Get Back, Jack Kerouac

Before Dylan held the title, Jack Kerouac was considered the voice of his generation -- and avatar of the Beat movement. Following the triumphant debut of “On The Road,” the avid "consumer of life" found life was consuming him. By 1960, Kerouac was aded cynical, disaffected from the culture he helped create and tortured by self-doubt, addiction and depression.

He secretly retreated to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's rustic cabin in the Big Sur woods. The sruggle with his own inner demons became the basis for Kerouac's second novel... The gritty, lyrical, semi-autobiographical "Big Sur."

The real life events behind the book are documented in a film called “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur.” The soundtrack CD, composed and performed by Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Jay Farrar of Son Volt, used novel passages as song lyrics.

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now, October 12. Host: Meghna Chakrabarti.