Category Archives: Tom Waits

How Jack Kerouac Influenced Bob Dylan & More

Bob Dylan, books, Bruce Springsteen, essay, Grateful Dead, Jack Kerouac, jazz, lyrics, Michael Goldberg, Music, non-fiction, Patti Smith, poetry, Review, Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, Writing, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Cover of the upcoming “Kerouac On Record.”

In a 12,000 word essay, “Bob Dylan’s Beat Visions (Sonic Poetry),” that appears in the upcoming book, “Kerouac On Record: A Literary Soundtrack,” I explore how Bob Dylan was profoundly influenced by the Beat writers, and especially Jack Kerouac.

The book is being published by Bloomsbury and will reach book stores online and off on March 8, 2018. Rock’s Back Pages will be publishing an excerpt from my essay, and the April issue of Mojo magazine (see full review below) includes a rave review that says in part: “Among the strongest in a strong lot are Michael Goldberg’s examination of Dylan’s lit roots and Kerouac’s own musicological piece — ‘The Beginning Of Bop’ – that attempts to capture jazz in words – and succeeds.”

Nice to be mentioned in the same sentence as Kerouac!

In addition my Dylan piece, I also have an interview with writer (and one time rock critic) Richard Meltzer in which he talks at length about Kerouac.

The book also contains essays on the influence of Kerouac on a number of musicians including Tom Waits, the Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison, Van Morrison, Patti Smith and others. And there are excellent pieces about the influence of jazz on Kerouac’s writing style.

As we get closer to the publication date I’ll share more about this fascinating book.

Here’s the Mojo review in full:

Review in the April issue of Mojo.
  • A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post –

Video/Audio: Bob Dylan & Tom Waits on ‘Family Guy’; Tom Waits Sends Audio Oddities To Bob Dylan

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Some might find this silly, which it is, but it’s kinda funny too. Caricatures of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits on the cartoon, “Family Guy”:

As Bob Dylan tells it, he would let Tom Waits know in advance about the theme of an upcoming “Theme Time Radio Hour” and soon enough a cassette would arrive in the mail from Waits with the eccentric singer offering up some obscure but relevant info. Hear Waits talk about carrier pigeons, sacred body parts in rural China, the roots of the expression “baker’s dozen” and more.

Listen to Dylan and Waits:

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[Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]

— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —