William S. Burroughs - Dead City Radio

You know people say you should be grateful to your parents? Well I'm more grateful than you can imagine to my dad for introducing me to this. I remember being twelve and him sitting me down in his studio to listen to "Dead City Radio". In my youthful ignorance I put up a fair bit of a fight about it but after a few minutes of absorbing Burroughs' dry aged voice, I had no intention of leaving my chair. Even at that young age I could tell the man was a literary genius.

Burroughs' was a writer but he put out a number of spoken word records towards the end of his life. The one that gripped me the hardest was this. An hour of him hacking away at the bitter, corrupt and ill place that America was and is. He was the conscience that America didn't know it had. Whilst he himself had done a number of immoral and unpleasant things throughout his life, he was still fantastic at attacking the greater evils in society. He wasn't a revolutionary by any standards. More of a man with the intention of making us all think about our actions and what we're contributing to the world whilst he fiercely dug in to the people in power.

I've given you two sample tracks that are fantastic little stories in their own right. But for the full experience, get the record. If you have a very long attention span and the ability to follow the most bizarre trains of though, I recommend his books too.

Ah Pook The Destroyer
Kill The Badger

Expired