Radio date for McGough and Beckett
Two poetic powerhouses who emerged in the 1960s and continue to prosper share a radio stage today when the BBC gives space to a transatlantic connection
A PAIR OF significant poets join forces today when BBC Radio 4 unites the talents of Roger McGough and Larry Beckett on the long-running show Poetry Please.
Liverpool poet McGough has been the regular presenter of the well-loved verse vehicle for a number of years but this is the first time that American Beckett has taken a place on the programme.
Both poets have enjoyed a strong relationship with the world of popular music, one as performer, the other as lyricist.
McGough is best known as one of the three writers – Adrian Henri and Brian Patten were the others – who made The Mersey Sound, the best-selling verse collection ever in UK when it was released in 1967.
But he also enjoyed a meteoric rise to pop fame when he formed the vocal group the Scaffold with Mike McGear, Paul McCartney’s brother, and the comic actor John Gorman. The trio’s blend of wit, satire and humour spawned a string of Top 20 hits.
Beckett was a drummer and friend of the Tim Buckley, an LA guitarist and singer, who drew on the words of his collaborator to create such rock classics as ‘Song of the Siren’.
Both writers have become associated with the US Beat Generation. McGough was considered to be an example of the British Beat community. Beckett has had a long attraction to the Beat poets and novelists and has published his own commentary on them.
Pictured above: The Liverpool Scene, which brought attention to the poetry community in the city, a biography of McGough and his writing allies and Beckett’s American Cycle, published earlier this year
On Poetry Please, Beckett will play a dual role, reading requests from listeners, including work by Matthew Arnold, WB Yeats, Shakespeare and Keats but also presenting his own verse. His most recent publication American Cycle is a vast epic reflecting on US history through some of its most famous figures and myths.
Last month, Beckett was celebrated for his song words when ‘Song to the Siren’ was the subject of another enduring Radio 4 showcase Soul Music. The broadcast was produced by Maggie Ayre, who also oversees this edition of the poetry slot, which goes out 4:30pm but is available, too, via BBC Sounds after the broadcast.
For more information visit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00138rw
Note: Rock and the Beat Generation has carried articles on both of these writers in recent months. We reviewed Beckett’s American Cycle in ‘Beckett’s complete life cycle’ on October 11th, 2021; reviewed a theatre gig by McGough, ‘Live review #1’, on October 23rd, 2021; spoke to Beckett in ‘Interview #3’ on November 27th, 2021 and reported on the ‘Song to the Siren’ radio feature on December 8th, 2021.