Post #60240 by thejab on Sun, Nov 16, 2003 1:23 PM

On 2003-11-16 12:55, tikibars wrote:
Although I think you were addressing this to a different JT, I want to pipe in that Strummer and Waits are two of my hugest musical gurus as well. Although I do agree that Waits is the last true Beat, I don't think I can include Strummer in that category.

And not to contradict the mighty Jab, but my impression was that the Beats were serious writers of the late 40s and 1950s such as Keouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, et al, and the Beatniks were the trendy kids who were trying to emulate them?

Maybe seamus meant TJ (as in The Jab), not JT.?

You're not contradicting me because I agree with you JT! I was trying to say what you said, that beatnik was a media term applied to the followers of the beats in the 1950s, not the original beats. The black clothes, striped shirts, berets, sandals etc. were popular dress with Greenwich Village hipster types in the 1950s so the media used the look as the beatnik costume.

I was just reading a recent article on Joe Strummer in a magazine, and it explained how the man lived his life out of a bag, how he often stayed up all night drinking in bars with strangers, he liked to hang out with the gypsies who live in caves in Spain, he was a cartoonist and a writer, not to mention his songwriting and musician talents. It seems a lot like the beat lifestyle to me.

Chris Jarhead was beat. (shipwreckjoey may understand this).