References in On the Road

Books

Consumer Goods

Cars

Clothing & paraphernalia

Zoot Suits

Restaurants & clubs

Ritzy's Bar

Food & drink

Apple Pie & Vanilla Ice Cream

Recreational Drugs

Cannabis (also referred to as "tea")

Benzedrine (referred to as "benny")

Amphetamines (referred to as "goofballs")

Morphine (Referred to as "M")

"On the Road" in Popular Culture

*The New York based alternative band 10,000 Maniacs had a song on their 1987 album "In My Tribe" entitled "Hey Jack Kerouac." The song includes multiple references to both Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

* Kerouac is referred to in the Five Iron Frenzy song "Superpowers," "...sometimes I feel like I'm Holden Caulfield, sometimes Jack Kerouac. I wanted to be famous now I want to take it back..."

* Brazilian rocker Cazuza wrote the song "Só as Mães São Felizes" ('Only Mothers Are Happy) after a quote from Kerouac; in this song he also mentions Allen Ginsberg in the lines "nunca viu Allen Ginsberg pagando michê no Alasca", which can be translated as "you've never seen Allen Ginsberg paying a male prostitute in Alaska".

* In Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire", he refers to Jack Kerouac, "...Mickey Mantle, Kerouac, Sputnik..."

* In an episode of the 7th season of the television program "That '70s Show", when asked by his father, Red Forman, if he had slept the whole day, Eric answered that he had been reading Jack Kerouac's classic "On the Road", saying "why get out of bed when you can read about people that get out of bed?"

* In Steve Earle's song "The Other Kind" he sings "You see it used to be I was really free, I didn't need no gasoline to run. Before you could say Jack Kerouac you'd turn your back and I'd be gone".

* The book can be seen lying on the dashboard of the car at the beginning of the music video for "Youth of the Nation", by P.O.D., as well as on Lisa's bookshelf in an episode of the television program "The Simpsons". ( [http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F07.html Episode 7F07 - Bart vs. Thanksgiving] - [http://img80.exs.cx/img80/4992/lisa-simpson-on-the-road.jpgsee picture] )

* It's the favorite book of Seth and Marissa in the television program "The O.C.", but they refer to "the pancake tour of North America" in what may be an error by the writers of the show.

* In an episode of the television program "3rd Rock from the Sun", now that high school's over for him, Tommy wants to follow Jack Kerouac's lead and hit the road. Later, he actually decides he's ready to go to college, and Harry suggests maybe he can study Kerouac.

* On the television program "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Xander Harris is shown reading "On the Road" in "Choices", announcing his plan that after graduating from high school, he will leave the southern California town of Sunnydale to get out and see America. He got as far as Oxnard before the engine fell out of his car.

* The Van Morrison song "Cleaning Windows" contains the lyrics, "I went home and read my Christmas Humphreys book on Zen,/ Curiosity killed the cat/ Kerouac's "Dharma Bums" and "On the Road"."

* The Weezer song "Holiday" contains the lyrics "On the road with Kerouac/ Sheltered in his Bivouac/ On this road we'll never die..."

* The Our Lady Peace song "All for You" contains the lyrics "Jack Kerouac, K-K-K-Kerouac / On the road and in my head."

* After reading the book, The Mars Volta's guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez decided to hitchhike across the United States only to return home three days later.

* The Band Spitalfield has a song titled "I Loved The Way She Said L.A.", which is a direct quote from the book.

* On the television program "Freaks and Geeks", Lindsay and Kim read Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" for class.

* The Scottish indie-pop band Jesse Garon And The Desperadoes, had a song in 1986 called "The Rain Fell Down." It contains the lines, 'On the road, me and my best friend. Though Jacky Kerouac never meant it like this.'

* Indie rapper Sage Francis recited: "I'm on the road reading Kerouac / It's poems versus battle raps" in his song "Escape Artist".

* In an episode of the television program "Quantum Leap", Sam Beckett leaps into a member of a 1950s biker gang in California. He meets the leader's girlfriend who wants to become a writer, and that "On The Road" is her inspiration for living. He even learns that Jack Kerouac is at a cabin nearby and visits him, hoping that Kerouac can convince the girl to make the right choices in life.

* "On the road like Kerouac" is a phrase in the song "On the Move" by Mudvayne.

* The Beastie Boys mention the novel and author in the song "3-Minute Rule" off of "Paul's Boutique": "You slip, you slack, you clock me, you lack/While I'm reading "On The Road" by my man Jack Kerouac".

* In Haruki Murakami's "Sputnik Sweetheart" the main character Sumire's favorite book is "On The Road"

*In the song "All The Madmen" on the 1971 David Bowie album, "The Man Who Sold The World", Bowie sings "'Cause I'd rather stay here/With all the madmen/Than perish with the sadmen roaming free/And I'd rather play here/With all the madmen/For I'm quite content they're all as sane/As me," a clear reference to a line in "On The Road."Fact|date=February 2007

* On Tom Waits' album "Foreign Affairs" there is a song called Jack & Neal, referring to Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. The style of the song lyrics imitates Kerouac's prose.

* Eric Kripke, creator of the WB's "Supernatural", has said in an interview that he based his characters Sam and Dean Winchester on Sal and Dean. In the show the two Winchester brothers are on an endless road trip through America, hunting ghosts and other supernatural phenomena.

* In the movie "Highway" (2002) starring Jared Leto and Jake Gyllenhaal at the end of the final scene a few lines of "On The Road" are quoted

* The phrase "stranger flowers" in "8:16AM" by 311 ("Grassroots", 1994) is a reference to the Jack Kerouac book "On the Road".

* The opening track on King Crimson's 1982 album "Beat" is "Neal And Jack And Me", referring to Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. The band also used the title to name a live DVD released in 2004. "Beat" contains other Kerouac references, and, according to the Trouser Press Record Guide, was inspired by the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of On the Road.

* In the book, "Bloodsucking Fiends" (1995) by Christopher Moore, the hero, Tommy, a would-be writer in San Francisco, idolizes Kerouac and Ginsberg and is reading "On The Road" for inspiration.

* The lyrics "On the road like Kerouac" are found in The Bloodhound Gang (band)'s song "Asleep At The Wheel".

*The German alternative rock band Sportfreunde Stiller released two tracks on their album "Thonträger" entitled "On The Road" and "Unterwegs" ("Unterwegs" as a German translation of "On the road"). The lyrics of "Unterwegs" tell about the singer's search for Jack Kerouac to ask him if it was really true back then, and the singer also questions whether he was perhaps with Sal, Dean, and Mary Lou only in his dreams.

* In the song "Boxcar" by the Bay-area band Jawbreaker, lead singer Blake Schwarzenbach says, "Like killing cops and reading Kerouac".

* Jon Foreman, lead singer for the San Diego band Switchfoot, refers to Kerouac and reads a passage from "On the Road" during a live concert on the band's DVD "Live in San Diego".

* The lyrics in the Styrofoam/Ben Gibbard song "Couches in Alleys," evoke Jack Kerouac: asking for advice based upon "On the Road". Lyrics include "Hey Jack, it's me, I don't mean to bother you but something's been on my mind: that the end of this road that climbs the horizon will be reached in a matter of miles..." and "Oh Jack, you see, I felt like your mirror with the wind whipping through my hair..." Ben Gibbard has also stated that "On the Road" is one of his favorite books.

* British band Marillion has a track called "Torch Song" on their album "Clutching at Straws." Its opening lines are "Read some Kerouac and it put me on the track, to burn a little brighter now. Something about Roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now." This echoes Kerouac's imagery at one point in "On the Road."

* The Hold Steady's third album, "Boys and Girls in America", is taken from a quote in Chapter 10 of Part 1. The theme is further extended in the song "Stuck Between Stations" which features the opening line: "There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right / Boys and girls in America, they have such a sad time together."

* The song "Stranger Than Fiction" by the punk band Bad Religion contains the line "Caringosity killed the Kerouac cat," acting as a metaphor and also as a reference to the Beatnik's stereotypical use of the word "cat."

* The song "Lost in America" written by Pittsburgh author and singer/songwriter Bill Deasy contains the following line in the first verse "Stoned out on Kerouac, Trying to get it just right."

* British Singer/Songwriter Richard Thompson references Jack Kerouac in his song "Sibella."

* Irish band Bell X1 have a quote from Kerouac's "On The Road" towards the end of their song 'Beautiful Madness'- "and fabulous Roman candles explode like spiders across the sky..."

* The song "Big Dipper," written by David Lowery and appearing on the 1996 Cracker album "The Golden Age", has the lyrics "Hey Jim Kerouac, brother of the famous Jack/Or so he likes to say, lucky bastard."

* The song "Children of Jack" by Guy Forsyth from his album "Can You Live Without" echoes much of "On the Road". The following line of the chorus is taken almost directly from the book: "America, where goest thou in thy shiny car at night."

* Acda en de Munnik, a Dutch cabaret duo, refer a lot to Jack Kerouac in their first show "Zwerf'On." Also in their third show "It's only cabaret but I like it," Jack Kerouac and his book "On the Road" are mentioned.

* The Australian band The Go-Betweens had a song on their album "Tallulah" (1987) called "The House Jack Kerouac Built."

* It is the first book to be read and discussed in the TV series The Book Group (in the first episode, also called On The Road). Claire claims it to be the great American novel only to become frustrated by the group's critical stance against Kerouac's style.

* Kinyas character in a Turkish novel, "Kinyas and Kayra", says "My name is Dean Moriarty. I lied over the steering wheel when I passed 140."

* On an episode of the American sitcom "Frasier", where they travel through America, Frasier says: "Jack Kerouac went on the road."

* In the third episode of the television drama "Traveler", at the "Will Travel" bookstore, Jay Burchell, who is on the run from the government, buys a tattered copy of "On the Road" after remembering a road trip he had been planning. His former friend Will Traveler had based their trip on "On the Road".

*The Third Eye Blind song "Burning Man" from their first album in '97 has the chorus of: "I live my life like a burning man." Lead singer, Stephan Jenkins, credits this to the famous line in "On The Road" when Kerouac writes, "Those are the ones for me...the mad ones... [who] burn, burn, burn like roman candles..."

* On independent hip hop artist Pigeon John's release "Is Clueless", one of his songs is named "Beautiful Little Sharp Chicks", which is the term Kerouac uses to describe Marylou at the beginning of the book.

Bibliographic Sources

* Kerouac, Jack. "On the Road". Penguin Books: New York.

External links

* [http://www.books.rack111.com/jkbooks/index.html Gallery of "On the Road" book covers]
* [http://www.wordsareimportant.com/kerouaccorner.htm#Jack%20&%20Neal%20on%20Record A list of recordings influenced by Kerouac and On the Road]
* [http://www.pbase.com/pzo/beat_tour Denver Beat Photo Tour]
* [http://www.pbase.com/pzo/kerouac_gas_station_longmontco Photos of the Kerouac Gas Station in Longmont, CO]
* [http://www.pbase.com/pzo/ncgravesite Photos, Neal Cassady Sr. Gravesite]
* [http://www.pbase.com/pzo/jacks_house Photos, Jack Kerouac's Last House, St. Petersburg, FL]