Now For The Tricky Part

10,000 Maniacs “Hey Jack Keruoac” (Live in Los Angeles 1993)

“Hey Jack Kerouac” was written in an era when the Beats were most revered, since by the mid 1980s they had transcended mere personhood to become mythic figures representing ideals of artistry and freedom. Natalie Merchant approaches Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg in this song from a place of sympathetic critique – she does not seek to diminish their works, but she’s not blind to their ego and destructive tendencies or how that tended to impact people in their orbit more than themselves. Her goal here is simply to look at these writers as just men – to demystify them, to reveal their flaws, and in doing that, to approach them with empathy rather than awe. Merchant’s lyrics directly address them as though she’s a concerned peer asking difficult questions about what they took from others and what debts they’ve left unpaid.

Merchant’s vocal is bold and strident but has a touch of softness, a little tough love mixed with some joyful abandon at the end of the chorus when she evokes Ginsberg’s “Howl.” The music sounds as though 10,000 Maniacs were attempting to merge the strengths of The Smiths and R.E.M., like they were specifically trying to merge the best elements of “This Charming Man” and “Life and How to Live It.” It can be hard not to see this band as essentially the precocious younger sibling of those two, but a song like “Hey Jack Kerouac” works in part for the way it approaches their sensibilities and dynamics from a different angle. In a sense, Merchant and her band are examining their contemporary influences in the music as much as the lyrics reexamine influences from the not-too-distant past.

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