Beat Soundtrack #3: Jim Burns
In which prominent Beat figures, writers and critics, historians and academics, fans and followers, talk about the relationship between that literary community and music
Jim Burns is a poet, essayist, one-time editor of a couple of little magazines in the 1960s and 1970s and regular reviewer for Ambit (1963-2013) and Tribune (1964-1994). He has published several collections of essays, most recently, Modernists, Bohemians, Mavericks (2021). He now writes for Beat Scene and the on-line Northern Review of Books.
What attracted you to the Beats? When did you first encounter them? Do you have a favourite text, novel or poetry?
I saw them as another development in the history of bohemianism, a subject that always interested me from its roots in the 19th century (even before that, if Robert Darnton is right, and I think he is). And it's the literary side of bohemia that fascinates me – the novels, poems, memoirs, and the little magazines that published bohemian writers.
I don't have a ‘favourite text’ but Albert Parry's Garrets and Pretenders: A History of Bohemianism in America (1933, updated 1960) and Joanna Richardson's The Bohemians: La Vie de Bohème in Paris 1830-1914 (1969) have been with me over the years. And Kenneth Rexroth's long poem, ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’, was useful by naming some forgotten poets. But there are many other books I could name.
I first came across the Beats in the late-1950s, just after I came out of the army in 1957. Kerouac was in New World Writing, which was available in Britain, and Rexroth's essay, ‘Disengagement and the Art of the Beat Generation’, was also in the magazine. There was a wonderful memoir by Gilbert Sorrentino, ‘Remembrances of Bop in New York City, 1945-1950’, in Kulchur in the early-1960s in which he says (I'm quoting from memory), ‘Bop for me was the entry into the whole world of culture. When I was 14 culture meant going to the opera and doing your homework every night.’ It almost describes my experience in 1950 when I was 14 and found bebop.
What is the relationship between the Beat writers and music? How do you think that literary scene and musical sound connect(ed)?
I've never been too convinced about the relationship, and suspect that, insofar as it existed, it tended to be one-way, i.e. the writers were interested in jazz, but the jazz musicians weren't all that interested in the writing, if at all. I'm talking about the 1940s and 1950s and jazz, which is primarily an instrumental form.
As a writer or poet have you been shaped or influenced by Beat experiences?
No. I've always written a lot about the Beats because they interested me, but any influences came from other, sometimes older, sources. I've liked some Beat writing but never felt it would be natural for me to write that way.
Which musical artists from whichever era appear to make links with the Beat Generation – and how?
I can only talk about the Beats and jazz, and mostly about the 1940s and 1950s when Kerouac, Clellon Holmes, and a few more listened to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, etc. But bebop was always a minority music and I doubt that it appealed to more than a few fans, intellectuals, etc. But it was one way – the writers found the music of interest, but it's unlikely that many, if any, bop musicians were aware of the bohemian literary scene. They may have lived bohemian lives, travelling, scuffling to make a living, etc., but that was how it was and no-one thought it unusual.
Who are your own favourite singers, musicians and bands? Do they represent Beat ideas or attitudes in their lives and art?
Most of my listening is to band and musicians from the 1940s and 1950s. I've never been too interested in singers, apart from a few from that period, and prefer to hear instrumental music. I could name musicians and bands but it would take too long and they might not be names anyone recognised, apart from a few enthusiasts. Jeff Nuttall once said that my musical interests stopped in 1955 when Bird died. It was an exaggeration, but perhaps contained some truth. As the pianist Walter Bishop once said, it's bebop or bust for me.