Before it’s gone!
“One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur” is out now on DVD.
Updated 02:12, October the 28th, 2009
A rockin’ ode to poet-hero Kerouac
▶ Documentary celebrates dark period of the Beat hero ▶ Son Volt, Death Cab collaborate for the soundtrack
Forty years ago last week, Jack Kerouac, a literary rock star, passed away due to cirrhosis of the liver. This week, two literal rock stars — Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Jay Farrar of Son Volt — commemorate his talent with songs set to the writer’s words.
Though Kerouac, thought to be the godfather of the Beat movement of the ’50s, hated the fame he garnered, his popularity is unstoppable to this day. That becomes evident in watching the new documentary “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur,” in which luminaries such as Tom Waits and Sam Shepard discuss Kerouac’s novel “Big Sur.”
“I think ‘Big Sur’ stands out because it was a turning point in his life,” says director Curt Worden of the period in which Kerouac retreated to the California woods to escape the claustrophobia of his fame.
Jim Sampas, a producer on the film, had previously worked with Farrar and brought the Son Volt leader and Gibbard together, asking them to use actual text from “Big Sur” as lyrics to the songs they composed.
“These songs are very good at providing another level of understanding to the story,” Worden says.
Kerouac’s Big Sur Concert
Featuring Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard
Tonight, 7
Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St.
$35, 212-353-1600
www.websterhall.com
