“America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.”

-Allan Ginsberg, “America” (1956)

Allan Ginsberg was not part of the baby boomer generation that made rock-n-roll famous. He was born in New Jersey in 1926, so his generation was more closely aligned to what Tom Brokaw would later refer to as “the greatest generation.” (allanginsberg.com) He lived through the great depression and the Second World War. As Ginsberg grew older, he became dismayed by what he saw in America, it had become a place of industrialization and steel towns, a symbol of the pains of “progress,” filled with souls who had given their lives to the American dream only to discover that they could never have it. (Scheurer) At about the same time as Ginsberg wrote the famous poem “America,” rock-n-roll music was becoming the music of the lost myths of America.

Rock-n-roll was not an original creation; it drew heavily on what came before it. Mostly, though, rock music represented a merger between white country and black blues.

In the book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, Greil Marcus discusses country music prior to the birth of rock. Country

John Fogerty also comments on taxes, but not his, those of the rich who always have money for themselves, but when the taxman comes they cheat or find loopholes so they do not have to pay. That is not a possibility for the workers of America who do not live with “a silver spoon in hand.” They give their lives, literally and figuratively, and only told to give “More! More! More!,” they are not the fortunate ones.

Rock-n-roll caused everyone to realize that what white and black workers wanted was the same thing: completeness. Blues and country musicians sang about the pain their lives brought them. Rock-n-roll created something completely different, it had the pain too, but it also left the listeners with the hope that one day they will get to “walk in the sun.” It created what Robert Johnson could only hint at in “Hellhound Blues.” It created something that parents feared because they knew they could never fulfill it: hope. Hope drives workers to continue moving, at least for one more day; when that hope evaporates all that is left is the pain, but when the hope can be retained it can shove the pain out of sight and keep them “awake and alive.”

Love, I don’t like to see so much pain

The songs of country music, and most deeply, its even, narrow sound, had to

Some topics in this essay:
Rolling Stone, Robert Johnson, City Blues”, Greil Marcus, Maybe Marvin, Twice Gaye, Jim Croce, John Fogerty, Marvin Gaye’s, Instead Wendy, marvin gaye, country music, john fogerty, “inner city, “born run”, bruce springsteen, jim croce, rolling stone, “inner city blues”, music music, pain hope, gaye john fogerty, marvin gaye john, gaye “inner city, country music music,