I had the opportunity to write another song for Wild Bob's Musical Book Club, which is a special songwriter showcase hosted monthly at Lindbergs Tavern in Springfield, Missouri.
Each month, the Wild Bob's crew seeks a number of original songwriters across the Missouri Ozarks region to tackle songs about a specific novel, and then we all gather together to share our works with folks who have read the books and those who have also composed songs about the book. It is always a very special gathering, and I've been very fortunate to write and perform for them in the past.
I've so been looking forward to this month because it is "Songwriter's Choice," and each of the selected performing artists were tasked to pick a novel (any novel) to write a song about. Without much hesitation, I chose the seminal Beat Generation novel Junky by William S. Burroughs. It is the story of how a person becomes a hardened opiate addict. From opium, to morphine, to heroin, and all the steps in between.
Junky has fascinated me since college. I have always had a general fascination with drug culture and niche subcultures within, and the 1956 novel really showcased a different and relatively historical picture of how a person with privileged means and a charmed life ends up becoming a junky, as early as the late 1940s.
The Inspiration:
The semi-autobiographical novel, originally published under the pseudonym William Lee, covers the antics of the author as he drags his family across the country seeking higher highs, and ultimately lower lows. He is also bisexual (at least) during a time when that wasn't overwhelmingly accepted, and much of his homosexual encounters are shadowy and primal moments out of sheer necessity to fulfill his short term desires--this applied in regard to sexual intimacy and to his drug use.
The reader also gets an image of the dregs of society during this period as Lee and his friends and acquaintances struggle with staying clean and choosing to use again. Crime, filth, pain, struggle, as well as nihilistic and narcissistic behavior dominate the thematic landscape of the novel.
I studied this novel in depth during college, constructed my senior capstone project around its thematic elements, and even presented a paper at international conference looking at Junky through a Freudian lens, and analyzing the contents accordingly. This book is so fascinatingly close to my heart, especially with the resurgence of heroin use in the United States in recent years. This novel couldn't apply more than it does now. "Regular people" are becoming addicts every day. Opiate addiction doesn't have one face. It is everywhere.
The struggle is very real, and while technology has made the world much smaller than it was when Burroughs published his novel in 1953, but the stories within are universal. I could name friends of mine, some still alive, some not so lucky, whose story is so close to that of Lee/Burroughs. This can happen to anyone, and it doesn't always happen the way we anticipate it to happen.
The Track:
The quotation from the novel, "junk ain't a kick, it's a way of life," has always stuck with me, and serves as both the genesis and the refrain of the song.
Heroin addiction ultimately is a sad, sad world, and through Burroughs' testimony, we see this in full form. While it can have its exciting moments, the bulk of the novel is focused on either having or withdrawing from opiates. This song reflects the same. Addiction reflects the same.
I hope you enjoy it, as I enjoy sharing my new works with you on Steemit. Please feel free to give any feedback in the comments. Thank you for reading and for listening to my tunes.
The Lyrics:
junk ain't a kick, it's a way of life
heroin brings the sweetest of dreams
and that junk ain't a kick, it's a way of life
norton brings the guns and then the sauce
teaheads make em nervous so they sell them weed at cost
but opium brings the sweetest of dreams
to a man who never got much sleep
and junk ain't a kick it's a way of life
morphine brings the sweetest of dreams
but that junk ain't a kick, it's a way of life
measure the life out of eye-droppers
"perhaps all pleasure is relief"
travelled all around the land--dragging family
from New York, to New Orleans and Mexico City
...because junk ain't a kick, it's a way of life
heroin brings the sweetest of dreams
and this junk ain't a kick, it's a way of life
junk ain't a kick, it's a way of life
and in the end, ole Bill Lee was William B
and that junk's not a kick, it's a way of life.
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