9781501323386 (online)

9781501323348 (hardback)

9781501323379 (electronic book)

9781501323362 (PDF)

"He was the leading light of the Beat Generation writers and the most dynamic author of his time, but Jack Kerouac also had a lifelong passion for music, particularly the mid-century jazz of New York City, the development of which he witnessed first-hand during the 1940s with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk to the fore. The novelist, most famous for his 1957 book On the Road, admired the sounds of bebop and attempted to bring something of their original energy to his own writing, a torrent of semi-autobiographical stories he published between 1950 and his early death in 1969. Yet he was also drawn to American popular music of all kinds - from the blues to Broadway ballads - and when he came to record albums under his own name, he married his unique spoken word style with some of the most talented musicians on the scene. Kerouac's musical legacy goes well beyond the studio recordings he made himself: his influence infused generations of music makers who followed in his work - from singer-songwriters to rock bands. Some of the greatest transatlantic names - Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison and David Bowie, Janis Joplin and Tom Waits, Sonic Youth and Death Cab for Cutie, and many more - credited Kerouac's impact on their output. In Kerouac on Record, we consider how the writer brought his passion for jazz to his prose and poetry, his own record releases, the ways his legacy has been sustained by numerous more recent talents, those rock tributes that have kept his memory alive and some of the scores that have featured in Hollywood adaptations of the adventures he brought to the printed page."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

"He was the king of the Beat Generation and the most dynamic novelist of his time, but Jack Kerouac had a lifelong passion for music, particularly the mid-century jazz of New York City. The novelist, most famous for his 1957 book On the Road, admired the sounds of bebop and attempted to bring something of their original energy to his own writing. Yet he was also drawn to American popular music of all kinds-from the blues to country, rock`n'roll to Broadway ballads-and when he came to record albums under his own name, he worked with some of the most talented musicians on the scene. Yet Kerouac's musical legacy goes beyond the recordings he made himself: both tribute albums to the man and soundtrack recordings accompanying movies that brought his writing to the big screen have also featured potent and original musical content. In Kerouac on Record, we consider the writer's own recorded output, those rock tributes that have kept his memory alive and the scores that have featured in a string of Hollywood adaptations of his fictional adventures."--Publisher's description.

Also issued in print.

Original

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes discographies (pages 399-447).

Foreword

Introduction / Simon Warner

Jack Kerouac's jazz scene / Jim Burns

The beginning of Bop / Jack Kerouac

2nd chorus: Blues : Jack Kerouac / Larry Beckett

Duet for saxophone and pen : Lee Konitz and the direct influence of jazz on the development of Jack Kerouac's 'Spontaneous prose' style / Marian Jago

Interview 1: Lee Konitz / Marian Jago

Jack Kerouac goes vinyl : a sonic journey into Kerouac's three LPs - Poetry for the Beat generation; Blues and haikus; and Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat generation / Jonah Raskin

Art music : listening to Kerouac's Mexico City Blues / A. Robert Lee

Interview 2: David Amram / Pat Thomas

Beat refrains : music, milieu and identity in Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation / Michael J. Prince

Bob Dylan's Beat visions (sonic poetry) / Michael Goldberg

Carrying a torch for 'Ti Jean' / Paul Marion

Interview 3: Richard Meltzer / Michael Goldberg

The Grateful Dead : Jack manifested as music / Brian Hassett

Driver : Neal Cassady's musical trip / Mark Bliesener

Jim Morrison / Angel of Fire / Jay Jeff Jones

Light is Faster than sound : Texans, the Beats and the San Francisco counterculture / Holly George-Warren

Hit the road, Jack : Van Morrison and On the road / Peter Mills

Detecting Jack Kerouac and Joni Mitchell : a literary/legal (not musicological) investigation into the search for influence / Nancy M.Grace

Kerouac and country music / Matt Theado

'Straight from the mind to the voice' : spectral persistence in Jack Kerouac and Tom Waits / Douglas Field

Interview 4: Barney Hoskyns on Tom Waits / Simon Warner

From Beat Bop prosody to Punk Rock poetry : Patti Smith and Jack Kerouac - literature, lineage, legacy / Ronna C. Johnson

Poems / Marc Zegans

Interview 5: Allen Ginsberg / Pat Thomas

Tramps like them : Jack and Bruce and the myth of the American road / Simon A. Morrison

Interview 6: Graham Parker / Pat Thomas

Punk and New Wave / James Sullivan

Interview 7: Jim DeRogatis on Lester Bangs / James Sullivan

The Kerouac tribute recordings / Jim Sampas with Simon Warner

Appendix I: Essentials of spontaneous prose / Jack Kerouac

Appendix II: Belief and technique for modern prose / Jack Kerouac

Appendix III: Jack Kerouac : an annotated discography / Dave Moore

Appendix IV: Tribute album discography / Jim Sampas

Appendix V: Jack and Neal on record / Dave Moore and Horst Spandler.

Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969 > Criticism and interpretation.

Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969 > Influence.

Music > United States > 20th century > History and criticism.