THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."-William S. Burroughs
Ending a week of jazz/beat poetry consumption by waking up to realize it is William Burroughs’ birthday. Book editor/publisher great Ira Silverberg posted this tribute to Burroughs this morning:
“William S Burroughs, without whom 20th century fiction might have been trapped in the 19th, and with whom we entered the 21st early, was born on this day in 1914…He continues to inspire across a multitude of art forms to a broad array of people despite many factors that might have led to an early death during his lifetime or cancellation posthumously. Visionary about our planet; cautionary about opioids; champion of reckless abandon; godfather of punk; and Pope of the decadent queers.”
I first read Junkie in my early twenties. Burroughs talks about addiction within its pages as something that develops over time, not just in a few days or weeks. He wasn’t just talking about heroin addiction, he was talking about the path most all humans follow as we find and cement—sometimes consciously sometimes not—our addictions: eating, drinking, collecting, exercising, anon. I came face to face with my record collecting addiction when we last moved house and I had to personally lug 13,000 records from one place to another. We all seem to develop addictions, some bad some good some mixed. Burroughs’ used his own infamous addictions to inform us all.
And then there is Burroughs’ cut-up poetry technique…where you take a poem, cut the lines up and rearrange them randomly to create a new art piece with new potential. This was SO ahead of the time, at least with Western art. Only artists like John Cage, Byron Gysin and a few others were doing similar work. And now, this idea of creation through random occurrence fuels so many artists’ methods.
Yes, Burroughs was truly a complex character..and one who had some truly evil sides to him (and committed some horrendous acts that are impossible to overlook). But the impact he had on the art of writing...of art in general…is hard to overlook.
The 100 Most Expensive Records Ever Sold on Discogs
Federal Cross of Merit for Bear Family founder and music producer Richard Weize
Richard Weize is legendary as the person behind the Bear Family label that has over the years produced hundreds of BIG completist box sets like: the complete Carter Family catalog…or five volumes of the complete Sun Singles…it goes on. And yes, he was able to afford to do these largely due to the different copyright & public domain laws in Europe, making them affordable to produce and sell. But he truly deserves recognition and this article lays out his full contribution to the history of the recorded sound. YOU WILL NEED SOME SORT OF TRANSLATION PLUG-IN TO READ THIS ARTICLE.
In the Months After a Devastating Blast, Beirut’s Art Scene Searches for New Life
This is a beautiful article about the survival of the artist the needed power of art.
Weekend Listen: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: The Matrix Tapes
For two nights in November, 1969 the Velvet Underground played The Matrix Club in San Francisco. The owner of the club really liked them, so even though the club was nowhere near full, he pulled out a four track tape recorder he reserved for recording very special shows and proceeded to create the best known live recordings of the band. I am a huge Velvets fan and collector and when this beautiful artifact was released a few years back, I was just stunned. They play through their career on these nights, often doing different arrangements of the songs as the sets go on…with piled high epic jamming and improvisation: they were just in great form. This lengthy number might take you the weekend to get through, but if you want to hear Lou Reed in full power, and Sterling, Moe and Doug in lock step behind him, The Matrix tapes will not disappoint one bit.
Dead Whistle Stop Already End
By William Burroughs
Ahab to his companion falling over there in any out from the dawn
skin staring stirring unbelief he strode towards a long
drink and looked into the the actors ourselves become
muzzle of Spain and 42 St. old banner illustrating
I was standing by the wax before dead whistle stop already
cross the red moon terminal time scarred end.
scanning patterns on my face me in your back, pal”
dawn words falling will say it all consists in irradiating
this dead whistle stop in the language before creation
he strode towards the actors in the city “Here he is now”
obsidian morning sniffing quivering need masturbating afternoons
spitting blood dead rainbow flesh he moved as sharp as
on the iron streets fish smell and dead eyes water reeds
scarred metal faces running into the mines liquid typewriter
flickered on field where flesh circulates red fish talk falling
he strode towards pant smell language like muttering
Spain and 42 st. running in the gutter where is he now?
the actors dead dawn word falling he was caught in the zoo
whistle stop already scanning patterns jissom webs drifting
slow ferris wheel running rainbow flesh over the White Subway
