Ten Reasons J.D. Salinger Was Cool

American author J.D. Salinger passed away on Jan. 27. He was 91.

The notoriously reclusive author is most famous for writing The Catcher In The Rye in 1951. In that book, teenage protagonist Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of school and has numerous misadventures around New York that are checkered by his hatred of all the "phonies" he encounters.

In the decades since its release, The Catcher In The Rye has become a sort-of bible for teen rebellion. Although Salinger wasn't a musician, his influence on music and those who make it has been felt far and wide.

So rather than dwell on this great writer's passing, we here at CHARTattack prefer to celebrate some of the things that made him awesome. Here then, are 10 reasons why J.D. Salinger was cool:

10. The Caulfields — You know you've done something right when a band name themselves after a character you created. Nineties alternative rockers The Caulfields did just that. Apparently they did a reunion show in 2008.

9. "JD Salinger Rap" — Sure, if Salinger heard this he'd be so mortified he wouldn't leave his house for a month longer than normal, but still. Someone tried to rap about Salinger.

 

8. The Salingers — Whether you're the Toronto band or the Austin, Texas one, you didn't pick that band name because the drummer's last name is "Salinger."

7. Jerry Lewis — The telethon king apparently desperately wanted to play Holden Caulfield in a movie. Salinger never allowed that to happen. It was probably the right decision.

6. Rollerskate Skinny — These Irish rockers also were big in the '90s. They cribbed their name from a line in Catcher when Holden Caulfield says, "She's quite skinny, like me, but nice skinny, rollerskate skinny."

5. Emo Music — The Catcher In The Rye is largely accepted as one of the four pillars of the "emo" music genre (the other three being eyeliner, parents not understanding you and break-ups).

4. Swear Words — Salinger's book scandalized people in 1951. A reviewer for Catholic World said it contained an "excessive use of amateur swearing and coarse language," and one parent went so far as to count the swears in The Catcher In The Rye (237 "goddams," 58 "bastards," 31 "Chrissakes," 6 "fucks"). Relatedly, Chart once made our interns do the same thing with Foxy Brown's 1999 Chyna Doll album (117 "fuck," 166 bitches," 108 "shits," 65 "asses," 10 "pussies," 36 "muthafuckas").

3. Green Day's "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?" — The undisputed spokesband for populist punk teen angst wrote this song on their 1992 Kerplunk album. The band have basically spent the last decade making albums that are essentially what Holden Caulfield would think about American politics.

2. Matthew Good's "Waiting For The Great Destruction" — Canada's musical Salinger directly references Holden Caufield in the song "Waiting For The Great Destruction." He also hates phonies.

1. Guns N' Roses' "Catcher In The Rye" — Not only did Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose write a song called "Catcher In The Rye" on his 2008 Chinese Democracy album, but he's spent half his life trying to match Salinger for reclusiveness.