Not yet at least, and not the way a few rock stars, two movie stars, a comedian, four Beat poets, a few folkies, and more pay tribute to the writings of Jack Kerouac with both voice and music in the VOICES/Rykodisc release, Kerouac — kicks joy darkness. Kerouac’s writing style broke through the doldrums of the post-war period. A literal overnight success following the 1957 review of On The Road by the New York Times, he was heralded by critics as The Next Big Thing. The incredible attention bestowed on him by the worldwide press made him a superstar, but to devastating effect: the world wanted him to be the spokesperson for the Beat generation, he wanted to write. In the end, his fame overshadowed his writings and his talent, and dogged him to his death. While his poetry, essays, and other works have been published in approximately 20 different books, few of his fans have ventured beyond the world of Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise in On The Road.
And what a shame. Kerouac wrote brief-limned snatches of poetry (he called them "pomes"), in addition to his long, breathless fiction (which he considered poetry even though his stories often accumulated millions of words over hundreds of pages). Within his many notebooks, Kerouac emulated the energy and bop joy he found in great jazz solos by writing "choruses" of poetry he called "blues.” He detailed intricate recountings of dark, yet playful passages from his dreams in short snippets of thought-bursts he called "dreams." He also took long excursions in articles, some of them published within the pages of Esquire and Playboy.
Each of these styles find their voice on Kerouac — kicks joy darkness, thanks to producer Jim Sampas. Rather than weighting the release with well-worn passages from Kerouac’s famous fiction, only carefully selected pieces intended to represent Kerouac's many styles and methods of writing were chosen for the album.
The project gained momentum when Sampas produced an evening of Kerouac readings featuring Morphine's Mark Sandman and Jim Carroll at the Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The performances proved that the experiment of mixing Kerouac and rock music would work. Lee Ranaldo, of Sonic Youth, came aboard as Associate Producer, and served as MC at a Kerouac concert at New York's Town Hall in 1995. This was the site of the first recording session which included poetic luminaries Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg, among others. The last session was recorded at the very last minute when the mastering process was halted so that Matt Dillon and bassist Joey Altruda could get to New York City to lay down their performance.
Kerouac — kicks joy darkness begins with an original piece of bop poetry by Morphine entitled “Kerouac,” moves on to Lydia Lunch as she spits out her rendition of "Bowery Blues" and then finds Michael Stipe, backed by the wheezy, cheezy sound of a Vox Jaguar Organ, rumbling out his version of Jack's pome, "My Gang." Spoken word artist Maggie Estep enlisted the lower eastside group, The Spitters, to rip out a wrenching "Skid Row Wine” -- probably the most in-your-face performance on the album. This is not standard spoken word where the music acts as an innocuous bed: guests including Come, Helium, Jeff Buckley, and Anna Domino insure otherwise. On kicks joy darkness, the intercourse of words and music is dynamic and invigorating, with the tracks veering upward in volume and fury. This is not your father's Kerouac.
The four unpublished Kerouac poems featured on this compilation are a rare treat. The largest work, entitled "America's New Trinity Of Love: Dean, Brando, Presley," is read triumphantly by comedian Richard Lewis. Lewis did his homework: he rented videos of Jack, he read Kerouac’s work over and over and he re-listened to Jack's albums (recently reissued in a box set by Rhino) before going into the studio and laying down his indefatigable and expansive version of Jack’s perceptions of men, women, and a new way of loving. Lewis brings an actor's sensibility to drag emotion and character out of the unspoken sub-text to create a performance full of spontaneous energy and crackle.
The unpublished dream "Us kids swim off a great pier" is rendered by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. Tyler has delightfully expanded his hard-rocking range to recreate the lazy, hazy days of a youthful summer, adding in a layer of scat-singing to his spoken word performance.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was given an unpublished dream, "On a sunny afternoon..." to read during the 1995 concert of Kerouac readings at New York's Town Hall. Ferlinghetti, besides being a poet and contemporary of Jack's was also a friend, cohort, and instigator as well as Kerouac's publisher. Ferlinghetti's intimate understanding of Kerouac's dreams leads to his crisp reading of the magical moment caught in prose. During that same concert, Allen Ginsberg was set to read all ten choruses of the unpublished "Brooklyn Bridge Blues." Unfortunately, when being faxed to the poet that evening the last pages of the poem stuck together and only nine choruses arrived at Ginsberg's office the day of the concert. Ginsberg notes the missing chorus before making his performance and when he concludes, the unfinished piece hangs mysteriously in the air. Singer-songwriter, Eric Andersen signed up for the project just days later. The 10th chorus was offered to him if he could bring his DAT recorder to the top of The Brooklyn Bridge and read it there. His performance caps the 79 and a half minute release, finishing the poem cycle started by Ginsberg earlier in the program with a resigned and earnest delivery, blowing a blues over cars as they speed to the city and away toward Brooklyn over Roebling's bridge.
Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness,Various Artists,Rykodisc,90's,Adult Alternative Pop/Rock,Album Rock,Alternative Pop/Rock,American Underground,Beat Poetry,Experimental,Experimental Rock,Folk-Rock,Hard Rock,Indie Rock,Poetry,Pop,Popular Music,Post-Rock/Experimental,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Proto-Punk,Roots Rock,Singer/Songwriter,Spoken,Spoken / Comedy / Radio Shows,Spoken Word
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Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness
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ASIN: B0000009PX Release Date: 1997-04-08 |
Tracks:
- Kerouac - Morphine
- Bowery Blues - Lydia Lunch
- My Gang - Michael Stipe
- Dream: Us Kids Swim Off A Gray Pier... - Steven Tyler
- Letter To William S. Burroughs And Ode To Jack - Hunter S. Thompson
- Skid Row Wine - Maggie Estep & The Spitters
- America's New Trinity Of Love: Dean,Brando,Presley - Richard Lewis
- Dream: On A Sunny Afternoon... - Lawrence Ferlinghetti And Helium
- MacDougal Street Blues - Jack Kerouac & Joe Strummer
- The Brooklyn Bridge Blues (Choruses 1-9) - Allen Ginsberg
- Hymn - Eddie Vedder, Campbell 2000 And Sadie 7
- Old Western Movies - William Burroughs And Tomandandy
- Silly Goofball Pomes - Juliana Hatfield
- The Moon - John Cale
- Madroad Driving... - Johnny Depp & Come
- 'Have You Ever Seen Anyone Like Cody Pomeray?' - Robert Hunter
- Letter To John Clellon Holmes - Lee Ranaldo & Dana Colley
- Pome On Doctor Sax - Anna Domino
- Mexico Rooftop - Rob Buck & Danny Chauvin As Hitchiker
- The Last Hotel - Patti Smith With Thurston Moore And Lenny Kaye
- Running Through-Chinese Poem Song - Warren Zevon & Michael Wolf
- Woman - Jim Carroll With Lee Ranaldo And Lenny Kaye
- Mexican Loneliness - Matt Dillon With Joey Altruda And Joe Gonzalez
- Angel Mine - Inger Lorre & Jeff Buckley
- The Brooklyn Bridge (Chorus 10) - Eric Andersen
Customer Reviews:
Superb tribute to Kerouac.......2006-09-07
Such is the case with this tribute CD from Rykodisc where the producer (and nephew of Jack's last wife) Jim Sampas, has deliberately chosen more unfamiliar texts for the galaxy of star talents on this release to read. The reasoning behind this decision was apparently to show Kerouac in a different light, and to demonstrate the wide range of his different styles. In this objective Sampas has succeeded admirably.
Accordingly, there are readings of the more obscure items from Pomes All Sizes and Book of Blues as well as four texts which have never before been published: Brooklyn Bridge Blues, America's New Trinity of Love: Dean, Brando, Presley, and two dreams: "On a Sunny Afternoon...", and "Us Kids Swim Off a Great Pier". The excellent 32-page booklet includes the full text of all the readings, and so represents the first publication of these items. It also has some photos of Jack, and paintings by him which have not been widely seen.
So, who is reading the texts? A host of talent from the worlds of music, film and literature. The late Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs are present, as are Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Hunter S Thompson and Jim Carroll. The musician readers include R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, John Cale, Warren Zevon, the Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, Eric Anderson and Julia Hatfield. Other musicians, such as Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, ex-10,000 Maniacs guitarist Rob Buck, and Jeff Buckley provide backings for the readers. From the land of film and stage come Johnny Depp and Matt Dillon, as well as comedian Richard Lewis. There's even a previously unheard recording of Kerouac himself, reading from his MacDougal Street Blues, with over-dubbed bass, synth and guitar by Joe Strummer. Jack can also be heard in the background of Robert Hunter's reading from Visions of Cody, skatting "A Foggy Day in London Town" from a rare tape recorded at the Cassady's home in 1952.
What of the readings? Well, they cover a wide range of interpretations, from the stark Lydia Lunch on Bowery Blues and the wild Maggie Estep on Skid Row Wine to the child-like rendition by Julia Hatfield of Silly Goofball Pomes, and the improvisation of Patti Smith on The Last Hotel, the poem of Jack's which always reminds me of Arthur Rimbaud. The readers I most enjoyed were those who sounded like Jack and who phrased like Jack, since I truly believe that no one can read Kerouac as well as Kerouac did. Accordingly, my favorite reader has to be Lee Ranaldo, who delivers a magnificent reading of a letter to John Clellon Holmes in which Jack is telling of his encounter with the beautiful "Good Blonde" who gave him a lift up the west coast in 1955. I could listen to that voice reading Kerouac all day long. All night too. Runners up in this category would have to be Robert Hunter (Visions of Cody), Warren Zevon (Running Through - Chinese Poem Song), and Matt Dillon (Mexican Loneliness).
Allen Ginsberg does a fine reading of the previously unseen Brooklyn Bridge Blues, recorded at the Town Hall, NYC, in 1995. Only 8½ of the total of 10 choruses were read by Allen because, on the day, the last page had somehow become lost. To rectify this shortcoming, Eric Anderson can be heard performing the missing 1½ choruses on a separate track, from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, no less, with the sounds of the traffic passing by.
As well as the Kerouac readings, two of the tracks feature new material. The band Morphine perform "Kerouac", their own tribute to the man, and Hunter S Thompson, after reading a short extract from one of Jack's letters to William Burroughs, adds his own "Ode to Jack" in homage to his hero.
The musical accompaniments cover a wide spectrum of styles. No jazz, which Jack preferred, and which backed some of his own recordings, but rock sounds of varying intensities and complexities. I still reckon that Jack would have approved.
The CD as a whole presents a vast variety of content, reading styles and musical accompaniments, all fitted together in a pleasing sequence that would be hard to beat. The playing time is extremely generous at 79½ minutes, and the complete package is indeed a fine tribute to Jack Kerouac. Producer Jim Sampas is to be congratulated in putting it all together. Let's hope that this is but the first of many such projects.
A Tribute in Words, Music & Voices.......2005-04-12
The CD is a tribute in words, music and voices to one of the greatest writers of our time. Here, his work is interpreted by a diverse range of talents, including actor Matt Dillon, Morphine, Michael Stipe, the awesome band Come, and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, as well as Jack's contemporaries Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg.
The best two tracks are "Dream: "Us Kids Swim off a Gray Pier" by Tyler, who does a phenomenal job of evoking Jack's images of summer through spoken word, and "MacDougal Street Blues," which is Jack's own voice backed by the late great Joe Strummer on electronic beat and keyboards. It's nothing short of sublime.
I like Jack's work because he seems to be a reluctant hero, which is what he was. Once his "On the Road" was reviewed by the New York Times in 1957, he was touted as The Next Big Thing and the spokesperson of a generation (the Beat generation for sure). And sort of like Kurt Cobain in the Nineties, who was also given the role of spokesperson of a generation against his will, Jack resisted. He never wanted to be anything but a writer, so fame ate him up and overshadowed the very thing that had catapulted him to the forefront in the first place - his talent.
My only complaint about this CD is that none of Jack's novels (his best work) are represented here, which is why I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5. I recommend picking up this CD as it's definitely worth a listen.
No, no suicide, wine please, wine..........2000-11-14
"From these Blues we'll go to H Y M N S".......2000-02-27
Lydia Lunch's version of "Bowery Blues" is reason enough to get it - sultry, dangerous and mad with introspective passion. John Cale does a really nice rendition of "The Moon", one of Jack's more beautiful poems.
There are other gems here, as well. Juliana Hatfield's take on "Silly Goofball Pomes" has that perfect, childlike sound. "Mexican Loneliness" and Jack's "Dream" highlight his descriptive brilliance.
Very nicely done..
Hopeful and refreshing.......1999-08-11
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