KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Words: Program No. 15: Philip Whalen and Bill Berkson

Analog Audio

Event Type

Spoken Word

Origin

KPFA

Identifier

W.1969.12.15

Program Series

Words

Program Length

38 min

Dates

1969-12-15 | broadcast
| 402 | created

Description

One in a series of programs produced by Clark Coolidge that feature the works of late 20th century poets, sound poets, and authors. This program begins with a fairly low quality recording, made in Kyoto Japan on June 9, 1967, of Philip Whalen reading some of his poems, mixed with another recording of Whalen chanting sutras and playing on wooden blocks and other basic percussion instruments. This is followed by Bill Berkson reading a selection of poems from his books “Saturday Night” and “Shining Leaves.” Both are fine examples of the sort of counterculture poetics prevalent during the 1960s.

Note: Contains some profanity. Names of poems taken from the authors introductions and may not exactly match those found in published books.

Genres

Poetry

Musical Selections

Waiting for Claude (2:26) / Philip Whalen -- Demachi (O:44) / Philip Whalen -- [Poem, like a bird...] (0:11) / Philip Whalen -- [I went to visit several thousand...] (0:19) / Philip Whalen -- The Grand Design (4:26) / Philip Whalen -- [I must get up early...] (0:12) / Philip Whalen -- The Garden (1:34) / Philip Whalen -- We Sing in Our Sleep (0:12) / Philip Whalen -- Statues (0:25) / Bill Berkson -- Strawberry Blonde (1:34) / Bill Berkson -- Pollyanna (0:18) / Bill Berkson -- Christmas Eve: For Vincent Warren (0:44) / Bill Berkson -- Out There (0:37) / Bill Berkson -- Thinking (0:13) / Bill Berkson -- In The Glaze (0:23) / Bill Berkson -- I Feel Free (1:02) / Bill Berkson, Ron Padgett, & Michael Brownstein -- [Dark cloudy sky...] (0:25) / Bill Berkson -- Stanky (0:14) / Bill Berkson -- Booster (0:40) / Bill Berkson -- [A breeze at sea...] (0:36) / Bill Berkson -- A False Road (0:36) / Bill Berkson -- [When poets talk of love...] (0:17) / Bill Berkson -- Oblique (0:24) / Bill Berkson -- Facing East (5:48) / Bill Berkson -- [A hand it lights without] (0:04) / Bill Berkson -- Call it Goofus (sp?) (0:30) / Bill Berkson -- Shear Strips (sp?) (1:37) / Bill Berkson -- The Bicycle Thief (1:26) / Bill Berkson -- Bill’s Bowel (0:16) / Bill Berkson -- Rebecca Cutlet (0:58) / Bill Berkson -- Universal Antidote (0:19) / Bill Berkson -- Blue is the Hero (1:30) / Bill Berkson -- Mythomania (0:17) / Bill Berkson

Subjects

Poetry
Poetry -- Readings with music

Acknowledgment

Funding for the preservation of this program made possible through a grant by the GRAMMY Foundation.

Related place

Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)

Related Entities

Coolidge, Clark, 1939-
Whalen, Philip
Berkson, Bill
Padgett, Ron, 1942-
Brownstein, Michael, 1943-