And then all hell broke loose in 1983

Strange, isn't it? “Beat” evolved into a context virtually opposite from its original meaning.  But then when you think about how things turned out for Michael J., perhaps he's now rediscovered the original meaning ascribed by Herbert Huncke, “…exhausted, at the bottom of the world, looking up or out, sleepless, wide-eyed, perceptive, rejected by society, on your own… finished, completed, in the dark night of the soul…”