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The Clash and Allen Ginsberg
AFP | Hulton Archive, Getty Images
Beatniks and bebop go together like dark shades and a beret. But in the 1980s, legendary beat poet Allen Ginsberg aligned himself with another anti-establishment music form: punk rock.
In 1981, the aging beatnik dropped in on the Clash's legendary 17-night residency at the Bonds Club in New York's Times Square and joined the band on stage for an unrehearsed take of his protest poem 'Capitol Air.'
Later, he and frontman Joe Strummer co-wrote the track 'Ghetto Defendant' for the Clash's 1982 album 'Combat Rock.' On the recording, Ginsberg spouts poetry and recites the Heart Sutra, a popular Buddhist mantra over the Clash's signature punk/dub back beat.
