Text and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The Beats and Rock Culture
- Author: Warner, Simon
Fascinating and impeccably researched... Warner's massive contribution to the literary and musical legacy of the Beat generation should be, along with Ann Charters's The Portable Beat Reader,...
Text and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The Beats and Rock Culture
- Author: Warner, Simon
Purchase product
Fascinating and impeccably researched... Warner's massive contribution to the literary and musical legacy of the Beat generation should be, along with Ann Charters's The Portable Beat Reader,...
About
Text and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll explores the interaction between two of the most powerful socio-cultural movements in the post-war years - the literary forces of the Beat Generation and the musical energies of rock and its attendant culture.
Simon Warner examines the interweaving strands, seeded by the poet/novelists Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and others in the 1940s and 1950s, and cultivated by most of the major rock figures who emerged after 1960 - Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Bowie, the Clash and Kurt Cobain, to name just a few.
This fascinating cultural history delves into a wide range of issues: Was rock culture the natural heir to the activities of the Beats? Were the hippies the Beats of the 1960s? What attitude did the Beat writers have towards musical forms and particularly rock music? How did literary works shape the consciousness of leading rock music-makers and their followers? Why did Beat literature retain its cultural potency with later rock musicians who rejected hippie values? How did rock musicians use the material of Beat literature in their own work? How did Beat figures become embroiled in the process of rock creativity?
These questions are addressed through a number of approaches - the influence of drugs, the relevance of politics, the effect of religious and spiritual pursuits, the rise of the counter-culture, the issue of sub-cultures and their construction, and so on. The result is a highly readable history of the innumerable links between two of the most revolutionary artistic movements of the last 60 years.
Contents
- Acknowledgements Credits
- Preface Rock and rock'n'roll: A short note to the reader
- Introduction i) How the Beats met rock: Some history and some context ii) Charting the Beats: Background and impact iii) Beat and rock: A survey of association iv) The Beats' own recordings: A selective discography
- Chapter 1 - Sifting the shifting sands: Allen Ginsberg, 'Howl' and the American landscape in the 1950s Interlude A - Lawrence Ferlinghetti: A survivor surveys Interview 1 - David Amram, jazz musician and Beat composer, including the Pull My Daisy soundtr
- Chapter 2 - Chains of flashing memories: Bob Dylan and the Beats, 1959-1975 Interview 2 - Michael McClure, poet and author of The Beard
- Chapter 3 - Muse, moll, maid, mistress? Beat women and their rock'n'roll legacy
- Chapter 4 - Raising the consciousness: Re-visiting Allen Ginsberg's 1965 trip to Liverpool Q&A 1 - Michael Horovitz, poet, publisher and British Beat Interview 3 - Larry Keenan, photographer of 'The Last Gathering of the Beats' in San Francisco in 1965 O
- Chapter 5 - The British Beat: Rock, Literature and the British Counterculture in the 1960s Interview 4 - Pete Brown, British poet and rock lyricist for Cream Q&A 3 - Jonah Raskin, Ginsberg biographer and cultural historian
- Chapter 6 - The Sound of the Summer of Love? The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper, the hippies and Haight-Ashbury Q&A 4 - Levi Asher, founder of acclaimed Beat website Literary Kicks Interview 5 - Ronald Nameth, Beat film-maker and director of the film of the Exp
- Chapter 7 - The Meltzer chronicles: Poet, novelist, musician and historian of Beat America Review 1 - Book: David Meltzer, Beat Thing Interview 6 - Bill Nelson, British rock guitarist and Beat follower Q&A 5 - Jim Sampas, notable Beat record producer inc
- Chapter 8 - Versions of Cody: Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits and the song 'On the Road'
- Chapter 9 - Feeling the bohemian pulse: Locating Patti Smith within a post-Beat tradition
- Chapter 10 - Jim Carroll: Poetry prodigy, post-Beat and rocker Obituary 2 - Jim Carroll, 'Poet and punk musician who documented his teenage drug addiction in The Basketball Diaries'
- Chapter 11 - All cut up? William Burroughs and Genesis P-Orridge's beatnik past Interview 7 - Steven Taylor, Ginsberg's guitarist and member of the Fugs
- Chapter 12 - Steven Taylor: A Beat Englishman in New York Q&A 6 - Pete Molinari, British singer-songwriter with Beat leanings
- Chapter 13 - Return to Lowell: A visit to the Commemorative and Kerouac's grave Review 2 - Film: One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur Review 3 - Album: One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur Q&A 7 - Chris T-T, British political singer-songw
- Appendix - Jack & Neal on record Bibliography, Discography, Filmography, Broadcasts, Personal Communication and Interviews
Awards and reviews
Fascinating and impeccably researched... Warner's massive contribution to the literary and musical legacy of the Beat generation should be, along with Ann Charters's The Portable Beat Reader, the standard reference on the subject. -- Edwin Pouncey
