Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac died forty years ago yesterday.

... Dizzy or Charley or Thelonious was walking down the street, heard a noise, a sound, half Lester Young, half raw-rainy-fog that has that chest-shivering excitement of shack, track, empty lot, the sudden vast Tiger head on the woodfence rainy no-school Saturday morning dumpyards, "Hey" and rushed off dancing.

Jack Kerouac, from "The Beginning of Bop"
originally published in Escapade, April 1959.

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Download:

"Fantasy: The Early History of Bop" mp3
by Jack Kerouac, 1959.
available on On The Beat Generation

"México City Blues - Charlie Parker" mp3
by Jack Kerouac and Steve Allen, 1958.
available on Poetry for the Beat Generation

"Poems from the Unpublished Book of Blues" mp3
by Jack Kerouac with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, 1958.
available on Blues and Haikus

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"Salt Peanuts" mp3
by Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra, 1945.
available on Charlie Parker: A Studio Chronicle 1940-1948



"Melancholy Baby" mp3
by Charlie Parker and his Orchestra, 1950.
available on The Complete Verve Master Takes


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"Medley: Jack & Neil / California Here I Come" mp3
by Tom Waits, 1977.
available on Foreign Affairs


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Photograph: Jack Kerouac, c. 1962.
by Robert Frank

Midnight

Most of these posts here at the flu are composed in the middle of the night. I've always been nocturnal, and those who know me know I don't sleep much. I get some of my best work done in the middle of the night. Here's a group of songs that reference the witching hour.

It's late now. I'm going to bed.




















Download: "Ooh Midnight" mp3
by Pete "Guitar" Lewis, 1952.
available on Midnight at the Barrelhouse

more PGL Here and Here



















Download: "Wee Wee Hours" mp3
by Chuck Berry, 1955.
available on Blues



















Download: "Rocking After Midnight" mp3
by Lowell Fulson, 1949.
Available on Lowell Fulson: 1946-1953



















Download: "The Midnite Man" mp3
by Bill Justis, 1957.
available on Raunchy: The Very Best of Bill Justis
























Download: "Midnite Blues" mp3
by Charlie Rich, 1962.
available on Sun Sessions


****************** BONUS *********************

Download:

"Midnight" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 2006
Theme Time Radio Hour 24: Time

"Midnight Train" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1965.
available on Dimestore Medicine

"Old Angel Midnight" mp3
by Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen, 1958.
available on The Jack Kerouac Collection

photograph: Kit, Paris, 1995. © Ted Barron

Tehachapi to Tonopah

Sometimes a song will make you do foolish things.

Over the years I've driven many American roads making photographs. Partially inspired by Robert Frank's The Americans and partially by Jack Kerouac's On The Road, which I'm currently re-reading for the first time since I was a teenager in its "restored" single paragraph scroll version. Not to mention my favorite film genre- the road movie. On all of these drives, music has been central to my relationship to wherever I am - sometimes by accident and sometimes quite deliberately.

One of my favorites for California has always been the first Little Feat record, which contains two truck driving songs by the late Lowell George: "Truck Stop Girl" and "Willin,'" the latter of which inspired me last week to drive from Tehachapi to Tonopah. I know, I know.

I don't know yet if the photographs are gonna be any good, but I do believe I've exorcised from my obsessive self the need to do this again. I found some lovely scenery out there in the empty spaces between Tehachapi, CA. (quaint small western town) and Tonopah, NV. (decrepit dying one-horse casino town,) but quickly found myself hightailing it to Yosemite to cleanse my palate.

Anyway, below are a few versions of each of these numbers. Little Feat recorded "Willin'" twice in the studio on each of their first two records. The first version features Ry Cooder on guitar, and the second is anchored by Bill Payne on the piano and Sneaky Pete Kleinow on pedal steel. Also, a radio broadcast of Lowell George joined by Linda Ronstadt on harmony vocal, and Steve Earle's version with the Bluegrass Dukes. Then, It's "Truck Stop Girl" by Little Feat, Kelly Willis, and my favorite version by the Byrds, who also have a live version of "Willin''' but I've excluded it because I've always found the vocals to be a little weak.

Okay, here goes...


Download:

"Willin'" mp3
by Little Feat
from Little Feat, 1971.

"Willin'" mp3
by Little Feat
from Sailing Shoes, 1972.

"Willin'" mp3
by Lowell George with Linda Ronstadt
from WHFS-FM Radio Broadcast, 1974.

"Willin'" mp3
by Steve Earle
from SideTracks, 2002.

"Truck Stop Girl" mp3
by Little Feat
from Little Feat, 1971.

"Truck Stop Girl" mp3
by Kelly Willis
from Rig Rock Deluxe, 1996.

"Truck Stop Girl" mp3
by The Byrds
from Untitled, 1970.

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***************** BONUS *********************
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Download:
"The Heart of California (for Lowell George)" mp3
by Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band
from Smokin' The Dummy, 1980.

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