Songfacts®:

• "Kerouac" is a recording of a jam at KXLU, the radio station of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. The title refers to famed American author Jack Kerouac. One of the most influential writers to ever do it, he was a formative influence on artists like Bob Dylan and has inspired many songs, including "Tristessa" by Smashing Pumpkins.
• Lucid Nation frontwoman Tamra Lucid told Songfacts the story behind this song:
  
  "Kerouac was an improvisation with a band we had never played with before. One of the biggest storms that had ever hit LA was pouring down on Ronnie's birthday around midnight, and we were playing the underground radio station of a Catholic college. A couple years before that, Ronnie had given me the gift of The Kerouac Collection, a box set of recordings by Kerouac in his own voice, which I devoured.
  
  On our national tour, when I was feverish and deathly ill, in the back of the van with our equipment, as we drove many hours gig to gig, I stared out the window waiting for glimpses of the full moon and listening to Kerouac talk. I always felt like he was speaking to me directly: if you want to write something decent, that people might care to remember, then you better go deep, and you better keep it real. We listened to him as we drove our gear in a pickup truck to the gig through the storm with our tarp flapping behind us in the backdraft, so it was natural that I wanted to sing about him that night."