They Build Lyrical Shrines to Bukowski

Richard Ashcroft, former leader of the English band the Verve, might have thought it edgy to name his first solo album after a Charles Bukowski poem.

After all, “Alone With Everybody”--recently released on Virgin Records--is a cool-enough title, replete with the rebel-angst that has made Ashcroft a star in Britain.

But Ashcroft is late to this party.

Though Bukowski has been dead since 1994, his poems and prose have influenced pop and rock music more than the work of any writer in at least a decade. From U2 to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to the San Francisco band BuddhaKowski, would-be and established stars--both those who honestly love the poet’s work and those trying to prove they are more than just ad agency-engineered poseurs--have scattered Bukowski’s name all over the musical landscape.

John Martin, who founded Black Sparrow Press in 1966 to publish Bukowski’s work, said he is not surprised that the self-proclaimed Dirty Old Man of American letters has found so many readers in the music field. A plain-spoken bard of all things gritty, Bukowski’s work speaks to those who view themselves as dissidents, outsiders, nonconformists.

“It’s so direct and understandable, and it’s speaking directly to the people who are reading it,” Martin said by phone recently from Black Sparrow’s Santa Rosa offices. “It’s not cloaked in any kind of artifice.”

This melding of literature and rock music is not new. Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan and punk legend Patti Smith have all acknowledged a debt to 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and countless other musicians have been influenced by the Beat writers. Lou Reed was a lit major at Syracuse University and managed to squeeze two literary titans into the title song on his 1992 album “Magic and Loss.” (Reed laments: “But you can’t be Shakespeare and you can’t be Joyce so what is left instead.” ) Bruce Springsteen’s 1995 album “The Ghost of Tom Joad” evokes John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” and the John Ford film of the same name. And hip-hop’s the Roots have made a habit of closing their albums with the verse of Philadelphia poet Ursula Rucker.

But few, if any, writers have reached as many modern musicians as Bukowski.

Probably best known among the Bukowski admirers is Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band U2. The group dedicated an early 1990s concert at Dodger Stadium to Bukowski and saw to it that the poet made it to the show. The song “Dirty Day” from U2’s 1993 album “Zooropa” is also dedicated to Bukowski.

“Bukowski’s an incredible character,” Bono told NME magazine of England in 1995.

Kurt Cobain, frontman of Nirvana before his suicide in 1994, was fond of telling journalists that Bukowski was among his favorite writers. Not surprisingly, singer Gavin Rossdale of the rock group Bush, often accused of being a Cobain wannabe, drops Bukowski’s name as often as Cobain once did.

Working mostly from his home base in Los Angeles, Bukowski published at least one novel or book of poetry annually for about 30 years, said Martin of Black Sparrow Press. Bukowski’s death on March 9, 1994, at age 73 hasn’t prevented the release of new work. Black Sparrow Press has published several new Bukowski books in the past six years. “Open All Night,” a collection of previously unpublished poems, will be brought out later this year.

The hardscrabble life of boozing and bloody-knuckled brawling portrayed in Bukowski’s writing--and the 1987 film “Barfly,” for which he wrote the screenplay--never won much critical praise. But poems such as “Metamorphosis” are recommended reading for any budding malcontent: “I felt better when everything was in disorder. It will take me some months to get back to normal: I can’t even find a roach to commune with. I have lost my rhythm. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I have been robbed of my filth.”

Johnette Napolitano, former lead singer of the post-punk band Concrete Blonde, thought enough of Bukowski’s poems to search for one she might record. She turned Bukowski’s verse into the song “Singing Is Fire” and released it with a new band, Pretty & Twisted, on a 1995 album.

The list of Bukowski acolytes goes on and on.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis announced, “I read Bukowski” on the band’s 1991 album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” Bukowski’s death did not escape the notice of the British rock band the Boo Radleys, who recorded “Charles Bukowski Is Dead” for its 1995 album “Wake Up! “

Lucinda Williams grew up around Bukowski, among other writers. (Bukowski and Williams’ father, acclaimed poet Miller Williams, were friends.) Tom Waits, whose songs have often mined the same territory as Bukowski’s poems, is a fan. So is former Cars singer Ric Ocasek. Bukowski was a hero to the late Lester Bangs, one of the most influential of all rock critics. Pop singer Jewel lists Bukowski as an inspiration for her songwriting and her 1998 book of poetry “A Night Without Armor.”

There is a Chilean hard-rock band called “Mosca De Bar” (Barfly), which informs visitors to its Web site that its name was inspired by Bukowski’s lifestyle. And BuddhaKowski, which recorded a song that was recently used on the NBC program “The Pretender,” owes half its name to the writer.

As it happened, Bukowski preferred classical music; Beethoven, Bach and Shostakovich were among his favorites. He didn’t mind rock music, recalls Martin, “but I don’t think he played it on his record player.”