Did beatniks actually exist?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Cause it seems like most of the relics from that era were squares making fun of them. It's as if there were no evidence of hippies other than Cheech and Chong records.

But I've also decided that "How to Speak Hip" is the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life, and I like any Looney Tunes that includes a beatnik (like the Three Little Pigs or that awesome Foghorn Leghorn cartoon).

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 9 February 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

my dad played jazz piano in the Bay Area in the early sixties and made a number of friends with whom he kept in touch throughout the early seventies, when I was a kid - some of them used to come and visit. They were at that point in their late forties: jazz drummers, upright bass cats, etc. They fit the beatnik description in their speech quite well (they'd say "I'm hip" to mean "I know," for example) and sartorially too: corduroy or houndstooth coats with elbow patches, shades, that sorta thing.

But they were really mellow, not the wild-eyed high-strung beatnik type from, say, the famous beatnik episode of Dragnet.

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 9 February 2007 20:36 (eighteen years ago)

Cause it seems like most of the relics from that era were squares making fun of them.

Dude, try reading Howl or On the Road.

― Edward III (edward iii), Friday, 9 February 2007 20:40 (eighteen years ago)

I just looked up "beatnik" in wikipedia and apparently they didn't actually exist. Sorry for wasting your time, guys.

Maynard G Krebs will still live on my heart.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 9 February 2007 20:50 (eighteen years ago)

lol @ apologizing for wasting time on ILE

― Edward III (edward iii), Friday, 9 February 2007 20:52 (eighteen years ago)

My grandfather was kind of beatniky.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 9 February 2007 20:52 (eighteen years ago)

Was he as cool as this?
http://www.howtospeakhip.com/

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 9 February 2007 20:58 (eighteen years ago)

The best evidence I can offer for the existence of beatniks is the number of old guys on Manhattan's Upper West Side who are STILL really rocking this stance. Those guys in berets selling jazz records on the street aren't just kidding around, man.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 9 February 2007 21:03 (eighteen years ago)

This is the thread where we become beatniks

― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Friday, 9 February 2007 21:07 (eighteen years ago)

Why are they getting rid of their records?

― Charmmy Kitty's Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (ex machina), Friday, 9 February 2007 21:26 (eighteen years ago)

same reason you do= *_*

― friday on the porch (lfam), Friday, 9 February 2007 21:44 (eighteen years ago)

Maynard G. Krebs was my idol @ age 12(fwiw indeed), although I'm aware he falls under the category of 'squares making fun of beatniks'. fyi.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 9 February 2007 23:49 (eighteen years ago)

beatnik fashion needs to be the next retro revival

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 9 February 2007 23:58 (eighteen years ago)

especially if its "beatnik-as-depicted-in-early-60's-sitcoms" fashion

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 10 February 2007 00:01 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.rain.org/homeschool/reading/beatnik/images/beatnik.jpg

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 10 February 2007 00:05 (eighteen years ago)

More like

http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/audrey/images/thumbnails/bfi-00m-wx8.jpg

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 10 February 2007 00:14 (eighteen years ago)

Like most of these things, I think it was effectively over by the time it hit mass culture. But, yes, people dressed like that and talked like that, more or less.

― Soukesian (Soukesian), Saturday, 10 February 2007 01:00 (eighteen years ago)

Lord Buckley vs. Groucho Marx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh_68zvtk8c

― Soukesian (Soukesian), Saturday, 10 February 2007 01:06 (eighteen years ago)

Kerouac - of course

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ_Nk_aPWnE

― Soukesian (Soukesian), Saturday, 10 February 2007 01:13 (eighteen years ago)

Lord Buckley was the fucking MAN.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Saturday, 10 February 2007 04:36 (eighteen years ago)

beatniks = media caricature. "maynard g. krebs"

the beats = kerouac/ginsberg/burroughs & confreres

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 10 February 2007 11:42 (eighteen years ago)

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhkGhAe0rNg

― funky house septics (PappaWheelie V), Sunday, 9 August 2009 22:36 (sixteen years ago)

from lynch's "on the air"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub2ueMsSmU0

― slugbuggy, Sunday, 9 August 2009 23:39 (sixteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.