`Kerouac and Cassady'

A biographical folk song from the early 1980s about the Beat Generation of the late 1940s and 1950s

(chorus)

Kerouac and Cassady
Loved the road, tried to be free
Kerouac and Cassady
Escaped the claws of McCarthy.

(verses)

Kerouac walked through the cold town of Lowell
His mother wished him to succeed
He came to New York, fell into a scene
And started to write and to write endlessly.
Cassady lived for the moment intense
Madly he drove in from Denver
Their own little world of excitement
Created with the help of their friends. (chorus)

Outside all the cold organizations
Away from the meaningless mold
Instead they slept late and partied, got stoned
And searched for the love and the bold.
Cassady lived it out, while Kerouac wrote it down
The new song of the open road
Out to the Coast and back east again
With women to love at each end. (chorus)

They fell for each other, while living unknown
And whiskey helped ease Jack's pain
And long overdue fame struck Kerouac
And he knew not what more he should say.
Their lives fell apart and Neal was framed up
And Kerouac lost himself in his booze
He moved to the right to protect his new wealth
And his Beat friends all moved out of sight. (chorus)

A lonely old man right at the end
With nothing new to write or to love
His myth and his legend are revived again
By people whose spirits are eternally young.(chorus)