How O'Hara's influence has endured through modern day musicians such as Rilo Kiley, Frankie Cosmos, and others.
It's no surprise that many musicians have been impacted by the poetry of the late Frank O'Hara. In fact, many modern day artists and musicians trace their roots back to O'Hara's poetry.
Greta Simone Kline, better known by her stage name "Frankie Cosmos" admits in an interview that her name is a direct reference to Frank O'Hara. She said she was given the name by her boyfriend after she bought him a big book of Frank O'Hara poems. After that, he started calling her Frank. She played a couple solo Porches shows with him when his band was in transition, and he would introduce her as Frankie Cosmos.
She also describes her first introduction to Frank O'Hara as "weird". Kline first witnessed O'Hara when she was listening to an audio clip of "Adieu to Norman, Bonjour to Jean and Jean-Paul" on someone's website. The song starts, "It is 12:10 in New York", which she remembered and wrote. She describes how she was obsessed with this poem, but never knew who it was by. Then she goes on to state:
"A year goes by, and this girl I knew from an art class sent me a different O'Hara poem. It immediately reminded me so much of the other one—his voice was so distinct and strong that I recognized it. I finally Googled it and realized the poems were by the same guy, and immediately went out and bought this huge book of Frank O'Hara poems and was obsessed with him and read the entire thing front-to-back when I was 15. " (Pelly)
The interviewer goes on to say that O'Hara takes fine details from New York City life and incorporates them into his poems in a way that is romantic and that they feels like Kline does the same thing. She then asks Kline what she wants her songs to capture about New York life.
Kline answers that what she enjoys most about O'Hara's poetry is that it comes from a place of mundane New York life. O'Hara even wrote Lunch Poems on his lunch break everyday, but there is also so much more. She goes on to say that there is so much depth to the streets of New York. She describes this idea further by saying:
"My relationship to New York has changed a lot, but I try to preserve that attitude. I feel lucky to live here. A lot of times you walk through the city and don't notice that you're in a really beautiful neighborhood, or that you're passing a beautiful building. It's nice, as an exercise, to keep aware that you're in a really lucky place. Writing songs about it is a really useful way for me to love New York more, and stay observing it, and not just zone it out. I'm trying to do what Frank O'Hara did and remind myself there there's a lot of good stuff. I write about New York for my own mental health." (Pelly)
You can read the full interview here: https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9345-frankie-cosmos/
But Frankie Cosmos isn't the only artists who feels a connection to Frank O'Hara. The indie rock band Rilo Kiley refers to a line from Frank O'Hara's "Meditations in an Emergency" in their song and album titled "More Adventurous". Near the beginning of the song, singer Jenny Lewis recalls:
I read with every broken heart We should become more adventurous. (Rilo Kiley)
This is similar to the second paragraph of O'Hara's prose poem "Meditations in an Emergency", which reads:
Each time my heart is broken it makes me feel more adventurous. (O'Hara)
The full song can be played below:
A founding member of the band Chelsea Light Moving, poet, and fan of avant-garde poetry, Thurston Moore released the song "Frank O'Hara Hit", which refers to O'Hara's death in 1966. In the music video provided below, the verse about Frank O'Hara features footage of O'Hara reading his poem "Having a Coke with You". The verse about O'Hara' death reads:
"Day before July 24 Frank 0'Hara hit Dune buggy devil July July On fire island" (Chelsea Light Moving)
The full music video can be seen here:
The band "First Aid Kit" confirmed on Twitter that the "Frank" in their song "To a Poet" is indeed Frank O'Hara. They take the line "You can't plan on the heart" from his poem "My Heart" and use it in the verse:
But Frank put it best when he said "You can't plan on the heart" Those words keep me on my feet When I think I might just fall apart (First Aid Kit)
The full song "To a Poet" can be found below:
As evidenced above, Frank O'Hara has had a profound impact on today's music. His words have influenced numerous musicians and encouraged them to incorporate O'Hara's ideas into their own art.
