On the Differences Between Poetry and Rock N' Roll

A man’s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he don’t want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there.”

- Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

When I was asked to write this blog/article the only direction I was given, quite generously, was that they wanted “the thoughts and opinions of a “die hard” El Paso artist.” Apart from feeling awkwardly flattered, right away I was suspect to my being qualified to provide that view point. This concern stemming from a philosophical conundrum of whether what I do, as a singer songwriter for a rock n’ roll band, would be considered “art.” Now I know that if the post modernism of the 70’s taught us anything, it was that “art” is entirely subjective. So my “concern” was not subject to a societal definition or the genre constraints of a larger view point, but rather to my own opinion about what I do as a songwriter. I thought that this article would provide an interesting opportunity to explicate the identity of “the artist” as opposed to the performer or, for lack of a better word, “rock n’ roller”.

The poet Allen Ginsberg once wrote, “Well, while I'm here I'll do the work — and what's the work? To ease the pain of

living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow.” I always liked this quote, especially the line “To ease the pain of living.” The “pain of living” is always at the inception of an artistic impulse, at least a truly “pure” one. An impulse not motivated by fame, admiration, or money. Why we feel compelled to reach out into the darkness and make noise for the sake of noise, to give shape and form to abstractions like loneliness or alienation, to textualize an ephemeral moment. There is no pragmatic reasoning in this gesture. The intrinsic gain of such an act is not initially evident. It’s certainly not the easiest way to guarantee food and shelter in modern society. Perhaps this is because food and shelter are no longer “enough” in modern...