SECTION THREE
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COLUMN 114, FEBRUARY 1, 2005
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)

LUCIEN CARR, 79, A BEAT GENERATION ORIGINAL, IS DEAD

Subject: 'Beat' Generation Catalyst Lucien Carr Dies
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 21:53:06 -0500
From: "Jim Walck" iopan@pond.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com

'Beat' Generation Catalyst Lucien Carr Dies

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lucien Carr, a muse and catalyst of the "beat generation" who brought Jack Kerouac together with other writers to spark a counterculture revolution, died on Friday in Washington.

He was 79.

Carr, a retired senior editor at the United Press International news wire service, died at George Washington University Hospital of complications from cancer treatment, said his longtime companion Kathleen Silvassy.

Carr was a student at Columbia University in New York in 1944 when he introduced Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, who formed the literary nucleus of the countercultural "beatnik" movement of the 1950s.

"The beat scene was a circle of friends who just happened to have three of the most important writers of in the last 50 years in America, plus some extraordinary minds, including Lucien," said Dennis McNally, author of the Kerouac biography "Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation and America."

By some accounts, including his own, Carr played a role in Kerouac's legendary speedwriting of the breakthrough novel "On the Road," by supplying a Teletype roll for the manuscript. "I didn't steal it," he told a co-worker at UPI. "I just stuck it under my arm and brought it home."

But McNally said he inspected the manuscript recently and found it to consist of individual sheets of paper taped together. It was possible Carr supplied the roll for another Kerouac novel, "Dharma Bums," he said.

"Lucien's impact on Kerouac's thinking and writing was considerably more important than whether or not he supplied the roll," McNally said. He said Carr helped instill a notion of "first thought, best thought," in which the beat writers strived to be closer to the roots of inspiration and write spontaneously.

Carr served two years on a manslaughter conviction for stabbing dead an older man, David Kammerer, who had a romantic crush on Carr, and throwing his body into the Hudson River in 1944.

The conviction cast a pall over the emerging beats who were striving for authenticity in the gritty urban streets of America, and probably kept Carr from playing a more public role for the rest of his life, McNally said.

The killing and Carr's friendship with Burroughs were portrayed in the 2000 movie "Beat." Carr was also portrayed as Kenneth Wood in Kerouac's novel "The Town and the City."

Carr's 47-year UPI career began after his prison term and spanned most of the second half of the 20th century. "Lou Carr was a great editor: calm and unflappable as he handled bulletins and any political crisis that came in Washington," said former UPI White House correspondent Helen Thomas. "Young reporters were in awe of him---some of the veterans as well. 

Carr is also survived by three sons, Simon, Ethan, Caleb---a writer whose works include the murder mystery "The Alienist"---and five grandchildren. (Additional reporting by Lori Santos)   ##


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"I recommend it."---DOUGLAS HOLDER, IBBETSON STREET PRESS.  

".  . .It is a fascinating, insightful read. You are such a wonderful writer."---STEPHANIE LEDGIN, Music Journalist.

"I could not put this book of yours down for a minute."---ED GALING, POET LAUREATE OF HATBORO, PA.

"Quite simply, Al Aronowitz is a living legend"---JOHN FORTUNATO, THE AQUARIAN.

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BOB DYLAN AND THE BEATLES, VOLUME ONE OF THE BEST OF THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST

The sometimes scattered chronicles of the rock journalist's friendship with a few of the most recognizable music icons in rock and pop history.

It certainly takes a bit of hubris to say that "the '60s wouldn't have been the same without me." But coming from Al Aronowitz, the former music columnist for the New York Post who was often called "the godfather of rock journalism," such sentiment is perhaps justified.  Here, in a compilation of many of his unpublished manuscripts, Aronowitz describes in candid yet affectionate detail his friendships with Bob Dylan and the Beatles.  As a music writer and fan who recognized the musicians' limitless potential early in their careers, Aronowitz decided to bring them together for the first time, in a New York City hotel in 1964, a meeting that also involved the Beatles' introduction to marijuana. His prescience was soon bolstered by the 1965 releases of Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and the Beatles' Rubber Soul, both seminal albums that altered the landscape of pop music.  This landmark moment is just one of Aronowitz's colorful memories and musings of being a hanger-on with these legends and their associates, including The Band, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, poet Allen Ginsberg, deejay Murray the K and others.  Specifically provocative are the accounts of Dylan's erratic behavior and short temper, which often led to fitful confrontations and even the ending of friendships, including that between Dylan and the author.  It's also evident that Aronowitz was particularly fond of George Harrison, and the two remained friends until Harrison's death in 2001.  Most remarkable is the close proximity he maintained to these gods, whether he was at their homes, hoteI rooms, recording studios, or concerts.  Though his personal life certainly had its share of woes (particularly bankruptcy and his wife's death), Aronowitz exhibits a marked sense of pride---and rightly so---for playing a key role in music history,

An enticing backstage pass to the meeting of arguably the two most influential acts in rock history.


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IN THIS 615-PAGE PAPERBACK, AL ARONOWITZ, ACCLAIMED AS THE "GODFATHER OF ROCK JOURNALISM," TELLS YOU MORE ABOUT BOB DYLAN AND THE BEATLES THAN ANY OTHER WRITER CAN TELL YOU BECAUSE NO OTHER WRITER WAS THERE AT THE TIME. AS THE MAN WHO INTRODUCED ALLEN GINSBERG TO BOB DYLAN, BOB DYLAN TO THE BEATLES AND THE BEATLES TO MARIJUANA, ARONOWITZ BOASTS, "THE '60S WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THE SAME WITHOUT ME."


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". . .A highly entertaining and informative read"--HAMMOND GUTHRIE, THE THIRD PAGE

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