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The latest articles on PleaseKillMe.com – music, art, culture, fashion, poetry and movies from the 60s through today. This Is What’s Cool!

DOCTOR SAX AND THE GREAT WORLD SNAKE: KEROUAC’S FORGOTTEN OPUS

Catherine de Leon·March 9, 2022

Written in Mexico in 1952 but not published until 1959, Dr. Sax is Jack Kerouac’s most enigmatic novel. Incorporating themes from New England heroes Melville and Hawthorne, Kerouac revisits boyhood scenes in Lowell, Mass., in rich, hallucinogenic prose. The narrative’s...

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ALENE LEE: THE HEART OF A SUBTERRANEAN

Erika Blair·March 8, 2022

Jack Kerouac based his muse/lover “Mardou Fox” in The Subterraneans on Alene Lee, a mixed race (Black/Cherokee) bohemian writer and intellectual who was a part of the NYC Beat circle of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lucien Carr. Despite...

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JACK KEROUAC AT 100: HIS MAGICAL JUKEBOX

Alan Bisbort·March 7, 2022

Music was the food that fueled Jack Kerouac’s soul, drove his writing and brought him his rare moments of solace. What would a mix tape by Jack Kerouac consist of? By combing his letters, journals and published writings, we have...

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TOWNES VAN ZANDT: FOR THE SAKE OF THE SONG

Alan Bisbort·March 3, 2022

Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) was a singer-songwriter whose work was popularized by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard and Lyle Lovett, among many others. Some of his tunes (“Pancho and Lefty,” “For the Sake of the Song,” “To Live is...

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FILMMAKER GUS VAN SANT ‘NEVER LEFT THE BEAT INFLUENCE’

David Stewart·March 2, 2022

As an aspiring teenage artist, Gus Van Sant had his head turned by the writing of Jack Kerouac and fellow Beats William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Then, as an aspiring filmmaker at RISD—where classmates included future Talking Heads—he was...

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I HATE WORK: AVANT-GARDE DRUMMER MIKE PRIDE TRANSFORMS MDC HARDCORE INTO PIANO JAZZ

Brad Cohan·March 1, 2022

Two worlds came together when Mike Pride, a powerful presence on the NYC underground jazz and experimental music scene, joined the hardcore giants MDC in 2002. Pride played and toured with the band for three years and several years later,...

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RICHIE HAVENS REVISITED

John Kruth·February 28, 2022

Brooklyn born and raised, Richie Havens (1941-2013) began hanging out in Greenwich Village in 1959, as a street portrait artist and sometime busker. By 1961, he was a familiar face in the folk clubs, playing alongside Dave Van Ronk, Fred...

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IN THE KEY OF LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS: THE MAN & HIS MUSIC

John Kruth·February 24, 2022

Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins (1912-1982) played, sang and lived by his own rules. When a sideman once asked him what key they were playing in, he proclaimed, “the key of Lightnin’ Hopkins!” A protégé of Blind Lemon Jefferson at age...

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KINK FOR A DAY & OTHER ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ADVENTURES OF BRIAN STANLEY

JP Olsen·February 23, 2022

Brian Stanley with Bill Wyman backstage after opening for the Stones with Garland Jeffreys at Hartford Civic...1981. Photo courtesy of Michael Halsband

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THE DRONGOS: FROM THE CALM OF NEW ZEALAND TO THE STREETS OF NEW YORK

Mike Cobb·February 22, 2022

Stranded in the States after a tour with a New Zealand theater troupe, drummer Stan Mitchell and his mates made the best of things, settling in for the long haul. First stop was San Francisco, where as Red Alert they...

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‘THE SINGER’S LABORER’: BARRY REYNOLDS ON WORKING WITH MARIANNE FAITHFULL, GRACE JONES & OTHERS

Valerie Simadis·February 21, 2022

Songwriter and musician Barry Reynolds has lived an itinerant life. By age 15, in the mid-1960s, he’d left his Lancashire home and was gigging in Hamburg, then with the London bands Pacific Drift and Blodwyn Pig (with Jethro Tull’s Mick...

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GREG IRONS: A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Benito Vila·February 17, 2022

Greg Irons sampled every conceivable creative outlet the 1960s counterculture had to offer—first as a rock musician in Philadelphia (The Candymen), then as a Bay Area rock poster artist (Bill Graham and others), then underground comix (Last Gasp, Print Mint),...

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BUNNY YEAGER: MIAMI PINUP QUEEN BROKE DOWN BARRIERS

Sandra Hale Schulman·February 16, 2022

Bunny Yeager, a Miami model and photographer, is best known for working with Bettie Page to transition out of New York’s fetish pinup underworld and letting her shine as a naturally beautiful woman. But Yeager’s archive, recently purchased and explored...

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SPOTIFY AND OTHER STREAMING DELIGHTS: MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE OR SAME AS THE OLD BOSS?

Paul Bisbort·February 15, 2022

By Paul Bisbort and Alan Bisbort With Spotify in the crosshairs following Neil Young’s exodus from the music streaming service over the disinformation the site’s podcasts are enabling, it may be time to look at how we receive, buy and...

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wmsagittarius on WE NEVER LEARN: GUNK PUNK IN THE 1990SNirvana were really great - never liked any other 'grunge' bands, only later liked some Mudhoney - though i did own a flannel shirt, but
Chris Ghiardi on THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILESInteresting that both Niles and Richard Lloyd knew Velvert Turner.
wmsagittarius on ALEX COX: THE RETURN OF WALKERI am sorry that the ending with Walker speaking to a fifty dollar a plate soiree at the Sheraton, while a rabble of crippled, betrayed,

Jack Kerouac based his muse/lover “Mardou Fox” in The Subterraneans on Alene Lee, a mixed race (Black/Cherokee) bohemian writer and intellectual who was a part of the NYC Beat circle of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lucien Carr. Despite her intimate connection to these writers, the real Alene Lee is nowhere to be found in most accounts and biographies—partly due to her own reticence to speak. Erika Blair did some digging and presents a more rounded portrait of this fascinating woman. Read more!

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SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

Best Of

PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF PKM FOR 2021, PART II

UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF JOSEPH CORNELL

RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION

WERE WE ALL BRAINWASHED BY THE CIA WITH SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK & ROLL?

THE DEATH OF SGT. CARTER

THE KID WHO RECORDED THE FIRST PUNK ROCK RECORD (AND INFLUENCED SURF GUITAR)

All Please Kill Me Posts

DOCTOR SAX AND THE GREAT WORLD SNAKE: KEROUAC’S FORGOTTEN OPUS

ALENE LEE: THE HEART OF A SUBTERRANEAN

JACK KEROUAC AT 100: HIS MAGICAL JUKEBOX

TOWNES VAN ZANDT: FOR THE SAKE OF THE SONG

FILMMAKER GUS VAN SANT ‘NEVER LEFT THE BEAT INFLUENCE’

I HATE WORK: AVANT-GARDE DRUMMER MIKE PRIDE TRANSFORMS MDC HARDCORE INTO PIANO JAZZ

RICHIE HAVENS REVISITED

IN THE KEY OF LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS: THE MAN & HIS MUSIC

KINK FOR A DAY & OTHER ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ADVENTURES OF BRIAN STANLEY

THE DRONGOS: FROM THE CALM OF NEW ZEALAND TO THE STREETS OF NEW YORK

‘THE SINGER’S LABORER’: BARRY REYNOLDS ON WORKING WITH MARIANNE FAITHFULL, GRACE JONES & OTHERS

GREG IRONS: A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

BUNNY YEAGER: MIAMI PINUP QUEEN BROKE DOWN BARRIERS

SPOTIFY AND OTHER STREAMING DELIGHTS: MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE OR SAME AS THE OLD BOSS?

SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES

ALL THE RAJ: HOW ‘NORWEGIAN WOOD’ UNLEASHED THE ‘INDIAN INVASION’

THE KNACK … AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES

POLY STYRENE: BREAKING DOWN THE BONDAGE

WE NEVER LEARN: GUNK PUNK IN THE 1990S