On The Road Turns 50

September marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel, On the Road. The essentially plotless novel about the relationship between two rootless young men who seemed constitutionally unable to settle down has had a profound impact on both American literature and culture. To commemorate the event, Smithsonian magazine has published an excellent personal essay about Kerouac written by his friend Joyce Johnson.

I thought it would be appropriate to share The Hold Steady’s “Stuck Between Stations,” from last year’s excellent Boys and Girls in America. The album’s title and the song’s opening lines (”There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right / Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together”) are drawn from Sal Paradise, Kerouac’s hero from On the Road.

MP3: The Hold Steady - “Stuck Between Stations”