| 10,000 Maniacs – Hey Jack Kerouac Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I remember her explanations of it, and came here to hopefully get an actual quote she said about it. These are some of the things she had said about it: ----The song is yes, about The Beatniks, the Beat Generation. ---She was not at ll praising the writers of that group, but criticizing them. Snarky, satirical quips and digs on each of them. ---In referencing like "In Harlem, Howling at night", in particular, she was sort of blasting them for their unchecked racism, while and well-off privilege, where that line talks about African Americans being referred to as sub--human, 'howling'dogs. The "Chinatown' reference also is how they devalued and dehumanized Chinese-Americans. "You chose your words"from lost babies, is about how they were emotionally immature, druggies and drunks, total slackers, and petty, childish and biased, and their mother's and the nation mothering these over-wrought neurotic man-children. "Cool Junk"is a reference to drugs, as was 'stoned' , 'junk" Merchant stated that there was another song that took the same critical approach, the XTC song, "Beaten Generation", that went," The beaten generation, raised on a diet of prejudice and misinformation."---Privileged and putting others down, while being glorified drug addicts who hung out with prostitutes and didn't want to grow up, and basically stop being slackers. ---The song was taken to task for being somewhat homophobic : "Allen, why so jaded? Have all the boys grown up, beauty faded". ---She was sort of taking them all to task for their literary version of a sex,drugs and rock and roll band, ---The 'what a saint they made you like Mary" was called-out for seeming anti-Catholic, where Mexicans esp elevated the Virgin Mary to be their god.-- They were self-described stars, fame-seakers, who left others in their shadows, seeking fame and riches.---Hip-flask swinging mad men and cafe flirts, San Francisco boys" is about the burgeoning hippie and gay scene they were a part of, again, about sex drugs and their rock-n-roll lifestyle and goals. Their desire to gain celebrity, in a pre-social-media, pre-celeb world. It's a set of pot-shots really, to that groups and that scene : self-important, narcissistic playboys, who didn't challenged but instead supported the racism, classism, sexism, all the"isms' if you will. Tear-stained departure without goodbyes, how they were made into Marilny Monroe, Dean-types, the You left without saying goodbye,' sort of a"Don't let the door hit ya on your butt as you leave", bye Felicia-type angle to it. She did like their work, mostly, but not how they worked it, they becoming the intellectual stars known for their intentionally self-generated fame, and less so, about what they could have done, namely for one, counter racism, not support it. It was met with criticism for what seemed, and pretty-much was, a dressing-down of the BeatGen, and hyper-critical of them. pointed, catty, and critical of her criticalness. |
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| Live – They Stood Up For Love Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| so I am going to go out on a limb here.."They stood up for love, inspite of the hate" could be talking about the issue of un-accepted forms of love.. inter-racial marriage, for instance, as in the case that went before the Supreme Court in the 60's, brought by a inter-racial that wanted to have their marriage recognized legally, married couple actually named "Loving"..it could also be about the gay and lesbian movement to have our relationships also recognized legally in the eyes of the state. I don't think that is too much of an assumption, the guys are all about challenging ideas, and thinking deeper about issues.. | |
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