On March 12, 1922, novelist and poet Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. After showing early promise as a scholar and football player, Kerouac attended Columbia University but then dropped out. He was later kicked out of the Navy on psychiatric grounds.
On the Road
By the late 1940s, Kerouac was finding some promise with his writing. But it would be the 1957 publication of his book based on his travels, On the Road, that would make him famous as an important figure of the Beat Generation.
Surprisingly, a year earlier in 1956, Kerouac threatened to never publish the book. But even after gaining fame from On the Road, Kerouac had trouble finding peace and happiness. He died from an abdominal hemorrhage in 1969 at the age of 47.
In this clip from The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, Allen interviews Kerouac in 1959. And Kerouac reads from his book while Allen and the band plays jazzy music in the background. Check it out.
On the Road was made into a 2012 film directed by Walter Salles and starring Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart in 2012. But one seems more likely to run into Kerouac in songs rather than in films.
“Hey Jack Kerouac”
There are several Kerouac-inspired songs, as listed by Raditaz. Probably the most famous creative work that is about Kerouac is the 10,000 Maniacs song, “Hey Jack Kerouac.” The song first appeared on the band’s 1987 album In My Tribe.
When the group appeared on MTV Unplugged on April 21, 1993, one of the songs they performed was “Hey Jack Kerouac.” Merchant introduced the song for the 10,000 Maniacs by reading about Kerouac. Her reading apparently was from the introduction in her copy of On the Road.
The song portrays Kerouac as a misunderstood artistic soul (“little boy lost in our little world that hated/ and that dared to drag him down”). And the song also mentions other of the Beat writers like Allen Ginsberg (“Allen baby, why so jaded?”) and William S. Burroughs (“Billy, what a saint they’ve made you”). Still, others have pointed out that the song complains about the effects of the over popularization of the Beats.
Lead singer Natalie Merchant wrote the song with the band’s guitarist Rob Buck who passed away in December 2000. You may easily tell they try to capture Kerouac’s writing style in the chorus:
You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls
In Harlem howling at night.
What a tear-stained shock of the world,
You’ve gone away without saying goodbye.
I do not know what Jack Kerouac would have thought of the song or if he would have agreed with the sentiments. But it would have been cool if he would have stuck around to tell us with his clever use of language. Happy birthday Jack.
What is your favorite work inspired by Jack Kerouac? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
I was in Lowell, MA recently and we walked upon a sculpture in a park in his honor. Ala, I think I was too old (24 or so?) when I first read On the Road so I just thought the guy sounded like a moocher and whiner.
Thanks for puting this page together! Kerouac is one of my favorite authors – so much so that I wrote a song about him called ‘The Ghost of Jack Kerouac.’ You can listen to a free stream here: http://ericmillersongs.com/songs/
Great lyrics and song. I liked the other ones on your website too, including “Clouds Roll By.” Thanks!
I think Kerouac’s clever use of language can be partly explained by his french canadian origins. He had this duality, speaking french and english and I think he often use the french language way to write a sentence. Like a rough translation, sometimes word by word, of a french sentence.