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William Burroughs with Gus Van Sant
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The Elvis of Letters
"I got all the images any hick poet ever shit out," Burroughs drawls on track
3 of 4 on this slick black-packaged ep. And it's true, like
Henry Miller, Burroughs never sat down to write "a
poem," but his brand of psychic journalism is often poetic, as a variety
of esteemed musicians who have set Burroughs' voice to music have heard.
Here,
Van Sant runs samples of Burroughs' powerful yet
delicately inflected voice through the wringer, wedding aural cut-ups to
elevator-smooth rhythms.
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Allen Ginsberg
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Howl
Perhaps the most famous poem of the 20th century, Howl was
inspired by fellow San Franciscan
Kenneth Rexroth's "Thou Shalt Not Kill," a lament
for poets such as
Dylan Thomas and
Hart Crane who were driven to self-destruction
by our corrosive age; these are the "best minds of my generation destroyed
by madness" of Howl's much-quoted opening line. This is a 1959
recording, when the poem was new and Ginsberg still had it in him to deliver
the long lines in single powerful breaths. Other tracks include gems such
as A Supermarket in California, America, Sunflower Sutra,
and Part I of Kaddish, the lament for his deceased mother Naomi.
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Timothy Leary
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You Can Be Anyone this Time Around
The Book of the Month Club billed this as "The musical equivalent of a full-blown
LSD trip." That might be stretching it a bit, but then again, what exactly
is an acid trip? This is Timothy Leary's elucidation of what was to be his
1968 CA gubernatorial campaign platform until then-guv Ronald Reagan had
him imprisoned for marijuana possession, thereby nullifying Leary's eligibility
for the candidacy. This record is what happens when one of the best minds
of a generation gets together with Stephen Stills, Buddy Miles, and Jimi
Hendrix (on bass!) for a little 21st century philosophy utilizing the cut
and splice technology pioneered by the Beatles. The title track might just
be the first example of wholesale sampling, incorporating bites of Allen
Ginsberg, John Lennon, Indian cowmaid music and more. (Incidentally, I saw
Leary speak in 1988. Armani suit and running shoes, he covered the whole
stage, all wound up about the coming wave--that was my introduction to the
Internet.)
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