Interview #3: Larry Beckett
A long-running British radio show will focus on a classic song of the West Coast rock era, a memorable collaboration between a poet-lyricist and his singer friend
It was in 1970 that ‘Song to the Siren’ first appeared on an album by the acclaimed LA singer-musician Tim Buckley, a track that combined his compositional and vocal skills with the lyrical talents of his friend Larry Beckett. Now, more than 50 years later, Soul Music, an enduring BBC Radio 4 series, welcomes their much-admired song to its pantheon of pieces of music that move, affect, reassure and, above all, possess a lasting power. Rock and the Beat Generation talks exclusively to Beckett, who recently published his epic poetry collection American Cycle, about a creative moment with which he remains ever-associated and which will be the subject of the show to be broadcast on December 4th, 2021…
Does 'Song to the Siren' still have special meaning to you?
In The White Goddess, Robert Graves defines the muse poet; after writing this song, I quickly came to see that I was one of them, 'in love with her crescent.'
Are you pleased to have the BBC focusing on this piece?
I'm so honoured to hear it on Soul Music.
How did your songwriting process with Tim Buckley work? Did he respond to your lyrics or did you respond to his musical ideas?
He'd compose music to my words; but soon after we started, it was as if by clairvoyance, where lyrics and melodies we'd made on our own fit together.
What was the inspiration for this song?
It was inspired by a real love. As that passion moved from life into art, the contingencies, whatever just happened to be, were cut away, leaving the archetype.
What meanings might lie within?
The lyrics stretch across time: past, 'And you sang’; present, 'For you sing'; future, 'Swim to me.' But if its meanings could all be spelled out, it wouldn't have lasted this long. It keeps its mystery.
You are a poet who draws on allusions and a wide palette of ideas – the Classical world, poetry beyond the West. The metaphor in 'Song to the Siren' was surely drawn from Homer. Would you like to say a little more about this?
The culture of the world, not just the West, is our heritage; we may connect to any hemisphere, any time. The existential gravity, the life-and-death, of Odysseus and the siren was an inspiration. The song poured out, with few revisions.
Where does poetry end and the lyric begin – or indeed vice versa?
Song is defined by its limits. It's to music, and that music may cover up the music of the language. It may be imprecise or cliched, and let the singing carry it. It tends to shorter lines, in stanzas, on a single page. It has a tradition of rhyme. It centres on one image, or feeling, or idea.
Poetry is in the sound of the syllables, their rhythm, with or without rhyme; it relies on one right word after another; it is the electricity between them; it's free to extend its lines, its pages. It thrives on complexity.
I've been working since the beginning on writing lyrics that work as song or poem.
Tim Buckley died tragically young. What might have been his prospects if that disaster had not struck?
He might have dropped out of the music industry, and then been re-discovered years later, coming back with even more experimental music.
Was he doomed or was he unlucky?
He was miserable inside his skin. He took chances till he got out of it.
Pictured: Tim Buckley, co-composer of ‘Song to the Siren’, who died aged 28 in 1975
Will US listeners also be able to access the BBC radio documentary?
Yes, at this website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00127bz
American Cycle has been attracting some amazing reviews. What are your feelings about that project, decades in the making, now you have completed the piece?
It was a vague dream, half a century back, of a book that didn't exist, an American epic. I worked as hard on research as on composition; I wanted to keep faith with dead heroes and ways of life. None of the long poems was published for forty-five years. To have the whole Cycle bound together in a book – I’m ecstatic: the dream’s come true.
Is it a millstone off your back or is it a stepping stone to new writing adventures?
It's like a rolling stone. When I finished the last poem, I found it hard to stay in balance without a long project, so I started working on a three-act stage play in verse, White Clouds.
Thank you, Larry, sharing these thoughts with us. And we look forward to hearing the radio broadcast.
Notes: Rock and the Beat Generation wrote about American Cycle in the article, ‘Beckett’s complete life cycle’, which was published on October 11th, 2021.
Larry Beckett, a lifelong follower of the Beat writers, published a book called Beat Poetry in 2012 and also contributed a chapter on Kerouac’s poetry to the book Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack (2018), edited by Warner & Sampas.