The unheralded college rock band the Dharma Bums garnered a passionate cult of fans, especially in their hometown of Portland, OR, but the group broke up just when the Pacific Northwest was attracting media attention for its underground music scene. The Dharma Bums were essentially a reunion of  the Watchmen, a band formed by Jeremy Wilson (vocals), Eric Lovre (guitar), and Jim Talstra (bass) in high school.  The Watchmen gained a following in Oregon by covering '50s rock and new wave hits alongside their own tunes. However, the Watchmen split up when Lovre and Talstra graduated from high school. In 1984, Wilson started another group, Perfect Circle. Unlike the Watchmen, Perfect Circle only performed original songs. A year later, Perfect Circle shared a bill with the Young Fresh Fellows at a club in Portland. Wilson was introduced to producer Conrad Uno and the Young Fresh Fellows' frontman Scott McCaughey; his band was given an offer to record in Seattle, WA, but they splintered before that could happen. After he graduated in 1986, Wilson moved to Portland and asked Lovre and Talstra if they wanted to jam. The trio recorded four songs in one evening at a farmhouse. Originally calling themselves the Afterludes, they changed it to the Dharma Bums and added drummer John Moen from Perfect Circle. The group used money from sold-out gigs in Portland to visit Seattle and see if Uno was still interested. The Dharma Bums' studio sessions with Uno led to a contract with his label, PopLlama. In 1988, PopLlama released the Dharma Bums' first album, Haywire. "Boots of Leather" was a smash on college radio. The band signed a deal with Frontier in 1989. The group recorded two more albums and then disbanded in 1992. Wilson formed Pilot in 1993. - AMG

It was at a Bums concert at the Satyricon nightclub in Portland that Kurt Cobain first met Courtney Love. -Wikipedia

"See the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures." - The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac


A lot of people consider this Jack Kerouac's second best novel. Published in 1958 as the follow-up to 'On the Road', 'The Dharma Bums' is a more spiritual (not religious) work about a group of writers close to literary fame and flying on a Buddhist kick, inspired by the zany Zen Japhy Ryder, who is to 'Dharma Bums' like the leader of lunacy Dean Moriarty is to 'On The Road'.  Virtually all Kerouac's novels are about his friends, and 'Dharma Bums' is no exception. Japhy Ryder is Gary Snyder (San Francisco poet and recepient of many literary awards, among them the Nobel prize for his 1974 'Turtle Island'), Alvah Goldbook (who reads a poem called 'Wail') is Allen Ginsberg (author of 'Howl'), and Neal Cassady (the poet-hustler who gave Jack Kerouac his "voice" for 'On The Road') makes a few brief appearances, not as Dean Moriarty, but as Cody Pomeray. Kerouac himself is represented as Ray Smith. Furthermore, 'bow-tied wild-haired old anarchist fud' Rheinhold Cacoethes is Kenneth Rexroth (a poet-essayist-philosopher who probably should be best known for his work "Thou Shalt Not Kill' in honor of Dylan Thomas), 'big fat bespectabled quiet booboo' Warren Coughlin is Philip Whalen (a Buddhist Abbot/Beatnik Poet)... let's just say that Jack poaches a lot of his characters from off his own farmland.

It begins with Ray Smith bumming a ride to the San Francisco Bay Area on a freight train. He shares a boxcar with a hobo who shows him a slip of paper containing a prayer by Saint Teresa. This is the first of several Dharma Bums we meet in this work. 'Dharma' is one of the most important words in the Hindu and Buddhist religions. It basically means 'your spiritual duty,' or 'your place in the universe.' A Dharma Bum is a bum because it is the right thing for him to be, because by being a bum he is fulfilling a spiritual duty greater than himself.

Ray Smith arrives in Berkeley, where he lives with Alvah Goldbook and hangs out with Japhy Ryder. The three of them spend most of their time hanging around the house arguing over whose brand of Buddhism is most enlightened, and their conversations provide some of the funniest scenes in all Kerouac's books (well, Kerouac is not known for his humor). When Japhy Ryder brings a beautiful girl named Princess over for a clothes-optional session of 'yabyum,' Ray Smith is frozen in confusion, unable to reconcile his  sexual desires with the spiritual consciousness Japhy Ryder is trying to introduce into his life.

The contrast between Ryder's and Smith's approaches to spirituality is the main theme of the novel. Japhy Ryder is a cool-as-a-cucumber Zen Buddhist, calmly conducting tea ceremonies, inventing haikus, and arranging sessions of yabyum with beautiful women. Ray Smith is a strict no-nonsense Theraveda Buddhist, viewing life as an all-or-nothing battle between lustfulness and purity. He hasn't had sex in a year, believing sexual desire to be an obstacle to enlightenment. The drastic nature of Smith's religous choice (think of Soren Kierkegaard and his "absolutes") means that his Buddhism is a constant source of internal strife, in contrast to Ryder's matter-of-fact, intuitive acceptance of Eastern ways. Ryder is living as a Buddhist, but Smith is 'wrestling with' Buddhism, and thus his experience with it is far more intense  than Ryder's, even though Ryder is an 'expert' and Smith a novice.

Goldbook makes it a trinity of ideas: he views the ascetic Buddhist principles as an unnecessary intrusion into his fun life of sex, drugs, good food, warm beds and all the other things that make life worth living. He understands and respects the Buddhist religion, but is hoping to put off changing his life for it as long as possible. Buddhism was a "trend" at this time, and Allen Ginsberg reacted to it in much this manner, later accepting it and taking the religion much more to heart.

Japhy Ryder and Ray Smith go off to climb the Matterhorn Peak, a tall and challenging mountain in the High Sierras. They bring a friend, Henry Morley (in real life, John Montgomery), who provides comic relief by doing everything wrong. The writing is wonderful here -- Kerouac's description of the mountain and the climbing process is bright, vivid and intensely personal. You can feel the howling wind as Smith clings to a depression in a rock only a hundred feet from the peak, terrified to take another step. When they're back down at the camp, you can just taste the bulgar wheat porridge with bacon, and later, the pancakes with maple syrup they find at a restaurant back in town.

The whole climb is symbolic, of course. That's why it's poignant and significant that Smith clings to a rock near the peak (clinging is a Buddhist metaphor for failing to give up your vain desires) while Ryder makes it to the top alone.

Back in Berkeley after the idyllic outing, Smith plunges back into the city world of misery and maya (the Buddhist word for illusory distractions). Cody Pomeray (who plays a diminished role in this book, as if to emphasize the fact that Kerouac is now under the influence of the peaceful Gary Snyder, not the crazed Neal Cassady) asks Smith to look after a girlfriend who's been acting very weird. Smith tries to talk to her but they don't click, and under his care she suddenly kills herself.

Smith goes East to stay with his family. A rather conventional and donineering bunch, they depress him with their petty lives, and he expresses his feelings by camping out on the porch instead of sleeping inside in a bed. He gets in a fight with his brother-in-law, who forbids him to play with his dog anymore. (If this all seems like typical adolescent family-related angst, keep in mind that Ray Smith is in his mid-thirties at this point.)

The torments continue:  Smith returns to Berkeley, but he's sick of hitchhiking and hopping freight trains. He hooks up with Japhy Ryder, but Japhy seems depressed himself, and mumbles something about wanting to get married and make a lot of money. But Japhy and Smith manage to ride this out, and after a while everything's swinging again. Japhy's going off to Japan, and Smith meets his charming family at an uproarious farewell party.

The book ends with Smith following in Japhy's footsteps by travelling to the North Cascades Mountain range in the Pacific Northwest to spend a season as a fire lookout. Japhy had told him stories about these mountains and the forest rangers he knew there, and Smith is thrilled to experience it all on his own. He is led by another Dharma Bum, Happy the Mule Skinner, up to the top of Desolation Peak, where he will live in a small cabin by himself. The last few pages are wonderfully descriptive and happy; Smith has found his own inner peace, at least for a while. We leave him in a state of ecstasy, falling to his knees to say a happy prayer of thanks for all the beautiful nature around him.

This work brazenly leads us through smokey jazz clubs, solitude, intoxicating poetry readings, sacred rites, post-twenty-something angst, sexual yearning, the great outdoors, drunken parties, familial politics, personal enlightenment and disillusionment, hiking and hitch-hiking, the ability to examine one's life, letting go, and the acceptance of one's own purpose.  The characters in this work are not just interested in spirited hijinks, but a spiritual quest.

The Dharma Bums also foretold the soul-searching and consciousness-probing of such writers as Ken Kesey ('One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest') and LSD Guru Timothy Leary.

"A vivid evocation of a part of our time" New York Post

"A descriptive excitement unmatched since the days of Thomas Wolfe"--The New York Times Book Review

"Lysistrata" was released on the Utopia album Swing To The Right - a release that is part sarcastic social commentary and part hopeful plea for the world.  Many of the songs reflect attitudes about the Reagan era, but  a dyed-in-the-wool conservative can't find the message completely obnoxious or arrogant, even though they sometimes comment on money and greed in society or moral flexibility in the recording idustry.  Left to stand alone, the songs themselves are good, especially "Lysistrata".




Aristophanes was a genius of Greek comedy.  He firmly believed that one could drive home a good point by making the audience laugh.  They had to think to laugh, yes?  And no one could more fully develop a good comedy than he, using not just a masked chorus, but the scenery and its machinery as well as the dialogue and the style revealed therein.  It was said that his comedies borrowed much from tragedy but, "retained the Phallic abandonment of the old rural festivals, the license of word and gesture, and the audacious directness of personal investive."

Aristophanes was not alone in these charateristics; he borrowed from many of the older comic poets who could be called his mentors.  By giving himself a free hand with the bold practical jokes and a wink at bawdy humor, he had honed his art towards a heady refinement to which he boasted no peers to his noble wit.  His opinions, however conservative, were never far from a surface frothy with very effective political satire.  His critics were quick to point out that he was neither accurate nor impartial, but he was certainly a patriot.  He genuinely loved Athens, and this love meant he had the right to point out things that could be improved and to work for its improvement, something that modern-day patriots could learn from in our "love it or leave it" society.  Like any great comic poet, Aristophanes could find wit at the expense of himself or his friends, willing to be educated by his times.  The ability to create lyric beauty ranks him amongst the best of the poets.

His critics called him, "an unmannerly buffoon," which was probably one of his many faults.  At times, Aristophanes felt it necessary to stoop to conquer, his work seemed coarse in order to appeal to the general populace.  But even this indecent buffoonery brought such power to his work, and told truths to the people.  He said that it merely brought his art to perfection and that he did not court the laughter of the multitudes.  His predecessors certainly held themselves to a higher moral ground than did Aristophanes, and when viewed by the patrician tenents that ruled the arts later, his work was no doubt offensive.  In respect to the the times, the free hand he used was perfectly appropriate. 

One is reminded of a scene in the film "Amadeus" in which Mozart lectures his benefactor on the works of previous composers, saying their operas make it seem as though they "shit marble."  When his audience is shocked, he remarks, "Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not."  The same could be said of Aristophanes.

In Praise Of Aristophanes:

The strongest testimony in favor of Aristophanes is that of Plato, who, in one of his epigrams, says that "the Graces chose his soul for their abode." The philosopher was a constant reader of the comedian, sending to Dionysius the elder a copy of the Clouds, from which to make himself acquainted with the Athenian republic. This was not intended merely as a description of the unbridled democratic freedom then prevailing at Athens, but as an example of the poet's thorough knowledge of the world, and of the political conditions of what was then the world's metropolis.

In his Symposium, Plato makes Aristophanes deliver a discourse on love, which the latter explains in a sensual manner, but with remarkable originality. At the end of the banquet, Aristodemus, who was one of the guests, fell asleep, "and, as the nights were long, took a good rest. When he was awakened, toward daybreak, by the crowing of cocks, the others were also asleep or had gone away, and there remained awake only Aristophanes, Agathon, and Socrates, who were drinking out of a large goblet that was passed around, while Socrates was discoursing to them. Aristodemus did not hear all the discourse, for he was only half awake; but he remembered Socrates insisting to the other two that the genius of comedy was the same as that of tragedy, and that the writer of the one should also be a writer of the other. To this they were compelled to assent, being sleepy, and not quite understanding what he meant. And first Aristophanes fell asleep, and then, when the day was dawning, Agathon." - Wikipedia, Divine Comedy


"However corrupt and vulgar Aristophanes may have been, however much he may offend decency and taste in his individual jests, yet we cannot refuse him the praise of the carefulness and masterly skill of the finished artist. His language is infinitely graceful; the purest Atticism prevails in it, and he adapts it with great skill to all tones, from the most familiar dialogue to the lofty flight of the dithyrambic ode. We cannot doubt that he would have also succeeded in more serious poetry, when we see how at times he lavishes it, merely to annihilate its impression immediately afterward. This elegance is rendered the more attractive by contrast, since on the one hand he admist the rudest expressions of the people, the dialects, and even the mutilated Greek of barbarians, while on the other, the same arbitrary caprice which he brought to his views of universal nature and the human world, he also applies to language, and by composition, by allusion and personal names, or imitation of sound, forms the strangest words imaginable. His versification is not less artificial than that of the tragedians; he uses the same forms, but otherwise modified, as his personages are not to be impressive and dignified, but of a light and varied character; yet with all this seeming irregularity he observes the laws of metre no less strictly than the tragic poets do." - Temple Classics



In praise of Todd Rundgren & Utopia:

"Then I was afforded a listen by my friendly neighborhood record store clerk...I liked it immediately, but I was never a big fan of Todd Rundren before this. "Lysistrata" is a personal favorite, 'cause that's actually what is sorta what's happenin', but no one's had the...uh...chutzpah to say it...Listening to this now makes one realize that things have not changed that much from them Reagan years, the game's the same but the faces have changed...also, do we have anybody besides these boys and Joanie Baez to lay it on the line and tell the people the real deal?" - Amazon/CDNOW Review


"I didn't realize when I was in high school how these songs would follow me in life. Brilliant; atypical Todd Rundgren... A sleeper in the best sense. You should have this in your CD collection. A precursor to bands such as BNL and Phish, Utopia's sense and sendiments can be shared and felt by all who listen." - Amazon Review

"Lysistrata" is worth the album price alone." - Prog Archives

"Lysistrata" is certainly another great tune. A story from Greek mythology about a woman who won't let her man go off to war; "You love me too much just to let me die." And she succeeds; "Tell the troops it was a false alarm, 'Cause if I die I want to be in your arms."...The content is a heavy focus on social, political, and economic issues of the time. The lyrics are more outwardly focused than other Todd and Utopia albums. Swing is more difficult to digest than some smoother Utopia products such as Adventures and POV. But it contains many strong points and is a solid part of the Utopia catalog. Hear a different sound."   - E.G. Todd Rundgren Connection

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun  
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:  
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;  
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.  
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,          
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;  
And in some perfumes is there more delight  
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.  
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know  
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:   
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—  
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:  
  And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare  
  As any she belied with false compare.  
-Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

In his book 'Nothing Like The Sun', Anthony Burgess writes about Shakespeare's romantic life as reflected in his writing, most especially in the sonnets.

"Implicitly, Burgess is making the case that Shakespeare's talent had its origin in his sexual drives and that his topless towers of words were founded on his immense desire and will. Fascinated but resistant, I reread the sonnets and found that the novel illuminated them so much as to justify his case. This is to me a measure of Burgess's talents--that he can remake reality not only in his own writing but also in a new perception of the writings of his subject."—New York Times Book Review

Sister moon will be my guide
In your blue blue shadows I would hide
All good people asleep tonight
I'm all by myself in your silver light
I would gaze at your face the whole night through
I'd go out of my mind, but for you

Lying in a mother's arms
The primal root of a woman's charms
I'm a stranger to the sun
My eyes are too weak
How cold is a heart
When it's warmth that he seeks?
You watch every night, you don't care what I do
I'd go out of my mind, but for you
I'd go out of my mind, but for you

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
My hunger for her explains everything I've done
To howl at the moon the whole night through
And they really don't care if I do
I'd go out of my mind, but for you

Sister Moon
-Sting
From The LP 'Nothing Like The Sun'

...Nothing Like the Sun is a 1987 album by Sting. The title comes from Shakespeare's Sonnet #130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"), which Sting used in the song "Sister Moon". He added that his inspiration for this was a close encounter with a drunk, in which Sting quoted the sonnet. - Wikipedia


Sting's song highlights the joy of Shakespeare's loving this perfectly imperfect woman.  He shows the realization of one's limitations to be that of fragile beauty rather than a coarse sensualism.  We lift our faces to feel the warmth of the sun, knowing all the while the harm that it can do, but loving it nonetheless.  We appreciate the beauty of a moonlit night, all the while knowing the it accompanies the crashing tides.

Shakespeare uses a precise form of poetry - a sonnet with its exacting rhyme scheme, to describe his love of an imperfect woman.  He can look at her objectively, see her faults; and yet recognizing her faults makes his love for her all the more precious, wonderfully rare in its own form.

He does not adopt the manner of a swept-away lover when he writes, comparing his love to a summer's day or a beautiful flower and judging her superior.  He looks at his world with knowing eyes and sees all about him for what it truly is...loving it all the more for its shortcomings.

Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all the kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on.
I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why.

Lyrics From "The World I Know"
By Collective Soul

As it has been stated many times in different interviews and biographies, the band Collective Soul took their name from a phrase in the ground-breaking novel The Foutainhead by Ayn Rand.  In her novel, Rand explores the philosophy of objectivism, wherein she tells the story of idealistic Howard Roark, an architect who struggles to be an individual, and the tumultuous affair he has with the woman who is trying to destroy that individual.  He struggles against all things conventional, and she battles against everything he stands for, while making her violent opposition appear effortless.

Howard is a wonderfully brilliant individualist who bravely stands against those who have mortgaged their souls to fit in with what society feels is honest, forthright, and creative.  When a wealthy publisher commissions Howard to build him a "fortress", a "treasury", a "temple", he says he wants a "separate world" with that "Roark quality", he has recognized Roark's gift of individuality, his vision.

Another lovable character in the work is a playwright named Ike, who seeks to write for the common man and fights to protect his work from the politically correct, self-congratulatory critics and intellectuals of the day who told him his play was "so awful it's wonderful."  Poor Ike defends himself in the only way cynical intellectuals can understand, "If Ibsen can write plays, then why can't I?  He's good and I'm lousy, but that's not sufficient reason."



From The Publisher:
First published in 1943, this best-selling novel is a passionate defense of individualism and presents an exalted view of man's creative potential.


While preparing this article, I began reading the writings of various critics and fans, one who mentioned Rand's talents as a satirist, "which are very considerable, have escaped the notice of almost everyone who has commented on her work. Do you recall the episode in The Fountainhead in which all the mediocre architects in New York City attend a costume ball for which they dress up as their "best buildings"? Peter Keating, perhaps the most mediocre architect of them all, is

"the star of the evening. He looked wonderful as the Cosmo-Slotnick Building. An exact papier-mâché replica of his famous structure covered him from head to knees; one could not see his face, but his bright eyes peered from behind the windows of the top floor, and the crowning pyramid of the roof rose over his head; the colonnade hit him somewhere about the diaphragm, and he wagged a finger through the portals of the great entrance door."

Like Ike the playwright, the architects try to project themselves as individuals, but they cannot do so proudly and decisively. What they can do is produce a very American combination of pretentiousness and self-abasement. The architects are so proud of their buildings that they pretend to be their buildings, effacing themselves so that their bright eyes barely peer from behind the windows of their top floors. But it's all in fun, you know; it's one of those jokes we play on our own individuality. The architects are disappointed only because Howard Roark, the true individualist, refuses to attend."

In one dramatic scene of this novel, Howard is put on trial to determine whether he is an American hero or an American villain.  His individualism vindicates both Howard and America, allowing his alienation to color his opinions as he looks at things from "outside".  His love of individualism (and everyone's conformity in order to achieve it) also allows him to argue  forgiveness for an America that wants an ideal so badly that's all it sees when it looks in the mirror.  According to him, our country,

"was based on a man's right to the pursuit of happiness. His own happiness. Not anyone else's. A private, personal, selfish motive. . . . Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Now, in our age, collectivism . . . has reached a scale of horror without precedent. It has poisoned every mind. It has swallowed most of Europe. It is engulfing our country. I am an architect. I know what is to come by the principle on which it is built. We are approaching a world in which I cannot permit myself to live."

To Howard, being an individual meant having an objective, artistic vision, being true to himself, understanding motivations and complexities, seeing others without prejudice or agenda, standing apart so he could see clearly, being faithful and standing up for what he believed.  Howard Roark's individualism was his integrity.

From the time that Rand published The Fountainhead, it was heralded as a significant work - a metaphysical statement, "an aesthetic manifesto" - a literary assessment.  It was boldly pointed out that, unlike other monotonous novels of the time, not one page of The Foutainhead could be mistaken for any other page of the same work.

Rand was often criticized for "simplistic" points of view or "one-sided" thinking.  This, however, is not evidenced in The Fountainhead, which gives us a clear vision of Roark's highly-principled thinking and building, with little subtext.

Situations have ended sad,
Relationships have all been bad.
Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud.
But there's no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.

Words and Music by Bob Dylan
1974,1975 Ram's Horn Music

From Wikipedia:

Two of the most important figures in modern poetry, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud were 19th-century lovers whose lives fueled by absinthe and adventure have made them icons among queer and heterosexual counterculturalists alike. The lives of the pair, which included a two-year romance, embodied Rimbaud's belief that poets should become visionaries through intense experience leading to the "derangement of all the senses."

Paul Verlaine was born in Metz, France, in 1844. The son of an army captain, he received his education in Paris. He studied law, but gave it up and entered the civil service. In 1870 he married Mathilde Mauteá, a beautiful and wealthy young woman he did not find intellectually compatible. By 1871 Verlaine had become a poet of some renown within Parisian literary circles.

Arthur Rimbaud, 10 years Verlaine's junior, was born in Charleville, France, in 1854. Also the son of an army officer, he was raised by his stern mother after his father deserted the family when he was a boy. Rimbaud excelled in school and was regarded as a prodigy; his poetry was first published when he was 15. Bored with small-town life and driven by a thirst for adventure, Rimbaud ran away from home in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and lived as a vagabond.

In 1871, 16-year-old Rimbaud sent a selection of his poems (including his most famous work, "The Drunken Boat") to Verlaine, who was so impressed he paid the young man's way to Paris. There the two embarked on a stormy relationship that scandalized the bourgeois literati. Rimbaud was crude and arrogant, given to drug use and public outbursts. Verlaine frequently abandoned his wife to spend time with Rimbaud. He had a fondness for absinthe and was often drunk. When inebriated he was abusive toward Mathilde, but when sober he regretted his behavior and insisted he loved her.

Verlaine and Rimbaud traveled around France, Belgium, and England, settling for a time in London. In 1873, tired of Rimbaud's insults and bouts of meanness, Verlaine abandoned him in London and fled to Brussels. Penniless, Rimbaud begged Verlaine to take him back in a series of letters. "Do you think that your life will be happier with other people than it was with me?" he wrote. "It is only with me that you can be free."

Together again in Brussels in the summer of that year, Verlaine shot Rimbaud in the wrist following a drunken argument. During his trial for the shooting, Verlaine was examined by court physicians who pronounced that he "bears on his person the signs of active and passive pederastic habits." Verlaine spent two years in prison, where he reclaimed the Catholic faith of his youth. In prison he wrote Songs without Words about his relationship with Rimbaud. "Here are fruits, flowers, leave, and branches," he wrote. "And here is my heart, which beats only for you." The two men met again in Germany after Verlaine's release in 1875, but never rekindled their relationship.

Verlaine, by now divorced, embarked on a life marked by periods of drunkenness and debauchery alternating with remorse and repentance. He taught French and English for a time and made unsuccessful attempts at farming. He became involved with a student, Lucien Leátinois, with whom he lived and traveled. Suffering from many ailments, Verlaine spent an increasing amount of time in the hospital in his later years, dying in Paris in January 1896.

After parting ways with Verlaine, Rimbaud returned to his family's farm and finished writing A Season in Hell, based on his time in Paris. But by the time he was 20, Rimbaud had stopped writing. Still seeking new experiences, he traveled throughout Europe. He joined the Dutch army in 1876, but deserted in Indonesia. For 10 years, until 1890, Rimbaud lived in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and Aden (now part of Yemen), working as a trader and gunrunner. He developed cancer of the knee that required amputation of his right leg and died in Marseille in November 1891.

As originators of the Symbolist school of poetry, which focused on the imagery rather than the concrete meaning of words, Verlaine and Rimbaud greatly influenced modern literature. Although commonly thought to be the less talented of the two, Verlaine had become a celebrated poet by the time of his death, and thousands joined his funeral procession. Rimbaud - who André Breton called the "God of Adolescence" - was not famous during his lifetime, but later came to be regarded as a godfather of Beat poets and punk rockers, inspiring artists such as Henry Miller, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, and Patti Smith.

****

It should be noted that the habitual use of absinthe is detailed in the above biography.  Absinthe is a liquor with a high alcohol content distilled from wormwood that was enjoyed by many Europeans in the 18th century.  It was later outlawed in most countries as evidence indicated that those who imbibed could suffer psychotic breaks from reality.  After forensic study of his medical and psychiatric records, it was said that Vincent Van Gogh suffered from a condition known as Temporal Lobe Epilepsy exacerbated by pronounced ingestion of absinthe.  It was only after long spells of drinking absinthe, which was relatively inexpensive at the time, that he did "crazy" things like cutting off part of his ear and gifting it to an underage prostitute, and committing suicide.  Absinthe is still sold legally in France and Mexico.


Arthur Rimbaud's poetry flows seamlessly from line to line.  He was a poet that believed strongly in "action" - his poems breathed - they ate, drank, made love - they had life.

Paul Verlaine was a 19th century French poet who became a leader in the poetic movement called symbolism.  His poem "On the Nature of Poetry" (written 1871-1873) defines the technical innovations he made famous. They include lines of odd-numbered syllables, vagueness of imagery, the mixture of literary and colloquial vocabulary, and the quest for pure musicality in poetry.  Verlaine's remarkable ability to evoke delicate emotional states came to perfection in Songs Without Words (1874). His biographical and critical study Accursed Poets (1884) helped establish the reputations of several French poets.

Verlaine and others of his time, most notably Charles Baudelaire, firmly established the use of imagery in poetry, giving the words more power and an anchor in the psyche.  Their works were simply unforgettable.  When Arthur Rimbaud became Verlaine's protege and lover, Verlaine's stature began to suffer.  Rimbaud clearly held that "emotional poetry" in disdain, and went out of his way to mock Baudelaire and his peers at every opportunity. 

It seems that Verlaine was willing to endure the eventual loss of his family and his career - even his liberty - for Rimbaud.  In Rimbaud, he had seemingly found not just a student and a lover, but a soulmate.  Love apparently did not conquer all; their relationship suffered from a lack of compatibility of conscience.  Rimbaud was a spoiled, selfish child, confident in his physical beauty and his poetic gifts, but unwilling to give of himself for the sake of others.  Verlaine was willing to risk all, and sadly recieved nothing but more sadness as grist for his writing mill.

The doomed relationship of Verlaine and Rimbaud is wonderfully detailed in the film Total Eclipse.

The band Steppenwolf will probably be forever remembered for their hit road anthem "Born To Be Wild", featured in the film 'Easy Rider.'  The  song blazed off the West Coast in the summer of 1968, and quickly established the band as one of the staples of the hard rock circuit.  Like many bands of the era, Steppenwolf took their name from a literary work.

'Steppenwolf' is a book most Lit majors are familiar with, as it is probably the most heralded of Herman Hesse's novels, the most autobiographical, and the most relevant still today. 

It is the story of Harry Haller, a lonely, desolate man whose life has been drained of the last juices of joy and what could have been love.  His life is a struggle to balance his wild impulses and sedate minutiae without becoming bourgeois, which is something he completely detests.  His life becomes dramatic theatre when he meets a woman who at first appears to be his exact opposite, Hermine - she is carefree and seems to skip through life.  She proves to be elusive and he can't quite put a label on her.  She is later to become his soul mate when he decides to cast deliberation aside in favor of embracing life.

From The Publisher:  With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse's best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literature's most poetic evocations of the soul's journey to liberation.  Originally published in English in 1929, Steppenwolf 's wisdom continues to speak to our souls and marks it as a classic of modern literature.


John Kay was born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in 1944 in the section of Germany that was once known as East Prussia.  It was said that American rock n' roll that he heard on U.S. Armed Forces radio after his family moved to East Germany was what really fed his interest in music.  He later moved to Canada in 1958, and become even more enamored of rock n' roll, learning to play guitar, writing songs, and playing in local bands in Toronto.  When his band The Sparrow broke up in 1967, he and his new band migrated to California to become involved in the Los Angeles music scene.  Being German, it only seemed natural to name his band Steppenwolf after the Hesse novel.