There is a photo that adorns the cover of Jack’s Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac, an image that’s always stood out as Kerouac at his most iconic. It’s an image that ties Kerouac to others and to a way of being that I think I wanted to emulate, but could never pull off. The image echoes in numerous places — the cover of Jack Lee’s Greatest Hits, the former Nerves’ guitarist, singer, and songwriter, lone solo record, the most memorable for me.
I bought Lee’s album because of the cover back when it came out in 1981, and I continue to believe that its power-pop rockabilly stylings deserved a wider audience. Instead, the record — which included his version of “Hanging on the Telephone,” a song he wrote and recorded with The Nerves before Blondie made it a smash — fell out of print and out of memory.
Lee’s album cover, of course, owes more to James Dean, but the ‘50s hipster vibe also has Kerouac’s fingerprints all over it.
The photo of Kerouac, who any reader of this newsletter knows, was a seminal figure in my writing life and who is a focus of a current manuscript that combines memoir with cultural and literary criticism, was taken by Allen Ginsburg. I hope my sketch does it justice.