How did Jack Kerouac influence Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo?
Arguably the most prominent writer of the Beat Generation, the legacy of Jack Kerouac boasts an extensive influence on culture. His work has been incredibly significant, from affecting the trajectory of modern literature to giving the counterculture its philosophical basis; with novels like On The Road, Kerouac whipped the future into place. By doing so, he escaped the page, and the area in which the novelist made the most indelible mark is music. From Bob Dylan to Nirvana, many of the most prominent artists have seen their art coloured by the late writer. After all, this should come as no surprise, given that he once wrote: “The only truth is music”.
Extending this demonstration of Kerouac’s effect on music is that he gave the ultimate countercultural act, the Grateful Dead, their philosophical grounding, a position which allowed them to challenge musical and personal mores. The group’s leader, Jerry Garcia, once said of the writer’s influence: “Kerouac became so much a part of me that it’s hard to measure.”
One of the most celebrated musicians impacted by Kerouac is the Sonic Youth guitarist and all-around artist, Lee Ranaldo. When speaking to MTV in 1997, he discussed how Kerouac’s work impacted him while also giving a brief account of how the Beats and music came to be associated.
Ranaldo explained that he believes the “slightly nebulous” connection came because of the advent of the atomic bomb. The existential threat posed by annihilation at the push of a button alerted the Beat Generation to the fact that they had to “maximise the now”.
“People are always trying to particularly correlate it [the work of the Beat poets] to the music,” Ranaldo said. “‘How does what they wrote inspire the music of today?’…The way I look at it, they were the first generation of youth that had this certain unique perspective on the 20th century that’s carried over into all of the youth movements that have happened since then.”
“They’re the first post-bomb generation that had the realisation that man could put his finger on the button and end it all, and what that does to your consciousness of the world and your place in it, and the fact that it’s so transitory that it could be over any minute and you have to maximise the now,” Ranaldo continued. “Even though they [the Beats] were the first to realise it, it’s sort of universal in a way. There hasn’t been a youth movement since then – ’60s, ’70s, ’80s – that hasn’t been informed by some of the viewpoints that some of those people originated.”
Ranaldo, who acted as an associate producer on the 1997 covers album of Kerouac poems, Kerouac: Kicks Joy Darkness, has been a devotee of the writer for most of his life. He then explained that he was turned onto the Beats in the same way as many other young hipsters looking for meaning in their lives. He said: “I took a trip across the country after high school in the mid-70,s and then when I got to college, I read (Jack Kerouac’s) On The Road, and my interest was just really focused on his work for a while, and it has been ever since.”
