Steve,
I think I will take a look at your book.  The role of Jews in rock seems related to that literary ambition you mention.  An excellent guy to read on Jewish-American culture is Stephen Whitfield.  His In Search of American Jewish Culture has a great essay on music and a few pages on rock, the Brill building, etc.  He notes that the major Jews of rock (Dylan, Paul Simon, Carly Simon, Randy Newman, Carol King, Laura Nyro) were notable for their writerliness. Punk seems an exception. (Though the non-Jewish Talking Heads were very popular with us arty Jewish types when I was in college a long time ago)