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The Rolling Stones in the press: “Jaggernaut – Wild Horse On A Plastic Phallus“

*From Creem magazine, USA, Oct. 1975

*Click for more YESTERDAY’S PAPERS

Charles Bukowski and rock and roll

Jaggernaut, called it Bukowski. By 1975, Charles Bukowski had cemented his reputation as the ultimate outsider poet—boozy, raw, and unapologetically real. At the same time, rock & roll was in a chaotic, transitional phase. The Stones were still kings of debauchery, Led Zeppelin ruled the stadiums, punk was bubbling under the surface, and somewhere in the mix, Bukowski’s world of cheap motels, lost souls, and endless booze felt right at home.

Bukowski never pretended to be a rock fan—his tastes leaned more toward classical music—but his writing oozed the same rebellious, screw-the-rules attitude that fueled rock & roll. In 1975, he was gaining underground fame, just as bands like the Ramones were about to redefine music with the same no-frills honesty Bukowski put into his poetry. His novel Factotum was published that year, a gritty, darkly funny look at dead-end jobs and even deader-end relationships, themes that could have easily been turned into lyrics for a Stones or Lou Reed track.

Meanwhile, rock stars were living out their own Bukowski-style nightmares. Keith Richards was in the depths of heroin addiction, Iggy Pop was imploding, and even the biggest names were burning out under the weight of excess. If Bukowski had a soundtrack in ’75, it wouldn’t have been the big rock anthems—it would’ve been the blues, the grimiest dive-bar punk, or maybe just the sound of a beer can hitting the floor.

Both Bukowski and rock & roll thrived on the same energy—raw emotion, brutal honesty, and a complete rejection of the polished and predictable. In 1975, they were on parallel paths, flipping off the mainstream and telling their own messy, brilliant stories.

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