{"id":1202,"date":"2008-02-06T15:26:15","date_gmt":"2008-02-06T19:26:15","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-11-15T14:46:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-15T18:46:12","slug":"poets-who-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/poets-who-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Poets Who Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><small><em>Giving new meaning to Beat Poetry&#8230;<\/em><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gZvzdzwPVZU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t profess to know a lot about <strong>poetry<\/strong>. I know it often rhymes and it&#8217;s got a meter. I know that it&#8217;s possible to memorize and recite it, although I&#8217;ve never been prone to such behavior. I know that when I was in school and had a teacher\/professor practically holding my hand through the reading of a poem, I occasionally felt inspired. But not enough to give up reading novels and sports and music biographies in favor of poetry. <strong>William Blake<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Songs of Innocence and Experience<\/em> lead my small collection of poetry volumes. I wish more poetry hit me as directly as that stuff does. I can see why rockers and poets have tried to work together over the years.<\/p>\n<p>Although poets have attempted to collaborate with rockers for some time, the difficulty of these forms merging hit me squarely when <strong>The Clash<\/strong> and <strong>Allen Ginsberg<\/strong> teamed to bring us <strong>&#8220;Ghetto Defendant&#8221;<\/strong>, from the as-if-it-was-not-already-disappointing enough <em>Combat Rock<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Clash with Allen Ginsberg, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/GhettoDefendant.mp3\">&#8220;Ghetto Defendant&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More on Mr. Ginsberg in a bit. Before moving forward, it&#8217;s important we distinguish between <strong>Rockers Who Poet<\/strong> and <strong>Poets Who Rock<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\nWe know of rockers who&#8217;ve tried their hand at poetry, even working their verse into their original rock compositions.<\/p>\n<p><small><em>If only we could do away with the poetic delusions&#8230;<\/em><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jSaVL26Ucik?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We know of rockers who&#8217;ve attained a degree of respect for their poetry, never quite attaining a natural feel for rock &#8216;n roll, instead sounding more like a beat poet reciting over rock &#8216;n roll arrangements than a full-fledged rock &#8216;n roller &#8211; sometimes successfully so, if you can imagine!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Patti Smith, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/PissFactory.mp3\">&#8220;Piss Factory&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s <strong>Jewel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><small><em>Do we really have to go there?<\/em><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dX3RnBlcUWw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s <strong>Gil Scott-Heron<\/strong>, who is thought to be a poet-musician but, who it may be argued is actually a musician-poet. According to a <a title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gil_scott-heron\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gil_scott-heron\" target=\"_blank\">bio I read<\/a>, he was in a band in college before taking a year off to write his first novel.<\/p>\n<p><small><em>Hey, is this even &#8220;rock?&#8221;<\/em><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uTCQSk2l8bc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Then<\/em> there&#8217;s <strong>Leonard Cohen<\/strong>, who definitely established his <a title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Leonard_cohen\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Leonard_cohen\" target=\"_blank\">literary cred<\/a> before becoming known as a poet who&#8217;s become best known as a rocker, of sorts.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Zqu3U05tkAw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In terms of Poets Who Rock, let&#8217;s agree to leave the questionable Scott-Heron and the possibly one-of-a-kind Cohen out of this.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\n<small><em>When do we explain this to the children?<\/em><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/npVZEOzotCE?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Poets Who Rock should be known as poets first. Preferably, their works were published before they entered a recording studio and became attractive a Celebrity Poets. <strong><a title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shel_Silverstein\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shel_Silverstein\" target=\"_blank\">Shel Silverstein<\/a><\/strong> fits these criteria and may be poetry&#8217;s greatest rocker! Generations of future rockers have grown up on the man&#8217;s poetry and drawings only to discover, years into their Postgraduate Rock Nerd studies, that &#8220;Uncle Shelby&#8221; was the writer of <strong>Johnny Cash<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;A Boy Named Sue&#8221; and <strong>Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Cover of the Rolling Stone&#8221;, among other popular songs. Hard to believe, Harry!<\/p>\n<p>The Beat Poets were natural crossovers for rock &#8216;n roll. <strong>Richard Hell<\/strong> even wrote a song inspired by the work of the Beats. We&#8217;ve touched on Ginsberg&#8217;s main contribution to rock, and I think we all agree that it&#8217;s best we <em>move slowly away from the scene of the crime<\/em>. But he&#8217;s not the only Beat Poet to have rocked out. <strong>William Burroughs<\/strong> did his share of recording with junkie\/hepcat\/boho rockers in the early &#8217;80s. You know this guy! What cool cat hasn&#8217;t gone through a phase in his or her early 20s at least pretending to dig the cut-ups of Burroughs, toting around a battered copy of <em>Naked Lunch<\/em> that&#8217;s already been in and out of used book stores a half dozen times?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Laurie Anderson with William Burroughs, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/SharkeysNight.mp3\">&#8220;Sharkey&#8217;s Night&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was one of those guys who looked at the pages in <em>Naked Lunch<\/em>, barely comprehending what I was reading, until my tenacity lead me to some other Burroughs writings that I did comprehend and much preferred to his acknowledged classic. I did like the film made from that book, though, and I do like his work on <strong>Laurie Anderson<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Sharkey&#8217;s Night&#8221;. He&#8217;s no Shel Silverstein as a poet-rocker, but he&#8217;s cool enough for the task at hand.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\nI&#8217;m sure I&#8217;m missing a half dozen or more Poets Who Rock, but let&#8217;s pause to appreciate British goofball <strong><a title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ivor_Cutler\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ivor_Cutler\" target=\"_blank\">Ivor Cutler<\/a><\/strong><del>, father of Henry Cow drummer Chris<\/del>.* I first heard Pere Cutler on <strong>Robert Wyatt<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Rock Bottom<\/em>, and he was previously approved with the highest of rock honors by his appearance in The Beatles&#8217; <em>Magical Mystery Tour<\/em> movie.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LddPuhzt0F4?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Pretty rockin&#8217;. He&#8217;s also the most rockin&#8217; thing in this Smiths video.<\/p>\n<p><small><em>Do we really have to go there?<\/em><\/small><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xGu8u17loko?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So tell me, can poets rock? Do they have a place in rock? What are the hurdles poets face when crossing over to the world of rock? What&#8217;s lost when poetry is set to rock music? What can be gained? I&#8217;m thinking of something like the <strong>James Joyce<\/strong> words set to <strong>Syd Barrett<\/strong>&#8216;s music for a rare, excellent mating of poetry and rock, &#8220;Golden Hair&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><small>*Contrary to Mr. Mod&#8217;s belief, there are other artistic people beside Bruce and Pete Thomas who share the same last name yet are not related. This would include Ivor and Chris Cutler, as The Great 48 kindly adjusted his Pince Nez to correct me, Randy Jackson and the other 5 Jacksons, and Ingmar and Ingrid Bergman.<\/small><br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\nDUH!!!!!! I almost forgot&#8230;<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lBbuPnfG0Vo?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/poets-who-rock\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/poets-who-rock\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/poets-who-rock\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/poets-who-rock\/4\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">4<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/poets-who-rock\/5\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">5<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giving new meaning to Beat Poetry&#8230; I don&#8217;t profess to know a lot about poetry. I know it often rhymes and it&#8217;s got a meter. I know that it&#8217;s possible to memorize and recite it, although I&#8217;ve never been prone to such behavior. I know that when I was in school and had a teacher\/professor <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/poets-who-rock\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[369],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}