and genuine way 💚Xx
some said much the same of Emmet Grogan
Ginsberg had been knocking it out of the park promoting the beats for 10 years by the time of the recording. Yet his loyalty to his tiny San Fran publisher meant that he was the least-read most famous poet in America ever. Howl's effortless destruction of the era's obscenity law was solid evidence for the excellence of his best poems
This is a sad demonstration of the distortion you get when two Karamazov brothers try to figure things out without the third . . .
Never read the Karamazov Brothers, explain to me.
"Pretentious much? Yuck." --Yours truly, Smerdyakov
ToniSoproni
Perhaps the funniest and saddest comment I've ever heard
Good comment!
Love this. Glad I spent some time in Allen Ginsberg's presence.
Wow, 8 hours? My god. So the full video of this interview is 25 minutes? That's excellent! Can't wait to see it.
'The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom...for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough' - William Blake. Coincidentally Blake was one of Ginsberg's favourite poets. Whatever you believe about the 'Beats' and their lives, and attacking them personally, all that is left of them is writing. They all took that road to excess in their own personal journey and wrote about it - that's the wisdom they left behind, and that's all there is to it.
Nice use of my favorite WB Quote in context, LeBretto. Thank you. The only other time I heard the 'Palace of Wisdom from the road of excess' used effectively was when Eric Clapton brought it up in 1986 on the BBC South Bank Show to host: Melvyn Bragg who assisted with the WB reference. That is a good show if you can ever find it via Google. Thanks again.
Michael Sherrer Thanks for that recommendation Michael. I'll check that out.
Thank you. I never heard the entire quote until now. It reminds me of a Hunter S. Thompson quote which I bet it inspired:
The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
Links to Walt Whitman too.
What wisdom is found at the palace other than what is excessive? My question is sincere. (I demand an answer, please.)
Neal reminds me of a few people I have met over the course of my life that are ultra intelligent and their brains are constantly in motion with thoughts. My experience with those type of individuals is they use drugs as a way to escape their own minds. If you think about how restrictive it must be to have your mind constantly in motion, it must be awful. Just a very unique person and if I could ever get a ride on a time machine it would be one person I would like to go back and watch him interact in a room.
How could a mind NOT constantly be in motion,I wonder? Do some people's minds just think of nothing at times,do thoughts just stop in some people's minds and be...blank or something?
Cassady was brilliant. Ginsberg and Kerouac, as literary celebrities struggled to keep up with Neal. He was a genius who couldn't find a medium.
Genius?
+Ron Miller putting it mildly, yes. his lifestyle and personality inspired the beat movement, so i think there is something to be said of him. he's not the same kind of genius as Isaac Newton obviously.
Take away the speed and grass, what then, was Cassady?
I think he was well read, but confused as to what it all meant. Join the club, right?
+Ron Miller yeah, we tend to reap what we sow. he died in a sad but timely manner, freezing to death drunk right as the hippie movement collapsed. I think he served his purpose
I just reread "Visions of Cody" in which Kerouac taped several conversations while high on MJ living with the Cassadys. Jack hoped to uncover some magic insight into Cassady's mind. What it does is show me a fun guy to party with but nothing genius-like whatsoever. Lots and lots of near psycho-babble from Cassady and Kerouac, too.
Thanks for putting this back up!
"A tremendous thing happened when Dean met Carlo Marx. Two keen minds that they are,they took to each other at the drop of a hat."
this is exactly how i imagined dean moriarty and carlo marx. legitimate goosebumps right now.
i think i have watched this vid at least 100 times...thank you.
Cassady and Kerouac just weren't cut out for the 60's that they did so much to help create
Hi. The whole 25 minutes is an Extra on my 8 hours DVD set, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALLEN GINSBERG which will be re-released this March or April. It contains the full 85 minute feature and over 6 hours of lots of amazing Extras.
All the these geniuses ( The Beat generation) were born WAY before their time. I wish we had more people that still read Proust.
Pay attention. " Life goes where the forms are"
moves just like dean Moriarty.
t mac ...because he is.
Deeeeeean More Ee Art Ee.
"Enjoy it." I crack up every time I see this. In 2 words encapsulates the dharma of the "holy goof". Thanks for reposting this.
those who live careful lives, who marry careful wives...living in homes with carefully manicured lawns who upon their death let out careful yawns. you are not the ones to judge those who came before you, those who never walked the careful path.
I was there, at the time and ended up careful. Careful lasts, these clowns were rockets, bright light for a while but ended up signifying nothing. Updike, Cheever et al were careful and had significance. Just my judgment!
+QueerAndUnplugged Did you write that?
Hunter Aikins
Yes, I did!
+David Maher They fought against conformity. Careful may last, but careful often comes with chains.
I love this!!!!!!
"who threw potato salad at lecture on Dada" was a great line. The point being that any self respecting Dadaist would have done the same. Dada tried to destroy the art establishment, but later was incorperated into it, very much against it's original spirit.
"No one knows who's running the country?" These guys we're so intelligent. This is still the case. But we do have a clue Bohemian Grove
A lot of people of Ginsberg's ethnicity, among others.
@@Vingul The country isn't being run, iT's being looted wherever loot can be had. Where 1%'ers control all the money they also control just about everyone's money. They save on storage by letting people transport iT around back and forth buying things like mutant enzymes dissolving reality away. Ook kook a chook.
@@andrewfrankovic6821 «corporation t-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday...»
I don’t disagree with the looting bit. The U.S. is experiencing a slow collapse, and is now in what many call the «looting phase».
@@andrewfrankovic6821 well, if not many, then *some*
@@Vingul I think what iT really boils down to is not acknowledging the fact that people worship entertainment more than anything else. Heaven will be the ultimate entertainment capital where everyone gets instantaneous, perfect room service.
Some people can entertain themselves and make something worth making and having, while too many people just want to make money or just be entertained and iT's all but entirely subjective as to how shallow or deep any entertainment is.
Exactly how I pictured him in On The road
i made that video, it was taken from Jerry Aronson's documetary; The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
Awesome! Thanks man.
These dudes were alot cooler BEFORE THE INTERNET. Babbling speed addicts shamming an entire generation
"Just enjoy it"...and he shrugs.
I think a Beat Poets biography film should be produced:
David Cross as Gingsberg
Woody Harrellson as Cassady
Clive Owen as Kerouac
James Cromwell as Burroughs
THANKS FOR POSTING I watch this and then the movie "On the Road" and the 2 are entirely mutually exclusive it seems. Good interview.
I read "the first third", Neal's writing is really coherent, different to his spiels. Here he looks and sounds first and third person at the same time...
I read it and I thought Cassidy made a better character than a writer .
I haven't ignored them. That's why I've apparently caused a firestorm of comments from devoted Beat acolytes who enjoy reading about Allen Ginsberg's STD-causing adventures and also his cussing people out( see "In Society", "Anger"). The 3 Musketeers of Doped-Up Literature did leave a lasting impression, but that is only because people's artistic sense was going down the toilet.
Everyone in that room looks high as a kite.
This is one of the most interesting comment threads. Somebody printed the text of most of Cassidy's talk. It's about halfway down the thread.
Cassady was a brilliant man, he may not have known, but he was.
He was but its too bad we have this clip of him talking about weeding out people, seems we caught him at a bad moment here
@@jiles7726 Jiles, you are 100% correct. I so wish you weren't, but you are.
People just seem silenced by their awe of Neal...
In Carolyn Cassady’s memoir Off The Road she says that Neal had a near photographic memory for things he had read many years before,
quoting whole passages of poetry, novels, even railroad manuals and letters from friends and not just recite but give an intelligent commentary on those recitations. Obvs the drugs ruined it a bit but you get a damaged glimpse of it here where he recites a little and comments on John 15:1. I think some of the commenters here who don’t see what was great about him was that Ginsberg and Kerouac knew him as a young man in the 1940s before stresses of life and drugs took some of the magic away. Back then he would have been undeniably intriguing and I guess mind blowing.
Does anyone know what happened to the other parts of this clip? Starting from when Cassady comes in to the store.
Is there video of that? I've never seen it.
@@Shroomeryslearyfan yes there was. It used to be on RUclips. It starts with Ginsberg chanting and then a few minutes later Cassady walks in. There's even a reference to the Kesey bust and Kerouac being in Brittany.
Yes, I mentioned that in an earlier post myself. It was here on RUclips for quite a long time.
haha, Ginsberg laughing at the end: "... for years he's been talking like this."
Ginsberg plays the 'straight man' (no pun intended) while Neal riffs all these ideas from the ether in a perfect stream of consciousness. The depopulation theme from the Jesus fig tree parable and how the Pentagon controls the world -bring a gushing reaction by Ginsberg. Perfect timing. One of my favorite parts.
Interesting to hear Neal Cassady rambling in the way Dean Moriarty does in On the Road. Looks as though he might have calmed down a bit by this time, though...
I wish I had the full video of this. I was looking for a part where Neal talks about the La Honda bust at Ken Keesey's house.
"Born to be, Cassady."
That guy up the back looks so sceptical when Neal speaks!
I would be too... he's a bullshitter... a great extrovert... but not much substance.
@@jordanjodge Were you listening to what he was saying though? "They're going to kill a lot of people off in the next year or two." He basically predicts the Vietnam War and the subsequent events.
@@HARDL3FT That's interesting, i didn't take that from it. i guess I'm struck by the facial expressions that seem to indicate he doesn't know what he's talking about really, "forms"?
Jerry Aronson, this film's creator, was my documentary film professor at the University of Colorado.
Neal Cassady was a Buddhist Kramer. "Jerry, you gotta have a panoramic view of this thing."
I like Greg Corso's assessment as he was credited along with Ginsberg and Kerouac as the poets and writers who forged the Beat movement:
"Three people does not a generation make."
The Beats were sorta like the Zoot Suit kids who were not part of the Greatest Generation who served and saw combat during WWII. The were misfits and the original modern-day non-conformists. Their greatest accomplishment showing the Baby Boomers how to rebel the right way - loudly and with passion.
is it possible to add subtitles? In english of course..it's quite difficult to understand what Neal's saying.. :/
It always was!
The women of the Beat Generation, although few in number, had a major impact. Diane di Prima, wrote lots of essays and 1000s of poems.
I've read some of their assessments of the times and most think the men were largely misogynists and downright mean to women. See Kerouac, Burroughs and especially, Cassady. The Beat women thought Cassady, the hero of the movement, was a sociopath and dangerous.
Bet they all sucked his cock,though. 🤣🤣🤣
Kerouac was described as polite and a gentle lover.
You s uffer from endless vic tim hood complex.
Neal Cassady is Kramer!
Diego Alfaro Neal would definitely dig Kramer!
+MrFartboy79 Who Kramer ?
+Diego Alfaro omg I read ur comment then at at 2:45 I lost it. amazing stuff. "but those that beared fruit, he purchased *does Kramer eyes*"
I thought that exact think in the first 30 seconds he spoke. Cosmo Kramer!
Daniel J. Scotti lmao he totally does the Kramer eyes
Neal Cassady comes across like an awkward two bit hustler whos afraid his BS will be found out by a wider audience. I think Jack K. had a better commanding presence in front of the camera than Neal.
TheSololobo I think he was just tweaked out on speed
Who is the lady to Cassidy’s left? Anybody know?x
can you upload the beginning when neal walks in
What is Neil doing with his right hand deep in his pocket at 2:51? Looks like the least subtle game of pocket pool I've ever seen.
finding a lighter :)
Neal is fucking insane, isn't he?
I often wondered if he was bipolar
Insane but brilliant
I don't see why enjoying their work means agreeing with their life choices.
Have you read any interviews with Burroughs? Highly recommend. The man was intelligent.
This is great! Thanks. Just remember this. All of the Beats--Burroughs, Kerouac, Cassady, and Ginsberg--were also part of The Greatest Generation. Think about that. That's the "Contradiction" that you need to understand. When you understand this "Contradiction," your life will get a lot easier because of your acceptance. Only a few will understand this.
I understand that "The Greatest Generation" was an obscenely extreme baited hook
of History-warping media flattery
Jerry Aronson misspelled Neal Cassady’s name.
I never met Ginsberg, I was a chubby nerdy girl born in 1984, but the three biggest influences on my art and writing are Walt Whitman, Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G.) and Ginsberg. Thank you, beat poets, for helping me get through this cruel world.
Do you have the video of an old b/w film that he played where there was a character called Morrissey and the police were after him? He played it at the Edinburgh Playhouse. I think it was on the Tormentors tour
They are having a more intellectual conversation than our politicians do.
Fascinating , I thought politician and intellectual were opposites ;)
what's the song at 1:28? i can only find ginsberg reading this.
Hmmm, sorta sounds like The Fugs.
The days when everybody knew John 15:1 off the top of their heads
Love Ginsberg, though, he's a shining star to the rest of us....
He also appears in the documentary of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters driving their bus, the further.
The bespectacled guy over Ginsberg's right shoulder looks like Ginsberg from 20 years earlier. I wonder if Allen was content to have Neal blather on and on (when others wouldn't be) purely because his love for Neal was so consuming.
"The Communist create heavy industry, but the Heart is also heavy." I am more convinced that Ginsberg is still America's greatest Poet.
If you're a fan of all things Beat and you haven't read Carolyn Cassady's book "Off the Road," you have a real treat ahead of you. You'll learn a lot about her husband Neal and so many other things you never knew.
LoveFlatfootin1 jack kerouac wrote that
someonewithballs Jack Kerouac wrote "On the Road." Carolyn Cassady wrote "Off the Road."
+someonewithballs damn you stupid
But it was more than just 'poisoning one's nervous system.' It's just that, for you, that's all you choose to see. The 40s and 50s saw the development of the 'dream of abundance,' and this eventually led to Yates' Revolutionary Road. I'm not criticising the people, it came after years of depression and war, it was only natural that what might follow was a boom for commercialism. These writers were trying to find something beyond the physical thing that they believed had taken over
Great. Thank you for posting. Does anyone know WHEN this is from (month/year? approximation?)
+susaninmaine: July 18 1965.
Thank you for trying to explain Beat allure, but what you have said is all very vague: "new way of thinking", "walked differently". Anyone who wants to can go to a library and read the writings of Ginsberg and Burroughs to see the truth of what they were really like. You can look them up online, too. Better yet, type in Allen Ginsberg NAMBLA and see what comes up!
this is beautiful
I don't recall any of those things in the Sunflower Sutra.
I would like, totally go on about how beautiful I think it to be, but you seem to just really dislike Allen Ginsberg anyway and that's perfectly okay.
because you're a beautiful golden sunflower.
I'll check them out, thanks
The Beats were the drop outs of the Greatest Generation. From all that I've read about them, none of the prominent ones were ever in the military in a combat situation or saw much if any action during WWII.
Over fifteen million American men served and all but the Beats, Zoot Suits, and a scant few others who suffered from PTSD, became alcoholic or got hooked on their GI issued morphine, conformed to societies "standards."
The returning military vets used the GI Bill as a launching pad to create a prosperous future for themselves from which spawned the Baby Boom Generation which, worldwide, was the most populous in earth's history.
The way military training breaks down the recruits ego and forces total conformity to a common cause, is the antithesis of what Beats or Hippies stood for. The two don't jive.
Good observations. The beats are interesting to me because of their non-conformity in what was supposed to be the land of the free which is really the land of the controlled. If they did anything of value, it was to fight back against those who broke the social contract of freedom and imposed their will on others. At the same time, they had pretty messed up personal lives and I'm not sure they were very happy people.
Kerouac claimed they were nothing like the hippies
He's right but the hippie movement was paved by the beats since in the core both were non-conformists.
The difference between the beats and hippies is that the beats deliberately tried to keep a low profile and not draw attention to themselves. Hippies were deliberately the opposite.
Violence is the ultimate retarded behavior. Nothing valuable is ever produced by it that could not have been produced much better through non-violent means. The progress of humanity is measured by the degree to which it rejects violence.
I know you address PTSD and alcoholism but I think you underestimate how broken many of those returning vets were. My grandfather saw combat in France and Belgium then returned home, finished college, got married, bought a house, had five children and financial success and retired from the Army Reserves as a Lt Colonel. But eventually alcoholism and PTSD became too much for him and nearly destroyed him. I knew him only as a gruff, taciturn man glued to his armchair. The post-war era was disguised by a golden veneer, undeniably prosperous but ripe with dissatisfaction and repression bubbling beneath the gilded image of Mr. and Mrs Johnson with little Bobby and Sally and the white picket fence.
There was healthy dose of pseudo intellectualism in the Beat movement, but we shouldn't dismiss the cultural contributions they made
"Balderdash..." -- what...? Howl is - linguistically - the most extravagantly lyrical poem of the last 100 years
The Beats, with their non-conformity, drug use, bongo drums and coffee-shops, were a fad much like the Zoot Suits and later, the Bossa Nova music and dance style.
The Beats did have elements that stuck and were picked up by the Hippies such as environmental awareness and Buddhism, Hinduism and a whole litany of "isms."
Hard to say they were such a temporary fad with their leaving an indelible mark on American poetry and literature.
Are many people reading their works today? Furthermore, are people reading at all? I suppose that's another cool trait of the Beats in that they were intellectuals and loved reading and discussing literature. They were trying to figure out the meaning of life and many died young in the process.
Which one of Neil's girlfriends is next to him in this video?
+Ben K Marylou
do we know the exact year of this?
Could someone give some context to this video? Thanks!
+tj2104 I'd like that too -- not able to find any :/
+tj2104: Filmed July 18 1965 for WNET television program about Ginsberg.
Ah, those happy days when it all seemed so easy.
Who is the woman sitting next to Cassady?
always great to see neal and ginsberg too
Imagine these guys seeing what their country is like now.
Anyone can right the conversation for the non english speakers ? The one who will do it is pure kindness
THanks anyway
+thezacmn What language?
Hi +Carlos Miguel In English will be fine, so I could translate it by myself (i'm french). I find difficult to understand 75% of what Neal say, even if i understand English pretty good
+thezacmn by "right" I meant "write" ^^
Ginsburg is lucky he made it out of Czechoslovakia alive. Many people didnt at that time.
Could folks be overthinking things?, Neal was referred to as a pill-head and I recognize a little of my own ADHD too. Neal followed cerebral writers and poets around for a good patch and I suspect it wore off. Look below at this "gibberish" rant. Some of this is in fact poetic, if you choose to consider that possibility.
Well, it’s just you’ve got to get rid of the sloth, you know
awful lot of skin
there’s a lot of people around that are dead already
may as well be dead.
Free will’s a great thing.
Well all the extremists
all the civil rights, all the kitty
anybody on any extreme on every side, that’s right.
We’ve got to have a panoramic view to this thing.
The earth is going to tilt a little bit,
the natural catastrophes are happening everywhere,
all the forms are dead.
I mean uh, you can handle, say you talk to a policeman you know, all forms are known. I come in here yesterday and jump and jittery around and so it looked like I was high so I just let people think I was high.
Everybody has forms,
if everything’s known then the forms are changing there’s no life in the forms.
Life goes where the new forms are.
So you’re not going to have uh, I mean all this,
this is all hind sight that you’re talking about.
Its already too late,
the pentagon is taking care of it all,
we’re doing this deliberately as far as that goes.
some Quotes from Neal Cassady during an interview with Alan Ginsberg
I sincerely believe Cassady was bipolar -- his insatiable sexuality, his tendency to "go straight" for a while (hold down the household with Carolyn and the kids, keep a straight job, etc.) and then suddenly "blow his top" and take off across the country in a car he bought on impulse, balling countless women and hustling/conning countless men along the way, certainly indicate a man in the throes of a manic episode.
While teaching in Africa, the village had a bunch of books in boxes that I used to start a library. Oddly, one was letters written by Cassady to his wife while he was in jail. I don't know when they were written, but there was more to him than we are seeing in this video. Maybe at this stage the life of drugs and alcohol had made him something else, but he sure seemed to have a religious perspective taken from the Catholic tradition that showed at one time he was not all gibberish in the way he expressed himself.
=2 LEGENDS:* in their own time and many times to come and only had to do is stand up, be strong, fight to be hear, be honest:even if hardcore, and be themselves! - Trip Lucid