Beat Punks -- the Beats are the Bridge

The transcendental tone of the Beat Generation represents a lineage backward and forward in the American arts, and the influence of the Beats is vast. In fact, the connections and shared influences between the Beats and rock music represents a pivotal time in American cultural history with the merging of genres, and Simon Warner’s work Text, Drugs, & Rock-n-Roll suggests the Beat Generation could be the bridge between the philosophical movement of transcendentalism and Thoreau in the early nineteenth century and the emergence of punk in the late twentieth.

The Beat Generation is another movement and sub-culture that has been researched and written about extensively, and in some ways its connections to the hippies and classic rock music of the 1960s would seem to defy a connection to punk. It’s well acknowledged and documented that the early punk musicians were quite literally reacting against what they believed had become a stale and unoriginal music industry that was more interested in status and money than in music. However, the Beats' connection to Thoreau and transcendentalism as well as their relationship with and influence on the rock music scene cannot be denied. With that in mind, the connection of the Beats as a transition for Thoreauvian ideas to work their way into contemporary music and, yes, later the punk music scene, is worthy of investigation and discussion. 

The Beats were most definitely a counterculture movement, perhaps one of the firsts to significantly impact a broader American history and definitely music culture. Warner does not miss the connection, and he explores the Beat influence on punk rock and punk culture in numerous ways. An important contribution is the discussion of Beat writer William S. Burroughs who was referenced as the Godfather of Punk before the term was later applied to Iggy Pop. Early punk musicians such as Patti Smith and Richard Hell certainly exhibit and acknowledge a connection to the Beats and to Burroughs. Of course, Allen Ginsberg is a more prominent connection to the punks, actually appearing on stage with Joe Strummer and The Clash in 1981. Ginsberg would later connect with bands such as Sonic Youth, and countless punk and post-punk or punk-adjacent musicians have mentioned an appreciation for Kerouac’s On The Road. 

Allen Ginsburg’s Howl is an iconic piece of American art that could be considered a perfect example of transcendental punk. The very title of Jonah Raskin’s book American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and the Making of the Beat Generation sounds like a punk story. And descriptions of that first reading by Ginsberg at Six Gallery in San Francisco in the fall of 1955 portray the emotionally charged and almost cathartic moment in the same way many people would describe a punk show. Considering the later emergence of the punk poet Patti Smith, and the post-punk careers of the Dead Kennedys Jello Biafra and Black Flag’s Henry Rollins on the spoken word circuit, the connection between transcendentalism, the Beats, and punk is almost poetic. 

Finally, the connection between the Beats and punk is a topic which has been explored before, notably by classic rock biographer Victor Bockris in his work Beat Punks: New York’s Underground Culture from the Beat Generation to the Punk Explosion. Through extensive interviews with artists such as William Burroughs and Patti Smith, Bockris draws a clear connection in how the punks drew from and were inspired by the Beats at the same time the Beats were drawn to the punk phenomenon. With a clear connection to transcendentalism in the Beat Generation literature, it’s clear that Thoreau can be seen as a godfather to both movements. Thoreau’s connection to and influence on the Beats is fairly well acknowledged, but the relationship with punk remains to be adequately researched.