Beat Punks

New York's Underground Culture from the Beat Generation to the Punk Explosion

Victor Bockris

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9781497653061
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Popular Culture in Art

The "poet laureate of the New York underground scene" chronicles three decades of electrifying artistic expression
Once dominated by Beat Generation writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, by the 1970s and '80s, New York City's creative scene had given way to a punk rock–era defined by figures like Debbie Harry and Richard Hell. While the aesthetics of these two movements seem different on the surface, author and prolific interviewer Victor Bockris—who witnessed it all—argues that the punks borrowed from the ideology and style of the beats, and that the beats were reenergized by the emergence of punk.
 
In intimate conversation, Bockris's close friends—including celebrities from both periods, such as William Burroughs, Andy Warhol, Joey Ramone, and Patti Smith—reveal more about themselves and their art to him than to any other interviewer. Along with dozens of rare photos, Bockris's interviews and essays capture the energy of this unique time.
 
 

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 The Patti Smith Interview
• 2 King of the Underground: The Magic World of William Burroughs
• 3 The Death Of Allen Ginsberg, By Rosebud Feliu-Pettet
• 4 National Arts Club Literary Award Dinner For Allen Ginsberg
• 5 Muhammad Ali On The Art Of Personality
• 6 Allen Ginsberg On Heroes
• 7 An Interview With Debbie Harry
• 8 An Interview With Marianne Faithfull
• 9 Susan Sontag: The Dark Lady Of Pop Philosophy
• 10 The Captain’s Cocktail Party: Dinner With Jagger, Warhol and Burroughs
• 11 An Interview With Keith Richards
• 12 An Interview With Our Greatest Satirist: Terry Southern
• 13 I Would Have Been A Soldier: An Interview With Nicolas Roeg
• 14 Blondie On The Bowery By Debbie Harry, Chris Stein And Victor Bockris
• 15 An Interview With Debbie Harry
• 16 Blondie Meets Burroughs
• 17 Burroughs On Punk Rock
• 18 Susan Sontag Meets Richard Hell
• 19 Notes Of A Punk Rock Groupie
• 20 Joey Ramone: A Literary Relationship
• 21 Andy Warhol The Writer
• 22 An Interview With Martin Amis
• 23 Berlin Rocks
• 24 Christopher Isherwood Meets William Burroughs
• 25 Robert Mapplethorpe Takes Off
• Image Gallery
• About the Author
• Copyright Page