[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
On the Road >> Jack's Valentine
Kelvin asked:
"I would love to know how Linford got from 'On the
Road' to 'Jack's Valentine'...y'know, thought process
and all that."
I think that the song is less about On the Road directly, and more
about Jack Kerouac specifically. Kerouac was an alcoholic, among his
other addictions, which, I think, is where much of the chorus comes
from:
"I drink you cause you help me to see it's mostly myself that's
killing me." for e.g.
The Sal Paradise and Dean MOriarty characters in the novel are
rumored to represent Kerouac and Neal Cassady, Cassady being the Beat
poet on whom all the other Beats, Ginsberg and Kerouac especially had
crushes. I think a lot of the song can be said to relate to
unrequited love, see, esp. the last verse w/r/t this interpretation.
Cassady didn't return Keroac's interest, and neither, of course, did
the alcohol.
Linford writes, in the third verse,
"It snows in here, it snows forever. But there's no Christmas
underneath this weather," which is a reference to C.S. Lewis's
children's book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The metaphor
of "always winter but never Christmas" referred to the reign of the
White Witch over Narnia. Christmas came when Aslan returned to
Narnia, Since Aslan is a Christ-figure in the book, his return
signifies salvation (think about that: Lewis, and then Linford,
managed to connect Christmas and Easter into one big image by doing
that). W/r/t Kerouac, I think that it's safe to say that both his
interest in Cassady and his addiction could be seen as "White
Witches" in his Narnia, things that ruled over him but did not bring
him joy. The suicide imagery at the end ("trip myself and fall upon
your fabulous sword," for e.g.) conjures (for me anyway) images of
Christian and Buddhist monks practicing asceticism, Thomas Merton or
Tich Nhat Hanh come to mind-- people who practiced "dying" in one
sense in order to be reborn in another sense, Much like Aslan in the
Narnia book, who is killed by the White Witch but then returns to
life-- it is Alsan's deatht that undoes to magic the Witch has cast
over Narnia.
HTH
John
np- Spearhead- 'Stay Human'
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Those on the way are almost invisible
to those who are not. A man or a woman
recognizes God and starts out. The others
say he, or she, is losing faith."
-- Jelaluddin Rumi
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.geocities.com/eustacescrubb
---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/MediaNation/OtR/
Follow-Ups: