Hey Jack Kerouac, I think of your mother.
And the tears she cried, they were cried for none other
than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
and that dared to drag him down. Her little boy courageous
who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Hip flask-slinging madmen, steaming café flirts,
they all spoke through you.

Hey Jack, now for the tricky part.
When you were the brightest star who were the shadows?
Of the San Francisco beat boys you were the favorite.
Now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood-stoned days.
You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
The hip flask-slinging madmen, steaming café flirts,
nights in Chinatown howling at night.

Allen, baby, why so jaded?
Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?
Billy, what a saint they've made you,
just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' Day.

You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Cool junk-booting madmen, street-minded girls
in Harlem howling at night.
What a tear-stained shock of the world,
You've gone away without saying goodbye.

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Hey Jack Kerouac song meanings

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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.

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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danieln7oon August 01, 2017 Link
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@danieln7o

@danieln7o Congrats, this is the closest interpretation of the song since I heard it in the 80s. I have to correct you that it was The The that sang "The Beat(en) Generation" and that it was referring to the current generation at the time and not the beatniks.

mike113240on September 09, 2017

@danieln7o . Totally agree with your interpretation. Ginsberg was a pedophile and that shouldn't be forgotten. Jerks need to be called Jerks

rogomanon May 01, 2018

@danieln7o "Howling" is obviously a reference to Ginsberg's poem, Howl; Kerouac was present for the first public reading of it, and wrote a fictionalized account of that in Dharma Bums. That event happened to be in the Marina District, not San Francisco's Chinatown, but the Beats hung out in North Beach, which abuts Chinatown. The short alley between their old hangouts, the City Lights Bookstore and the bar Vesuvio, has been renamed Jack Kerouac Alley and it connects Columbus Avenue in North Beach and Grant Street in Chinatown. Simply saying that people who partied in Chinatown and Harlem were physically, geographically in Chinatown and Harlem is not calling out racism. There is not an atom in this song discussing racism, and your wall-to-wall 2017-isms like "privilege", "bye Felicia", and "slackers" are your perspective from yet another 30 years later, not in the song.<br /> <br /> This song mixes appreciation of their impact with frank criticism of their lifestyle; if she didn't appreciate them, she wouldn't have been writing a song about them thirty years later. In interviews, she says that she was "suspicious" of their activities, but she's looking at them with a mixture of admiration and empathy, not excoriating them.

rikdad101@yahoo.comon September 25, 2021

@danieln7o I agree with rikdad101. While YOU can [properly] call out the Beat Generation for their lack of attention to racism and I don't think Natalie Merchant was doing so. Instead she snarkily "roasted" many of the Beat icons. "Bille, what a saint they made you. Just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls Day" refers to William S. Burroughs accidentally shooting his common law wife in the head in Mexico while playing a game of William Tell. Merchant sets up each of the "Nobles" and promptly excoriates them. The "Alan, why so jaded" comment is obviously about Alan Ginsburg who was a NAMBLA man who chased after young boys. And the Jack Kerouac stuff about his mother referes to the fact that by 1966, Kerouac was a chubby little kid living in Florida taking care of his mother because of a deathbed promise he made to his father. Merchant hit the mark with this song

curtisandmon May 30, 2022

@danieln7o I agree with rikdad101. While YOU can [properly] call out the Beat Generation for their lack of attention to racism and I don't think Natalie Merchant was doing so. Instead she snarkily "roasted" many of the Beat icons. "Bille, what a saint they made you. Just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls Day" refers to William S. Burroughs accidentally shooting his common law wife in the head in Mexico while playing a game of William Tell. Merchant sets up each of the "Nobles" and promptly excoriates them. The "Alan, why so jaded" comment is obviously about Alan Ginsburg who was a NAMBLA man who chased after young boys. And the Jack Kerouac stuff about his mother referes to the fact that by 1966, Kerouac was a chubby little kid living in Florida taking care of his mother because of a deathbed promise he made to his father. Merchant hit the mark with this song

curtisandmon May 30, 2022