Personal Influences

And what about me? What song (see previous post) or book or movie "changed my life?" I look back. I think that kind of thing must come from your "formative years." Young and impressionable.

Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle." That was the first Vonnegut novel I read, but you can add "Slaughterhouse 5," and "Breakfast of Champions" to the list too.  I had dabbled as a writer in grade school and high school, but coming across Vonnegut changed everything for me. Head-opening and funny. Deceptively simple, profound. I didn't think of writing or of writers the same ever again.

Sam Shepard's "Unseen Hand and Other Plays." This collection made me think I could write for the theater. It became an obsession. And led to acting and putting on productions, and founding a little theater company.

Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind." I heard this song at a Folk Mass as a little kid. I thought it was some kind of old time folk classic. When I found out it was written by a 19 year old kid from Minnesota, well, it just blew my mind. My Mom brought "Dylan's Greatest Hits" home and I adopted it.  That sandpaper voice, so hard, so cutting, so elusive. I got my hands on a guitar, took lessons, it became my constant companion.

John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band." The Beatles were done. Lennon's first album was a sort of a blood-letting. It was kind of an anti-Beatles manifesto. So personal. So clear-eyed. I thought it was the greatest record ever recorded. So basic - guitar, bass, drums, piano on a few tracks. Lennon's voice. Powerful. The best r&r voice on the planet. Bleak too. I still think it's the greatest album ever recorded. It's almost too real. It's almost too personal. Lacerating. Not easy listening. But great.

Hunter S. Thompson's political writing. I remember being in High School and reading HST out loud to my classmates. It was like I was revealing a personal secret. I stammered and got embarrassed, but I just knew that I was telling some kind of mad, corrosive truth.  HST was crazy, druggie, funny, and he was from an alternate reality.  I have carried this alternate reality with me ever since.

 "Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Live with the Bomb." It was an old movie. Black & white. Seemed so crazy. I realized that was the world. Funny. Crazy. We were all in this mad caper together. And we'd probably all blow ourselves up for some stupid reason. This one stills rings true. "We'll meet again, don't know how, don't know when..."