Beatniks, Hippies, and Punks

Ginsberg was howling, Kerouac was on the road
Charlie Parker was wailing on a bebop saxophone
The Grateful Dead were jamming from LA to Berserkley
Leary was spewing psychobabble on Owlsley's LSD
Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious were screaming at the top of their lungs
They were slamming at CBGB's
Beatniks, hippies, and punks

Some of them were hermits, some of them chose communes
Some were SDS, some wore swastikas to shock you
Who the fuck is James G. Watt and who shot Dr. King?
They were clowns without answers, they were heard and obscene
They laughed at Gordon Liddy, cursed Joe McCarthy's witch hunts
They spit at Reagan's Star Wars
Beatniks, hippies, and punks

Now there's Maynard G. Krebs and the Monkees and X on MTV
From Rodeo Drive to Madison Avenue all you need is money
There's ripped up t-shirts with safety pins in the window of Bloomingdale's
They weren't really an alternative they just kept things from getting stale
But they all shared the same fate, into the pit of fashion they sunk
They're just pissed off Pepsi generations
Beatniks, hippies, and punks


© Richard Helm