The rebellious intimacy of beat generation poetry said more to innovative musicians like Bob Dylan than any of the tame writing they had been raised on.
Works like "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg and "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac and the brilliant routines of William S Burroughs weave a cool magical anarchy on the ear.
"Birth of the Cool" draws on the beat generation's contempt for American post-war conformity and the beat generation passion for a wild, fresh freedom. It threw a new spirit of creative defiance back in America's 1950's and 1960's face of don't change anything, anti-Communist, anti-gay, anti-drug, anti-sex, anti-too much fun way of life.
The times really were a changin'.
