Text and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The Beats and Rock Culture - Hardcover

Simon Warner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826416640 ISBN 13: 9780826416643

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

'At long last an electrifying exploration of the Beat Generation writers and the wild guitarists and poetic songwriters who transformed world culture. Bravo to Simon Warner for breaking down all the sound barriers and for bridging the musical and literary geniuses of our time. Hail Hail Text and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, a book that's bound to be around for a long time.' --Jonah Raskin, author of Rock and Roll Women: Portraits of a Generation and American Scream: Allen Ginsberg s 'Howl' and the Making of the Beat Generation

'Text and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll is a well-researched and fascinating investigation into the relationship between rock music and the Beats, and the ways in which this interaction inspired a mode of expression that was to find common ground in the final third of the twentieth century. Warner offers readers a wealth of information on the Beats' rebellious and varied lifestyles, poetry and novels and how and why they influenced both iconic and lesser known musicians from the 1960s counterculture, through punk, heavy metal, and grunge. Extended interviews with seminal figures, conversations, obituaries, and a series of Q&As with individuals with close connections to the Beat-rock crossover add to the authority of this groundbreaking and timely text, while evidencing the growing importance of interdisciplinary studies for academics, researchers, students and mainstream readers alike.' --Dr Sheila Whiteley, Professor Emeritus, the University of Salford, Greater Manchester and Visiting Research Professor, the Bader International Study Centre, Queen's University (Canada), East Sussex

'An exhaustive and always illuminating account of the Beats' profound and still-registering impact on radical pop from Dylan to hip hop. Warner has left no stone unturned in tracing his inter-generational lines of influence, and his overview of the subject is commanding.' --Barney Hoskyns, author of Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits

About the Author:

Simon Warner is a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster who teaches Popular Music Studies at the University of Leeds, UK.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0826416640
• ISBN 13: 9780826416643
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 544