DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

Welcome to our new series, “The Beat Goes On,” where we will celebrate the work and enduring influence of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and the other writers whom we identify as “The Beats.” - that crop of artists who worked to expand our consciousness, exploring the hidden possibilities of post WW2 America in the 1950s - Other significant names to be explored: Diane Di Prima, Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, Delmore Schwarz, Anne Waldman, Carolyn Cassidy, and many others.

We will also include jazz musicians like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie, whose sinuous Bebop lines influenced the expansive prose of Kerouac and poetry of Ginsberg, and comedians like Lenny Bruce, Lord Buckley, Brother Theodore and Dick Gregory with their scathing critique and unmasking of our nation’s hypocrisy beneath the self-deceptive rhetoric of American exceptionalism.  And, then there are their artistic children like Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, Tom Waits and Lou Reed…. The list goes on.

First off: we need to define that confusing term “beat”… Once the satirists were able to pin them down, the Beats and their devotees were labelled “Beatniks” (a cold war epithet) and put into a farcical box. This is where I, as a child, first became aware of them through the character of Maynard G. Krebs on the Dobie Gillis show. The child-like, pre-hippie with the dirty sweatshirt and goatee, indelibly played by Bob Denver, later of Gilligan fame. He was a gentle figure of fun, not to be taken seriously. 

But, the truth goes so much deeper. Kerouac defined Beat as short for “beatitude” - a state of grace, a codex for the maturing “peace and love” Baby Boom generation coming up - those in search of existence’s deeper meaning beyond the consumerist and war-like American culture being offered as our only option.

Well, boy, do we need them now! 

HENRY MILLER INTERVIEW

Our inaugural offering is a 1964 interview with the writer Henry Miller, of TROPIC OF CANCER, TROPIC OF CAPRICORN, and THE ROSY CRUCIFIXION TRILOGY fame, among many others. This is an insightful, in depth look at a artist of gargantuan influence. Miller was interviewed by Audrey June Wood  in Minneapolis during a speaking tour; he considered this interview to be one of his best. Miller discourses on some of his favorite books and authors and the struggle of writing well. It was released on Smithsonian/ Folkways Records.

Strictly speaking, Miller was not a Beat - he preceded them, and out lived many of them, making it to 88 in 1980, but he was their spiritual and artistic pathfinder.

Living hand to mouth, on the edge, abroad in Paris, writing free form in a raw, explicit, semi-autobiographical manner, telling the truth about sex, love, art, and struggle - he set the artistic compass for the Beats - as Dostoevsky and Walt Whitman had done before him. They are all part of a chain - a chain of searchers, and we are fortunate to have these lights to guide us on our own personal journeys to self realization. 

Please enjoy…THE BEAT GOES ON. 

Today we live in a cynical world. It’s pervasive, this debilitating disbelief in our institutions, our once assured tenets of groundedness. Now we doubt, not only what we see, but what we hear, and even our own thoughts. Are they indeed our own? Or, have they been shaped by the unrelenting marketers and influencers? Back in the 80’s - even earlier back in the 60’s the attitudes of boredom and mistrust seemed exclusively the province of old school Europe, in particular the French, who invented the perfect word for it: Ennui. The great bon vivant, George Sanders, in his suicide note explained that he was leaving his life because he was bored. 

In the following offerings we celebrate a time when cynics could be appreciated as unique and exotic. CYNICAL GIRL by Marshall Crenshaw proclaims the lure of nihilism in a poppy, irresistible interpretation. And, THEM TERRIBLE BOOTS by the Orlons makes fun of a wannabe fashionista at the crossroads of burgeoning Mod style. 

MARSHALL CRENSHAW

In Marshall Crenshaw’s 1982 eponymous debut album, CYNICAL GIRL chimed out so brightly it was a paused that refreshed. The singer wants a cynical girl who has no use for the real world, and this notion, wrapped in candy colored chords, invited us to embrace the “Debbie Downers” in our lives, and to realize there’s something comforting in the dark side. Maybe we could save each other. 

Crenshaw, the latter-day, second coming of Buddy Holly even portrayed the Proto-Rock God in “La Bamba” and charmed the world with his unapologetic cheeriness. But the euphoria couldn’t last. His debut outing achieved his highest chart position, but it was a bracing example of positivity while it lasted. 

THE ORLONS

This quartet of street-wise, Philly teens made the trsition from middlin’ Doo-Wop practitioners to dance craze mega stars with their triple crown of chart toppers: Wah Watusi, Don’t Hang Up, and South Street, evolving into one of Cameo-Parkway’s hottest acts. THEM TERRIBLE BOOTS from 1962 was the B-side to South Street, and rode that comet’s tail into recording history. It’s an evocative glimpse into that time when the cultural landscape was in transition from the staid 50s to the super-charged 60s. 

The aforementioned cynicism is reflected in the mockery to which the dude who is wearing the mod clothes is subjected.  But, he was just probably a bit ahead of his time. When the only male member, (and survivor) of the group, Stephen Caldwell, repeats the title phrase in his basso profundo, the whole salty world view clicks into place. 

BUKOWSKI SPEAKS!!!!!

"the best often die by their own hand
just to get away,
and those left behind
can never quite understand
why anybody
would ever want to
get away
from
them"

Bukowski writes with no apologies from the frayed edge of society.

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

Bukowski's response to: “Do you hate people?”

“I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around.”

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”

“We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”

“Bluebird” is one of Bukowski’s best-known poems and came late in his life during a time of great reflection. It deals with one of deepest-rooted human emotions: vulnerability.

Bukowski typically dealt with “hyper-masculine” subject matter, but this poem suggests that, like most men, Bukowski also struggled to live up to traditional notions of masculinity.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

This was published in Bukowski's book "The Last Night of the Earth Poems" circa 1992

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS

I've been keeping a diary and dream journal for ten years. 

Recently, I hit upon the idea of revisiting and recording passages of the diary in a quest to understand myself better by connecting the dots between dream life and the time awake.

The first episode explored 2024; this second entry revisits a passage from 5 years earlier.

It was the summer of 2019. I experienced an earthquake, a car accident, and the difficult birth of an original theater piece, which came to be known as "Toxic Shocks". 

The project was suggested in order to address some issues surrounding student's concerns, which will be enumerated within.

This necessitated a new approach to theatrical devisement (is that a word?) --, and I embraced the challenge wholeheartedly. Despite my being all in, things got a bit rocky.

The passages from the diary describe the difficult birthing process, and the effect on my dream life. 

It seems as though the 12 bar blues structure is an immovable object, an obelisk of sacred, ritualistic, totemic authority. But the form contains multitudes of variety. Here are two examples of the plasticity of that container, which holds the magic blues elixir and can pour it smoothly, or have it gush out, uncontrollably, like a tidal wave. So, be careful when you put your lips to the chalice … the edges can be sharp, and the liquid it delivers may be too intoxicating! 

Up first, we have Harvey Mandel, the “Snake”- a guitar wizard, brandishing and slashing his ax-cutlass like a pirate, as he boards equilibrium’s frigate docked inside your ear canal, with his own composition, 4pm; then, JB Hutto and the Hawks stagger through “Too Much Alcohol” like drunkards in search of another, much needed pint of medicine - with his razor sharp slide work JB illustrates those sensations perfectly, with an insistent, whimpering pulse.

HARVEY MANDEL

In 1967, Samuel Charters, for Vanguard records, in an early effort to reveal and showcase the second generation of Chicago’s blues scene,  produced harmonica master, Charley Musselwhite’s first album STAND BACK! HERE COMES CHARLEY MUSSELWHITE’S SOUTHSIDE BAND, and caused a literal big bang in the hearts and minds of American youth. 

This was Harvey Mandel’s first recording, and launched the notable guitar slinger for hire’s 60 year career, going on to join Canned Heat, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, recording many solo efforts, and landing one step away from becoming a Rolling Stone.   Known as “the King of Sustain,” our track, 4pm, showcases the longest sustained electric guitar note at age 21, a feat copied by Jimi Hendrix two years later. Harvey’s inventive style is trademarked, and you can hear those clarion notes ringing out like a buzz saw, transitioning from one amazing improvisation to the next. 

JB HUTTO AND THE HAWKS

The next cut, TOO MUCH ALCOHOL, also on the Vanguard label - featured on 1966’s Chicago / Blues / Today! Sounds almost like it could have been recorded in the previous century, when, fresh off the farm, players were captured in their first big city outings on lo-fi recordings - it’s that raw and spiky. And, yet, both Mandel and Hutto were breathing the same mid-60s Chicago air. 

JB’s slide style was influenced by Elmore James, of DUST MY BROOM acclaim, and he carried that torch forward. The son of a preacher from South Carolina, Hutto made his way to Chicago after his father’s death in the early 50s, but ended up working as a janitor for 11 years, until, in the mid 60s, he was discovered and unleashed on the world by Vanguard. 

In 2005, while visiting the gift shop at the downtown Los Angeles MOCA museum, I came upon a blank journal with a cover fashioned from a salvaged vinyl album by The Allman Brothers. It had the pink Capricorn label. As a lover of vinyl I grabbed it, and decided to begin a journal. 

It’s been ten years, and I’ve been keeping this diary and transcribing my dreams  ever since. Dreams, ideas for songs, and a chronicle of my family and interior life.  I always intended to go back and see if there was some sense of something to be made out of it, and this is the first attempt at that.

I hope you find it interesting. 

• Bill Mesnik, 2025

“The Interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. “ (Sigmund Freud)

“In contrast to the subjectivism of the conscious mind the unconscious is objective, manifesting itself mainly in the form of contrary feelings, fantasies, emotions, impulses and dreams, none of which one makes oneself but which come upon one objectively.” (Carl Jung)

"Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths. By finding your own dream and following it through, it will lead you to the myth-world in which you live. But just as in dream, the subject and object, though they seem to be separate, are really the same." (Joseph Campbell)

“One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.” (Salvador Dali)

DANNY KAYE: THE BENEFITS OF VERSATILITY

David Daniel Kaminsky (1911-1987), known to the world as Danny Kaye, was an entertainer that could do it all. He was as adept at pathos as he was at antic comedy, and he captivated audiences throughout the 1950s with his magic.  His signature patter songs, represented by our first number: Anatole of Paris, were crafted for him by his business partner and wife, Sylvia Fine, and together they made film and Broadway history. This is a fascinating connection that deserves a deeper dive.

Danny resembled my adored uncle Teddy, and I always associated them in my mind. They had similar profiles and hair styles, and I was delighted to discover that his people and mine emigrated from the same town in Ukraine. Throughout my early years Danny Kaye’s warmth and silliness provided a safe harbor against the anxieties of childhood. He was my ideal tutor in the film Merry Andrew, introducing the Pythagorean theory in song.

Early on in his career, in 1934, Danny toured Asia - and it was there that he discovered and developed his skill at entertaining audiences who didn’t speak English, a key to his popularity with kids of all ages. 

ANATOLE OF PARIS

This number comes from the 1947  film, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, adapted form James Thurber’s novel about the day dreams of a hen pecked magazine editor. Sylvia Fine worked up this ditty where Danny fantasizes that he is a French milliner who bedecks ladies in ridiculous hats - because, as we find out in the punch line -  he hates women.  

You can imagine the impish glint in Danny’s eye as he extrapolates on the outrages that he’ll commit to these chapeaux, and that’s one of the secrets of Danny Kaye’s success: the absolute delight he takes in wowing us with his lighter than air articulations. 

I WONDER WHO’S KISSING HER NOW

And, here comes the other side of this complex coin - the opening up and sharing of his soulful humanity. This recording, also from 1947, has Danny - ever so tenderly - crooning over a lost love. The song, composed in 1909 by Harold Orlob, for the Broadway play, THE PRINCE OF TO-NIGHT, became a standard. 

In the hands of the master, this rumination is akin to listening in on the singer’s private thoughts, as opposed to a performance. As we said in the intro, this artist could do it all, and here is but a sampling of his versatility.

The “Novelty” song has deep roots in popular culture. Masters of the form, like Weird Al Yankovic, Warren Zevon, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones, and Allen Sherman have illuminated our consciousness and tickled our sense of the absurd. How much WAS that doggie in the window?…., WTF is Marzy dotes and dozy dotes about?…,  They’re coming to take me away, Haha…(that one actually scared me). Probably each of us can recall from childhood some goofy ditty that either made you feel smarter, or got stuck inside your head like RFK’s brain worm. 

Let’s give thanks to Doctor Demento for archiving and disseminating many of these gems for future generations, and my introduction to Larry Groce’s Junk Food Junkie came from one of his collections. Jerry Blavat’s One More Time, Back to School may not demonstrate the same amount of cleverness, but its delivered lustily by one of the premier DJs of his time. 

LARRY GROCE

Junk Food Junkie comes from 1975, and is perfectly in key with today’s anti-woke sentiments. But, Mr. Groce delivers his mockery with such gentleness and good humor that it creates a universal warmth devoid of malice. Yes, he intimates, you can try to be upright and health conscientious, but the reptilian brain in all of us needs to be satisfied - even if it has to happen under cover of darkness.  Hypocrisy is the target here, and Mr. Groce, cast as the titular shlemiel, puts himself first in line for ridicule. 

JERRY BLAVAT

Jerry Blavat’s “Horatio Alger” story reads like a Martin Scorsese screenplay. His colorful bio, recounting his journey from son of a Philly bookmaker, valet to Don Rickles, mob-connected DJ and club owner, to broadcasting Hall of Fame icon, could be the stuff of a Netflix series. Known as “the Big Boss with the Hot Sauce,” and “the Geater with the Heater,” Jerry swaggered through his bigger than life life like a toreador. But, lest we forget - it was always his love of those Philadelphian musical goodies - that made him a beloved home town super hero. 

1965’s One More Time Back to School, on the Cameo Parkway label, is an fascinating glimpse into his inexhaustible energy. It’s delightfully sadistic as the singer declares the end of vacation time fun. Not only that, there is something in the edgy cacophony of its production, with the clanging cowbells, that evokes that end of summer feeling. 

What is it about a swing rhythm that sets hearts a flutter? It’s a universal truth. It may have started as an African secret formula, but it was co-opted and catapulted into white western culture by some hip caucasian standard bearers.

Here we’ll examine the psycho-physical connection through two seemingly unrelated musical delicacies: one by the undisputed titan of respectable jazz, and the other by a racially mixed group of Philadelphia teens who barely made it out before the doo-wop death spiral. Bongo Stomp, from 1962, by Little Joey and the Flips, doesn’t even feature real bongos (the drummer Jeff Leonard is simulating the jungle signature on his toms). But, it definitely swings. The other showcases legendary stickman, Gene Krupa, who showed the world his undeniable big swinging dick energy. 

BENNY GOODMAN

1938 was ground zero, the big bang, the crossroads of Jazz and its soon to be birthed step-child, Rock n Roll. Benny Goodman and his band played Carnegie Hall and made history. First as a cultural event, and later, when the live recording was released in 1950 as a double album which sold over a million copies. 

Bei Mir Bist Du Schöen is a defiantly wonderful conglomeration of Yiddish lyrics delivered by Martha Tilton- (remember, simultaneously, Hitler was ramping up his power in Europe) - and, an irresistible swing rhythm smoothly rendered - which breaks into a kind of super charged klezmer section. It must have been startling in 1938, and it hasn’t lost its power to captivate almost 100 years later. 

LITTLE JOEY AND THE FLIPS

By 1962, Doo-Wop was about to be consigned to the dust bin of History, along with the crooners that had dominated the previous decade. The British Invasion was about to begin, which would turn the record business on its head. 

But, just prior to that cataclysm, Joseph Hall and his 4 Pendleton wearing compadres arrive, dip dip dipping their striped hearts out, and they release this anomaly on Joy Records, which makes it to 33 on the charts. This was followed by only a couple more tries… then, oblivion. 

Maybe it was that swinging “bongo” break that lifted the Frankie Lymon-esque knock-off to its catchy heights? 

THE REVEREND OF KARMIC YOUTH-
1The Interpreter
2Starry Eyes
3For You
4Bloody Hammer
5The Wind And More
6Night Of The Vampire
7You're Gonna Miss Me
8I Walked With A Zombie
9Stand For The Fire Demon
10 When You Get Delighted
11 To Think
12 Warning
13 True Love Cast Out All Evil
14 Loving Isn't A Part Time Thing
15 The Looking Glass Song

As lead singer of Texas’ infamous 13th Floor Elevators — one of rock’s earliest, strangest and greatest psychedelic bands — Roky Erickson explored the far reaches of musical and personal extremes. The Elevators’ first two albums (Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators and Easter Everywhere, released, respectively, in 1966 and ’67) are essential classics whose far-reaching influence transcends genre boundaries. Following a nightmarish ’70s mental-hospital stint that reportedly had a devastating long-term effect on his mental health, Erickson’s subsequent work revealed a singularly brilliant songwriter and performer whose talent was no less impressive for the fact that he was singing about zombies, vampires and aliens. Indeed, the demons that abound in Roky’s songs are all-too-real reflections of his own troubled psyche, and the combination of the artist’s oddly poetic lyrical constructions and his bracing banshee wail makes it clear, as it wasn’t always, that he’s not kidding.

The Elevators fell apart in the late ’60s, when Erickson began a three-year stretch in a state mental institution to avoid criminal prosecution on a drug charge. He didn’t return to recording until the second half of the ’70s, with a string of one-off singles and the four-song Sponge-label EP (reissued in 1988 as Two Headed Dog). Three of the EP’s numbers were re-recorded for the 1980 CBS UK LP (the title of which is actually five unpronounceable ideograms). Roky Erickson and the Aliens is an excellent manifestation of his post-Elevators persona, expressing dark dilemmas through creepy horror-movie imagery. Roky sings such offbeat gems as “I Walked with a Zombie” and “Creature With the Atom Brain” in a tremulous voice that insists he’s telling the truth — or at least believes he is. Former Creedence Clearwater bassist Stu Cook turned in an excellent production job, bringing the hard electric guitars (and Bill Miller’s electric autoharp) into a sharp focus that underscores Roky’s excitable state. Erickson and band seem less unstable than the drug-crazed Elevators (best remembered for “You’re Gonna Miss Me”), but just barely.