UbuWeb Sound :: William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)

Junky (1953) read by William S. Burroughs

Call Me Burroughs

NOTES

CALL ME BURROUGHS contains excerpts from the novels NAKED LUNCH, NOVA EXPRESS and THE SOFT MACHINE.
Reissue producers: James Grauerholz, James Austin.
Recorded at the English Bookshop, Paris, France in 1965. Originally released on ESP-Disk (1050). Includes liner notes by Emmett Williams, Jean-Jacques Label, Barry Alfonso and Barry Miles.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Originally released in 1965, this spoken word record was the first foray into the recording industry by Beat legend William S. Burroughs. Subsequently Burroughs recorded a number of solo projects, in addition to collaborating with everyone from John Cale and Laurie Anderson to Tom Waits and Kurt Cobain. The CD booklet contains a wealth of information about Burroughs, the manner in which these recordings were made, and about the Beat community in Paris in the 50's and 60's, as well as including the liner notes of original 1965 edition of the album.

This collection features excerpts from three novels, NAKED LUNCH, SOFT MACHINE, and NOVA EXPRESS. The excerpts--which, read as short stories, are independent and do not require listener to be familiar with the novels--follow the exploits of junkies, prostitutes, doctors, and others as they move through grisly underworlds without concern for the borders between reality and hallucination. By turns, they are blackly funny and deeply sinister, often within the same piece. Delivered in an instantly recognizable, craggy and clipped mid-western drawl, CALL ME BURROUGHS gives these words a voice that will reverberate for listeners wherever Burroughs' name is mentioned.

from Singer Saints blog:
The "frogman" Charles M. Bogert's jaunty midwestern tones inevitably suggest the native american strains of William Burroughs reading from NAKED LUNCH and NOVA EXPRESS, captured for posterity in Paris in 1965 and released on - you guessed it - ESP-Disk. This recording remains the perfect introduction to the world of William Burroughs. What had previously been an avant-garde experiment on the page - the notorious "cut-ups" - is magically transformed by that familiar sepulchral yet amazingly flexible voice into vivid characterizations, hilarious routines, surreal poetry and a surprising poignancy, a nostalgic quality never entirely absent from Uncle Bill's reminiscences.

Breakthrough in the Grey Room

1. K-9 Was in Combat with the Alien Mind-Screens (13:29)

Early cut-up of tapes made by Ian Sommerville and WSB around 1965, probably in New York and London.

2. Origin and Theory of the Tape Cut-Ups (3:43)

From a lecture given by WSB at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute, April 20, 1976.

3. Recalling All Active Agents (1:25)

Excerpt from tape made in 1960 by Brion Gysin at BBC Studios in London, using BG's permutational technique.

4. Silver Smoke of Dreams

Tape made in early 1960s by Ian Sommerville and WSB, using the "drop-in" method.

5. Junk Relations (2:56)

Excerpt from a radio talk by WSB in 1961 in London. "A Day in the Life of a Junkie." Tape courtesy of the University of Kansas Libraries.

6. Jojuka (1:30)

Excerpt from live tape made by WSB at the Jojuka Fetival in the hills of Morocco with Ornette Coleman, Jan. 18, 1973.

7. Curse Go Back (1:12)

From early 1960s tape, WSB chanting an anti-curse.

8. Present Time Exercises (2:18)

Casette work by WSB in London, ca. 1971, using radio, television, several tape recorders.

9. Jojuka (0:42)

10. Working with the Popular Forces

WSB cut-ups with Dutch Schultz's last words and news texts, shortwave radio noise. Mid '60s, London

11. Interview with Mr. Martin (2:59)

Excerpt from WSB performance at the ICA in London, Feb. 28, 1963.

12. Jojuka (1:26)

13. Sound Piece (2:14)

Produced by Ian Somerville using the inching technique, 1960s?

14. Jojuka (2:39)

15. Burroughs Called the Law (1:34)

WSB routine recorded mid-1960s - dropping a dime on the Nova Mob.

William S. Burroughs - Various Tracks

16. from Naked Lunch (1977)

17. from "The Wild Boys" (1974)

18. What Washington, What Orders (1974)

19. Keynote Commentary / Roosevelt After Inauguration (1978)

20. Benway (1978)

21. from The Gay Gun: This is Kim Carson / Just Like The Collapse of any Currency / The Whole Tamale (1978)

22. What the Nova Convention is About (1978)

23. Conversations | William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Timothy Leary, Les Levine, and Robert Anton Wilson (1978)

24. When Did I Stop Wanting to be President (1975)

25. "This, gentlemen, is a death dwarf..." (1965)

26. "Mister Bradley Mister Martin..." (1965)

27. William S. Burroughs - Introducing John Stanley Hart; He Entered the Bar with the Best of Intentions

28. William S. Burroughs - Twilight's Last Gleamings

29. William S. Burroughs - By Protagonist Kim Carson

30. William S. Burroughs - The Do Rights

31. William S. Burroughs - Salt Chunk Mary; Like Mr. Hart, Kim Has a Dark Side to His Character

32. William S. Burroughs - Progressive Education

33. William S. Burroughs - The Wild Fruits

34. William S. Burroughs - The Unworthy Vessel

35. William S. Burroughs - Excerpts from The Western Land: The President, Colonel Bradford, Everyman a God

36. William S. Burroughs - "Dinosaurs"

37.William S. Burroughs - "The Chief Smiles" from The Wild Boys (1974, 6:50)

38. William S. Burroughs - The Green Nun" from The Wild Boys (1974, 3:32)

39.William S. Burroughs - excerpt from "Ah Pook Is Here" (1975, 12:00)

40.William S. Burroughs - excerpt from "Cities Of The Red Night" (1975, 10:00)

41. William S. Burroughs - excerpt from "103rd Street Boys" from Junkie" (1975, 7:29)

42. William S. Burroughs - excerpt from "Naked Lunch" (1975, 20:28)

43. William S. Burroughs - "From Here To Eternity" from Exterminator (1974, 3:40)

William S. Burroughs + Brion Gysin + P.Orridge - Cold Spring Tape (1989)

Label: Cold Spring
Format: Cassette, Limited Edition, C90
Country: United Kingdom
Released: 1989
Genre: Non Music
Style: Interview, Spoken Word
Notes: Limited edition of 100 numbered copies

Junky (1953)
Read By William S. Burroughs

Track 1

NOTES

Junky
Written By William S. Burroughs
Book Published In 1953
Running Time Approx. 3 Hours
Read By William S. Burroughs
Language: English

Junky (alternately titled Junkie) is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by William S. Burroughs. It was his first published novel and has come to be considered a seminal text on the lifestyle of heroin addicts in the early 1950s. Burroughs' working title was Junk.

The novel was considered unpublishable more than it was controversial. Burroughs began it largely at the request and insistence of Allen Ginsberg, who was impressed by Burroughs’s letter-writing skill. Burroughs took up the task with little enthusiasm. However, partly because he saw that becoming a publishable writer was possible (his friend Jack Kerouac had published his first novel The Town and the City in 1950), he began to compile his experiences as an addict, ‘lush roller’ and small-time Greenwich Village heroin pusher.

Burroughs's work would not have been published but for Allen Ginsberg’s drive and determination. Apart from his own artistic output, Ginsberg can justly be remembered as a great teacher of writing. Throughout his life, he shepherded many artistic works to fruition. Junkie was probably the first. Besides encouraging Burroughs to write, he worked as editor and agent for the manuscript while the manuscript was written in Mexico City during Burroughs’ forced flight from pending drug charges in New Orleans. The companion piece to Junky, Queer, was written at the same time and parts of Queer were designed to be included in Junkie, since the first manuscript was dismissed as poorly written and lacking in interest and insight. After many rejection letters, Burroughs stopped writing.

Ginsberg miraculously found a publisher in a psychiatric hospital in New Jersey. He had admitted himself to a Hoboken hospital after getting kicked out of Columbia University. A. A. Wyn, who owned Ace Books, was pressured to consider the work upon the insistence of his nephew, Carl Solomon, who had been hospitalized in the same facility as Ginsberg. With this news, Ginsberg forced Burroughs to revisit the text. Ginsberg soothed Burroughs's indignation at the necessary edits, and was able to finally place the novel with the New York publishing house.

Junky is the kind of novel that you cannot read until you abandon all pretenses. Forget for a moment that this was Burroughs' first book, put aside the fact that he was himself a junky, and put your personal opinions of drug use and abuse, as well as Burroughs himself, on hold. The attempt made by Junky as a piece of art is to honestly and fairly put forward an in-depth look at a side of American life that was virtually overlooked until its publication. The novel delves very deeply into a world that, though many would rather ignore it all together, has gotten progressively worse to this day.

Junky offers a detailed account of a drug addict's entrance into the seedy underworld, his daily search for a fix, the shady characters he must rely on, and the suffering he experiences while trying to fix himself. The purpose is to fully immerse the reader in the world of a man engulfed in addiction.

The hero is actually an intelligent man, who immediately recognizes the risk taken in his experiments with narcotics. He also realizes, although a little too late, the fact that he has become an addict himself, and now needs the drug for basic survival. He is also rational. He recognizes his dismal circumstances, but also recognizes his guilt in the matter, and in no way tries to gain sympathy from the reader. The hero is aware of what he has done to himself, and does nothing to deny his responsibility.

Junky in no way glamorizes drug use; on the contrary, in the sections that describe heroin as appealing, Burroughs is showing the immeasurable control the drug has quietly acquired over the user, distorting the addict's perception of what is happening to him.

Junky pulls the reader into a dark underworld of society and depicts a man's struggle to regain his life, or what's left of it after the plague of addiction is eliminated. Burroughs holds nothing back. He uses a method of detailing the more shocking parts of the hero's experiences with a calm and almost casual frankness. This slowly makes them seem less disturbing, and introduces the reader more and more to the addicts point of view. Burroughs even attempts to alter the reader's point of view, subtly bringing the reader closer to the mind of the junky, and eventually creating an unexpected affection for a seemingly unlovable character, who appears to have very little about him that is redeeming. You begin to care for this lost, pathetic man, as you watch him attempt cure after cure, method after method, finally having to flee the country to avoid prosecution. The reader can do nothing but look on, as each good intention crumbles, making the hero more and more incapable of escaping the grip of the addiction.

Burroughs states many times the degree of influence heroin has over the addict, illustrating how all other activities become less like life and more like a limbo of nothingness between scores. The junky's life is consumed. His days become more and more about scoring, leaving less and less room for anything else. By the time the hero becomes aware of having a problem, it is too late, he has become a slave to the drug. He doesn't need the heroin to simply get high; he needs the heroin because he cannot survive without it. Burroughs states the difference between other drugs, which are about the high they induce, and heroin: "Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life."

There are no hidden intentions in Junky. It does not aspire to create a greater sympathy for drug addicts, nor does it make any gallant attempts at scaring away potential users. Junky has no agenda, good or bad, for its influence in the world. It simply lays out the facts, leaving them for the reader to do what they want with them. The novel is a clear, concise, and direct journey into the mind and world of a man diseased, told in brutally honest narration, without a hint of shame or pity.

This is, in my opinion, a worthy piece of literature to invest the time into reading, not only for a Burroughs fan, but for any reader who enjoys thought-provoking subject-matter and stories containing complex and intriguing characters. Basically, anyone who appreciates well-written fiction has the ability to appreciate the dark, subtle wit and stark, desperate tone of Junky, as long as they read it with an open mind. It is a chronicle, a picture, a record of a dark way of life. And as that, it succeeds.

Tracks 1-15 From the CD Break Through in Grey Room (Sub Rosa CD006-8)

Track 16, 2:14, St. Marks Chruch, NYC, April 9, 1977, from the LP Dial-A-Poem Poets Big Ego

Track 17, 8:20, 6:53, Recorded Duke Street, London, Nov. 19, 1971, from the LP Dial-A-Poem Poets

Track 18, recorded GPS, April 1, 1974, from the LP Dial-A-Poem Poets Disconnnected

Tracks 19-23, recorded at the Nova Convention, NYC, 1978 from the LP The Nova Convention

Track 24-26, Nova Express, excerpts read by the author, from Aspen No. 5+6

Track 27-34 from Dial-A-Poem-Poets: "You're The Guy I Want To Share My Money With"

Track 35 from Dial-A-Poem-Poets: "A Diamond Hidden In The Mouth Of A Corpse" (1985)

Track 36 from Dial-A-Poem-Poets: "Better An Old Demon Than A New God" (1984)

Track 37-43 from Dial-A-Poem-Poets: "William S. Burroughs / John Giorno" (1975)

During the 1960s, William Burroughs was in Europe and England. The Vietnam War, the Cultural Revolution, hippies and the acid gospel, the U S. in tumult, all these were dispatches to him. Living between Paris and London, his only excursions to America were in 1965, when he lived for a year in New York at the Chelsea Hotel and 210 Centre Street, and revisited St, Louis and Palm Beach; and in 1968, when he covered the Democratic Convention in Chicago for Esquire in the company of Genet, Southern and Seaver. Burroughs had quit the States in 1953 exactly because he foresaw these police-state conditions.

But now the wild boys were in the streets, in London and Paris too, and Burroughs was inspired to hope that the world could really change. In the creative world-switchboard of the Beat Hotel, in various London hotels, in a house in the Arab Quarter of Tangier, he experimented with tape recordings, hoping to cut the pre-recorded time line of pre-sent time, and let the future leak through.

Many of these tapes are as much Ian Sommerville's work as Burroughs or even more. Ian's technical background enabled him to contribute to the early development of sound-and-light shows in London, and at one point he worked in a studio furnished by Paul McCartney.

Ian was a sorcerer's apprentice, and the other sorcerer was the late Brion Gysin. The development of all the early cut-up techniques was a pure collaboration between Gysin and Burroughs. It was Brion who led the way on a crusade to rub out the word, and with Antony Blach the cut-up was applied to film, in Towers Open Fire, The Cut-Ups, and Ghosts at No. 9.

It is a long way back to the 1960s and sometimes hard to remember the sense of urgency and revolution then, of danger and discovery, that informed the literature of opposition. That there is now, in 2001, a market for these archival materials shows that this work was seminal, even though it has been little distributed until recent years.

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