Music Monday: Kerouac’s Big Sur Inspires Indie Collaboration

Photo courtesy of Shore Fire Media

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


In writing the music for Death Cab for Cutie’s “Narrow Stairs” (2008), singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard holed up in a cabin in Big Sur, California, that was once owned by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti—and the place where Jack Kerouac wrote his lesser-known 1962 novel Big Sur. Kerouac’s pull evidently lingered with Gibbard. His latest project, released last week, is a soft, melodic collaboration with alt-country rocker Jay Farrar titled “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur.”

Far more melancholic than On the Road or The Dharma Bums, Big Sur describes a fictionalized (though clearly autobiographical) Jack; his flight from fame to the West, his alcoholism, and his ensuing breakdown. Musically speaking, Farrar and Gibbard’s interpretation is lighter than that, even as it pulls various lyrics straight from the text. And while the artists meld well in songs like “There Roads Don’t Move” and “Sea Engines,” the overall album feels like the work of two distinct artists.

Farrar, formerly of Uncle Tupelo (with Jeff Tweedy), infuses his unmistakable country influence throughout—the smoky voice, sad slide guitars, the spare blues riff in “Final Horrors,” a track that most resembles the fears and collapse of the novel’s broken protagonist. Gibbard, on the other hand, lends a lighter tone, especially when it’s contrasted with Farrar’s voice. If Gibbard’s singing is clear and bright, like a drive down Highway 1 as it hugs the Pacific Coast under a bleached blue sky, then Farrar’s is the city blanketed with fog, the mist clouding the streets and lights.

Even so, Farrar and Gibbard have created a wonderful collection of songs—simple yet lush, effortless-sounding yet well-crafted. And though the album was created and recorded in conjunction with a documentary about the novel, “One Fast Move…” never aspires to be a direct sonic translation. Instead, listeners get what Farrar and Gibbard felt with the book in their hands, and what those feelings begat in the recording studio. It’s not often that a talented duo takes up an undervalued but important piece of literature and finds music in it. For those who may try such a thing in the future, Farrar and Gibbard have set the bar high.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate