Hey Jack Kerouac (MTV Unplugged)

[Intro]
Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1922, the youngest of three children of a French-Canadian family. He attended local Catholic schools and won a football scholarship at Columbia University in New York City, where he met Neil Cassidy, Allen Ginsburg and William S. Burroughs. He quit school in his sophomore year and joined the Merchant Marine, beginning a restless wandering that continued for a great part of his life. Et cetera, et cetera

[Verse 1]
Hey Jack Kerouac
I think of your mother
And the tears she cried, they were cried for none other
Than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
And that dared to drag him down
Her little boy, courageous

[Chorus]
Who chose his words from mouths of
Babes got lost in the wood
The hip flask slinging madmen
Steaming café flirts
They all spoke through you

[Verse 2]
Hey, Jack
Now for the tricky part
When you were the brightest star
Who were the shadows?
Of the San Francisco beat boys
You were the favorite
Now they sit and rattle their bones
And think of their blood-stoned days

[Chorus]
Chose your words from mouths of
Babes got lost in the wood
The hip flask slinging madmen
Steaming café flirts
In Chinatown, howling at night

[Verse 3]
Allen baby, why so jaded
Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?
Billy, what a saint they've made you
You're just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' Day

[Chorus]
Chose his words from mouths of
Babes got lost in the wood
Cool junk booting madmen
And all those street-minded girls
In Harlem, howling at night

[Outro]
What a tear-stained shock of the world
Oh, now you've gone away without saying
Saying goodbye

[Spoken]
Thank you!