Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack

481 Pages·2019·2.506 MB·English

by  Simon Warner and Jim Sampas

KEROUAC ON RECORD
i
‘Kerouac on Record is a tantalizing new collection of essays and interviews on the
interrelations between Jack Kerouac and music – both the music he heard and was
inspired by in his “bop prosody”, and the music later artists have been inspired by him
to produce, either as settings of his works or as intertextual companion pieces
extending the life span of those works by recontextualizing them for new generations
of listeners and readers. Warner and Sampas have brought together some of the most
engaging writers in the fi elds of literary and cultural Beat Studies, as well as some of
the most articulate voices within the music community: critics, producers, music
archeologists, and lyricists. Th is blend of perspectives and registers makes for an
unusually engaging reading experience as one traipses through the manuscript, high
on “life, joy, kicks, darkness, music” as Kerouac himself memorably put it in On the
Road.’
Bent Sørensen, Associate Professor of English, Aalborg University,
Denmark, and Member of the Advisory Council of the
European Beat Studies Network
‘Warner’s and Sampas’s encyclopedic collection represents a vital contribution to Beat
scholarship. Th is is not just because the range of interactions between Kerouac’s work
and genres of popular music – from jazz to country to punk – is dazzling, but also
because it insists on seeing the Beats’ creativity as interdisciplinary from the start, and
on the need for Beat criticism to follow suit. As a model of this approach, it is
exemplary, with contributions from poets, rock critics, literary scholars, playwrights
and many others. Th is is a book with a wide appeal to anyone interested in Kerouac,
the Beats and popular music, and one that will quickly become indispensable to
scholars in these fi elds.’
James Peacock, Senior Lecturer in English and American Literatures,
Keele University, UK, and co-e ditor of Th e Clash Takes on the World:
Transnational Perspectives on the Only Band Th at Matters
‘With his ear for language, accents, riff s, and affi nity for the spontaneous improvisation
of the highly trained musician, Kerouac’s prose and verse dances with an undeniable
musicality that has kept readers across the globe coming back to his works again and
again. Many of these readers, as it turns out, have been musicians. Th is collection
brings together a series of essays that, taken together, strive to convey the profound,
long- lasting, and yet underappreciated, force of inspiration Kerouac represents to a
half-century of recorded music.’
Jean-Christophe Cloutier, Assistant Professor of English,
University of Pennsylvania, USA
ii
‘Following Text and Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll: Th e Beats and Rock Culture (2013), Simon
Warner partners with Literary Executor of the Estate of Jack Kerouac, Jim Sampas, to
go deeper into his exploration of the connections between the great fi gures of the
Beat Generation and the music of the so-c alled “rock era”. Interspersed with exclusive
interviews of the likes of Lee Konitz, Graham Parker, Lester Bangs, and Allen Ginsberg,
the 20 chapters are signed by an impressive array of journalists, music industry
professionals, rock critics, writers, fi lm makers and academics from all over the world.
Addressing such issues as the infl uence of jazz on Kerouac’s “spontaneous prose” style,
the lineage between his “Beat bop prosody” and Patti Smith’s “punk rock poetry”, or
his inspiring “the myth of the American road” in Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics, they shed
light on what appears to be a two- way relationship between popular music and the
work of the author of O n the Road . As Warner puts it: “If, for Kerouac, it was jazz that
would have the principal impact, then it was rock on which the writer would have the
main eff ect.” ’
Olivier Julien, Lecturer in the History and Musicology of Popular Music,
Paris-Sorbonne University, France
‘In Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack, Simon Warner and Jim Sampas have put
together a wide-ranging collection of essays and interviews exploring the relationship
between Kerouac and music . . . It is thoroughly deserving of a place on any Beat
bookshelf.’
Beatdom
‘Th is volume collects essays and interviews that limn musical limbs of the Beat
tree . . . Among the strongest in a strong lot are Michael Goldberg’s examination
of Dylan’s lit roots and Kerouac’s own musicological piece – Th e Beginning Of
Bop – that attempts to capture jazz in words – and succeeds.’
Mojo
‘Fresh approach to understanding the output of the On the Road novelist which uses
music to illuminate his written work.’
Th e Bookseller
iii
‘Jack Kerouac is the common bond that connects Dylan, Springsteen, Mitchell, and
many other musical recording artists whose legacy either started in his lifetime or
blossomed in his wake. Kerouac On Record: A Literary Soundtrack, edited by Simon
Warner and Jim Sampas, is a compelling and comprehensive collection of academic
studies that successfully spotlights the connective tissue between Kerouac and the
music he loved, like the Bop jazz of Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz or Chet Baker’s
vocals and Miles Davis’s mastery of the cool jazz trumpet style, and the music he
might never have imagined would have followed in his wake.’
PopMatters
‘Editors Simon Warner and Jim Sampas have gathered together a series of essays
that inform and expand on what we know about this [musical] aspect of Jack
Kerouac . . . Th ere are interviews. Bob Dylan is discussed. Van Morrison. Bruce
Springsteen. Th ere is a long conversation between Simon Warner and Jim Sampas
about all the Kerouac themed albums . . . You’ll want them all. A heft y, lovingly
produced book. Contentious stuff is said. But it adds to the sum of knowledge and so
they have done good work.’
Beat Scene
‘Th e book is a lively and fascinating collection of essays, interviews and musings.’
Jazz Journal
iv
KEROUAC ON RECORD
A LITERARY SOUNDTRACK
Edited by Simon Warner and Jim Sampas

v
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks
of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America 2018
This edition published 2019
Volume Editors’ Part of the Work © Simon Warner and Jim Sampas, 2019
Each chapter © of Contributor
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. ix constitute
an extension of this copyright page.
Photographs: Jack Kerouac © The Allen Ginsberg Trust, used by permission of
The Wylie Agency LLC; Kerouac Grave with Plectrum © Simon Warner, 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any
third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this
book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret
any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist,
but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-2334-8
PB: 978-1-5013-6078-7
ePDF: 978-1-5013-2336-2
eBook: 978-1-5013-2337-9
Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
vi
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Permissions x
Foreword xi
Introduction Simon Warner 1
1 Jack Kerouac’s Jazz Scene J im Burns 19
2 Th e Beginning of Bop Jack Kerouac 3 1
3 2nd Chorus: Blues: Jack Kerouac L arry Beckett 35
4 Duet for Saxophone and Pen: Lee Konitz and the Direct Infl uence of
Jazz on the Development of Jack Kerouac’s ‘Spontaneous Prose’
Style Marian Jago 49
Interview 1: Lee Konitz Marian Jago 73
5 Jack Kerouac Goes Vinyl: A Sonic Journey into Kerouac’s Th ree
LPs – Poetry for the Beat Generation ; Blues and Haikus ; and
Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation Jonah Raskin 77
6 Art Music: Listening to Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues A. Robert Lee 93
Interview 2: David Amram Pat Th omas 103
7 Beat Refrains: Music, Milieu and Identity in Jack Kerouac’s
Th e Subterraneans , the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Film Adaptation
Michael J. Prince 111
8 Bob Dylan’s Beat Visions (Sonic Poetry) M ichael Goldberg 123
9 Carrying a Torch for ‘Ti Jean’ Paul Marion 149
Interview 3: Richard Meltzer Michael Goldberg 151
10 Th e Grateful Dead: Jack Manifested as Music Brian Hassett 169
11 Driver: Neal Cassady’s Musical Trip Mark Bliesener 183
12 Jim Morrison / Angel of Fire Jay Jeff Jones 191
vii
Contents
13 Light is Faster than Sound: Texans, the Beats and the San Francisco
Counterculture Holly George-Warren 205
14 Hit the Road, Jack: Van Morrison and O n the Road Peter Mills 211
15 Detecting Jack Kerouac and Joni Mitchell: A Literary/Legal
(Not Musicological) Investigation into the Search for Infl uence
Nancy M. Grace 231
16 Kerouac and Country Music Matt Th eado 249
17 ‘Straight from the Mind to the Voice’: Spectral Persistence in
Jack Kerouac and Tom Waits Douglas Field 261
Interview 4: Barney Hoskyns on Tom Waits Simon Warner 279
18 From Beat Bop Prosody to Punk Rock Poetry: Patti Smith and
Jack Kerouac – Literature, Lineage, Legacy Ronna C. Johnson 289
Poems Marc Zegans 313
Interview 5: Allen Ginsberg P at Th omas 319
19 Tramps Like Th em: Jack and Bruce and the Myth of the American
Road Simon A. Morrison 321
Interview 6: Graham Parker Pat Th omas 339
20 Punk and New Wave James Sullivan 349
Interview 7: Jim DeRogatis on Lester Bangs James Sullivan 359
21 Th e Kerouac Tribute Recordings J im Sampas with Simon Warner 365
Appendix I: Essentials of Spontaneous Prose J ack Kerouac 395
Appendix II: Belief and Technique for Modern Prose Jack Kerouac 397
Appendix III: Jack Kerouac – An Annotated Discography D ave Moore 399
Appendix IV: Tribute Album Discography Jim Sampas 411
Appendix V: Jack and Neal on Record D ave Moore and Horst Spandler 423
Notes on Contributors 449
Index 457
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Simon Warner would like to thank the following for their input to and support on
this project: my wife Jayne Sheridan; Charlotte Heslop for her invaluable editorial
assistance and crucial work on the index; Jed Skinner for transcription help; Dave
Moore for frequent advice; all contributors for their submissions and particular
appreciation to those interview subjects featured in the book; my co- editor Jim
Sampas; and members of the wider academic community – both those involved in
Popular Music Studies and Beat Studies (with special reference to the European Beat
Studies Network) – for their continued eff orts to open up new and interesting areas
of enquiry, particularly that place where popular music and Beat literature intersect.

Jim Sampas would like to thank: my co- editor Simon Warner for his exceptional
work and dedication to this project; each of the incredibly talented and accomplished
contributors to this book; Paul Marion and David Greenberg for their great guidance
and advice; Jerry Cimino, David Stanford and Mark Bliesener for their steadfast
enthusiasm and encouragement; and all the heirs of Jack Kerouac for their support of
the fi lm and album projects over the years. I also want to thank my daughters, Gemma
and Chloe, for their endless inspiration.
Th e co-editors would also like to pay due credit to the New York team at publishers
Bloomsbury for their attention and guidance on this journey – Ally Jane Grossan,
who initially commissioned this title, and her successor as Music editor Leah Babb-
Rosenfeld, who has continued to support us, plus those dedicated assistants Michelle
Chen, Susan Krogulski and Katherine De Chant who also helped in getting this
project over the line. In addition, much appreciation to Giles Herman in Bloomsbury’s
London offi ce and to Merv Honeywood and Ronnie Hanna of Refi neCatch for their
diligence and patience.
ix