And The Beat Goes On

Shortly after Kerouac's death and the murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson Family, the movement goes underground. Burroughs is commissioned to cover the Democratic National Convention by Rolling Stone. (Literary Outlaw) At the same event Ginsberg is there to protest the war in Vietnam. A riot breaks out and they garner the attention of the FBI.(popsubculture) The hippie ideals of peace, free love, and experimentation subside. The generation that grows up idolizing these writers themselves pass these works on to the underground.

The counter culture is still very much alive in the seventies. For many the early seventies just seem like the late sixties. This is very true in cities like San Francisco, New York, and London. Signs that the movement has not yet died become more evident in popular culture. A band by the name Steely Dan emerges in the rock music genre.(steelydan) The name is lifted from a bit in Naked Lunch.

It becomes cool to rebel. Many early punk bands cite the beat writers as inspiration for their music. The punk movement in the counterculture is a natural reaction to the failure of the hippies. The hippies are soft, middle classed, drug abusing, cause minded, and organized. Punks are hard, lower class, drug abusing, and anarchistic. They don't want to change the world from inside the system. They want to blow it up. Punk truly is anti-establishment. whatever was expected they do the opposite. In every sense of the term.

Clothes are used just to keep the fuzz from busting you for nudity. Everything can be fashion. From second hand clothes to trash bags, dog collars to army surplus boots. Hair becomes optional and in the poser crowd more of a statement to get noticed. Victorian manners are not questioned. They are ignored entirely. The music of the punk bands is eclectic. Velvet Underground has smooth poetic thoughtful songs. The Stooges are downright nasty and mean. The Ramones are brutally fast and energetic. There seems to be no particular sound to define the genre.(laurahird)

In 1970 Ginsberg founds the Jack Kerouac School For Disembodied Poets in Boulder, Colorado. He begins to gather more literary praise by winning a National Book Award for The Fall Of America in 1972. Ginsberg is then inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973. With Jack gone the media seems to shift it's attention to Allen. Burroughs becomes envious of Ginsberg's success. He becomes nomadic and shuns the United States for shunning him. In 1974 he moves back to America after twenty-four years abroad. In 1982 Burroughs gains critical praise by being inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.(popsubculture)

Ginsberg takes speaking engagements throughout the seventies and eighties. Allen tours with Bob Dylan in 1977. Burroughs takes any job that comes his way. With the aid of his new manager James Grauerholz he broadens his appeal. Burroughs takes a few acting jobs and begins to prefrom public readings of his works.

The beats become highly popularized in biographies and documentaries. It is not unusual for Allen to show up at a protest. also less unusual is for Burroughs to be spotted with Andy Warhol at Studio 54. William Burroughs makes guest appearances on Saturday night live and plays a junkie in Drugstore Cowboy. The beats are officially iconic.


Sources Cited:

Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S Burroughs New York. Henry Holt. 1988

http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/allen_ginsberg.html

http://www.steelydan.com/faq.html

http://www.laurahird.com/kingpunk2.html