"and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder"

A few years ago I read the book "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and I really enjoyed it. The book chronicles Kerouac's seemingly spontaneous cross country road trips with his friend Neal Cassady. The book uses fake names (Sal Paradise for himself, Dean Moriarty for Cassady), but it's no secret that all of the other characters in the book were also based on people he knew in his own life.

In case you were unaware, Kerouac hung around with quite the crew. He and his friends, many of whom were also writers, were the inspiration for what has come to be known as "the Beat Generation." The beats are often associated with their rejection of materialism and their experimentation with psychadelic drugs and alternate forms of sexuality (thanks Wikipedia). Their experiences (in the 50's and early 60's) helped spawn the counter culture movement of the 1960's and later the hippie movement of the late 60's and 70's. The most famous of Kerouac's beatnik friends was Allen Ginsberg, who enjoyed more hotdogs than a cross between Kobayashi and Lance Bass. His famous poem "Howl", with the famous opening line, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness," was the subject of a highly publicized obscenity case that upheld our First Ammendment right to free speech.

I've always been interested in the Beat Generation because they went against the grain and history couldn't ignore them. Even if it's only a quick paragraph in a Social Studies textbook or a fleeting mention by a college professor, it shows that what this group of people stood for actually meant something.

Now if you just read my quick copy and paste from Wikipedia (it actually may be word for word) you might think that the beats were a bunch of people that messed around with drugs and then dabbled with bisexuality. This, however, was not the case. This group was highly educated (most went to Ivy League schools), abundantly talented, and primed for very successful careers. However, instead of accepting the path that society had created for them, they rejected the monotony of the status quo and freed themselves to do as they saw fit. To put it simply, they decided to just live for a while and not burden themselves with any societal restraints. And to sum it up even more simply, they were incredibly creative non-conformists.

I was driven to read "On the Road" not only because of Kerouac's connection to "the Beat Generation", but also because he is largley miscredited as the author of this quote.

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

..which is best known as the copy to one of the best advertisements of all time...



Before reading "On the Road", I had heard that this text was in the book, so I picked myself up a copy and anxiously anticipated how it would be used in context, but it never appeared. In fact, I still don't know who wrote, or said, those words, but people confuse that quote with this passage which does appear in "On the Road".

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

Either way, I read the book and really liked it. Ever since I have been even more conscious of learning little tidbits about Kerouac. To me, he just seems like he was a very interesting person (and let the record show that he never really went for the whole bisexual thing). For example, he wrote the now famous novel in just three weeks on one continuous scroll. Truman Capote, who was about as flamboyant as Perez Hilton, famously said of Kerouac's work, "That's not writing. That's typing." Also, Kerouac was an absolute bozebag. He died at age 47 of internal hemorrhaging, which was caused by cirrhosis of the liver.

So I tell you all of this because last week on a Pop Culture blog that I read, I came across this:

Here are my Top Five Songs That May or May Not Be Based on Jack Kerouac's Novels:

1.) Modest Mouse- The World at Large -- You could take just about any line from this song and it would feel like it came out of a Kerouac novel. My favorite line (that I think sums up why people like Kerouac in the first place): "I like songs about drifters -- books about the same; they both seem to make me feel a little less insane."

2.) Third Eye Blind- Burning Man -- The band actually acknowledged that this song is based on Sal Paradise's line in On the Road: "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"

3.) The Hold Steady- Stuck Between Stations -- There are a few lines in this song that Kerouac may have wrote himself, but name-dropping Sal Paradise in the opening line was a dead giveaway: "There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right, boys and girls in America have such a sad time together."

4.) Weezer- Holiday -- I had been listening to this Weezer album for years before one day my headphones were a little too loud and I caught Rivers Cuomo talk-singing this line in the background: "On the road with Kerouac, sheltered in his Bivouac, on this road we'll never die." Rivers is a smart guy; I have no idea what a Bivouac is.

5.) Death Cab for Cutie- Bixby Canyon Bridge -- Ben Gibbard is a well-documented Kerouac junkie and has performed several songs that were influenced by him. I think this is his best, and I couldn't get this song out of my head the entire time I was reading Big Sur.

The only song of the five that I knew before reading that entry was "Burning Man", so I listened to the other four and enjoyed them all. I suggest that you all do the same and see what you think. Also, bonus points if you read "Howl" or Google (I love how this is a verb) the title of this post and read the poem that it appears in, which was written by a man who was responsible for publishing much of the literature written by "the Beat Generation."

Top 10 Albums

Recently on a pop culture blog that I frequent readers were encouraged to send in their top 10 desert island albums. The idea being that if you were stranded on a desert island and you could have 10 albums there with you what would they be? This of course assumes that there's a cd player somewhere on the island, which is about as far fetched as the entire stranded on a desert island notion. Basically readers were asked to send in a list of their top 10 albums. When I started to think of what I would put in my top 10 I realized that we don't really appreciate or even think in terms of albums in our age of file sharing, illegal downloading, and the iTunes store. Now maybe I'm way off and it's just me and my somewhat distant relationship with the world of music (I've only purchased 2 CD's in 2009). I do read/skim Rolling Stone every month though.

Either way, I went ahead and compiled a list of my top 10 albums, but I did so according to a few rules.

1.) I must already own at least half of the albums on my list.
2.) Greatest Hits albums are allowed, but only ones that are contained to a single disc.

(in no particular order)


1.) Dookie (1994) by Green Day



Favorite Tracks: 7.) Basket Case, 10.) When I Come Around

Synopsis: Although I hesistate to call them my favorite band, I own more Green Day CD's (4) than any other artist/band. I loved Dookie as a 13 year old and I still love it now, a decade later. I mean, with a name like Dookie how can I not? This is one of those albums that you can listen to from start to finish over and over. It's short (only 39:46), but packed with that pure punk/rebel edge that Green Day is known for.


2.) Complete Greatest Hits (2002) by Foreigner



Favorite Tracks: 14.) Jukebox Hero, 15.) I Want to Know What Love Is

Synopsis: Foreigner is the first of two British rock bands on this list that have more hits than you initially realize. I'm fairly confident that you have all heard at least 6 of the songs on this album at some time in your lives.

I've been told that one of my friends from college used to get into a personal trance before high school hockey games whenever he heard "Jukebox Hero" like one of Elaine's boyfriends in a Seinfeld episode did when he heard The Eagles hit "Desperado".


3.) U218 Singles (2006) by U2



Favorite Tracks: 3.) Pride (In the Name of Love), 9.) Where the Streets Have No Name, 11.) Sunday Bloody Sunday

Synopis: U2 has released some very good studio albums, but none of them have enough of my favorite songs, so I had to opt for U218, which is a greatest hits type compilation. Back in college a friend and I had a radio show for about a year and a half. We mainly played rock, punk, and alternative music, but we also played a "Rap/Hip Hop Pick of the Week" and a "Girly Pick of the Week". One of our 10 listeners (my brother) seemingly requested "Sunday Bloody Sunday" every week, so during our second year on the air we started a "U2 Pick of the Week". It worked out well for a while but eventually the show folded and I think it's fair to say that Thursday afternoons on WVOF were never the same.


4.) Best of Volume I (1996) by Van Halen



Favorite Tracks: 9.) Why Can't This Be Love, 13.) Right Now, 14.) Can't Stop Lovin' You

Synopsis: If Van Halen doesn't get your blood flowing I don't know what will. I'm not much of a concert goer, but Van Halen currently sits atop my list of bands I wan't to see live. Fun fact- the song "Right Now" is featured on my high school lacrosse team's highlight videos from both my junior and senior years and I coincidentally score a goal on both videos just as the song picks up.

Although the album is called Best of Volume I, there is no Best of Volume II.


5.) Back in Black (1980) by AC/DC



Favorite Tracks: 1.) Hells Bells, 7.) You Shook Me All Night Long

Synopsis: Is there any doubt that AC/DC is the greatest thing ever to come out of the country/continent of Australia? Although I try to avoid being mainstream (it's the second best-selling album of all time, trailing only Thriller), this CD was too good to leave off of my list. "Hells Bells" gets me all sorts of fired up in that calm/intense kind of way.


6.) Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995) (1995) by Def Leppard



Favorite Tracks: 2.) Photograph, 6.) Animal

Synopsis- The second British band that has more hit songs that you initially think. I bought this CD back in January and it's definitely in the running for my best purchase of the year. This album is like a movie that you see once and sort of enjoy, but when you see it for a 2nd and 3rd time you start ranting and raving about how good it is.


7.) Street Dreams (2003) by Fabolous



Favorite Tracks: 2.) Not Give A Fuck, 10.) This Is My Party, 17.) Throw Back

Synopsis: Let me just say that I am by no means an advocate of this genre of music, nor do I keep up with who has beef with who, etc., but I do enjoy me some rap every once in a while. I'm probably the whitest kid you know, but everyone needs a little variety from time to time. I particularly enjoy "Throw Back" because of the references to all of the sports franchises, mascots, and athletes.

Having this album on my list also fulfills my rap quota and while I'm on the topic of quotas/other genres of music I should have you know that I did not add a Country album to the list, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I wanted to add an Alan Jackson album (whoa, alliteration), but none of his greatest hits albums contained "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" and this was a dealbreaker for me.

Other rap/hip hop albums that I own:

1.) The Black Album (2003) by Jay-Z
2.) 2001 (1999) by Dr. Dre
3.) The Eminem Show (2002) by Eminem
4.) Real Talk (2004) by Fabolous
5.) We Are The Streets (2000) by The LOX
6.) Graduation (2007) by Kanye West
7.) Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) by OutKast (does this one even count?)


8.) Greatest Hits (1995) by Bruce Springsteen



Favorite Tracks: 2.) Thunder Road, 4.) The River, 10.) Glory Days

Synopsis: Although I despise the state of New Jersey (mainly for the parkways that turn into expressways that turn into turnpikes that turn back into parkways), I've got to give it up for The Boss. Springsteen's performance at this year's Superbowl was one of the few halftime shows that I have ever looked forward to, let alone watched. Seriously, he is the epitome of Americana.

Bruce is also one of the only artists whose music attracts both fathers and sons. In fact I don't think any of my friends have ever told me that they were going to a non-Bruce concert with their dad. One of my friends even claims that his dad never gave him "the talk", but he instead told him to listen to "The River". Funny thing is, I believe him.


9.) Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel (2004) by Billy Joel



Favorite Tracks: 1.) Tell Her About It, 12.) Scenes From an Italian Restaurant

Synopsis: The album cover might prevent me from ever actually buying it, but that's okay because I have a few Billy Joel mixes that I've made over the years. Billy has so many hit songs that it's hard for him to put them all on one CD (most of his compilations have multiple discs), but this one has enough of my favorites to make my list. I was actually surprised to see a CD that included "Uptown Girl" (a song that he no longer performs live), "We Didn't Start the Fire", and "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant".

It also should be noted that this album contains two potential wedding songs in "She's Got a Way" and "Just the Way You Are" if I ever decide to get married.


10.) Third Eye Blind (1997) by Third Eye Blind



Favorite Tracks: 6.) How's It Going to Be, 8.) Burning Man

Synopsis: I used to have a 12 song playlist on my iPod of all Third Eye Blind songs that I would fall asleep to every night during my sophomore year of college. In fact, Third Eye Blind sort of has that college, alternative rock sound that I think many of us can relate to. Their music, even though it's borderline pop sometimes, seems to speak directly to the issues that we all faced while growing up.