William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock and Roll
by Casey Rae (Music 781.66 Burroughs)
Novelist William Burroughs wasn’t a
musician, and there are rarely descriptions of music or musical events in his
writing, yet his evocative work is often referenced by musicians. Author Casey
Rae has published a book that explores these links, called William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock and Roll,
and while I ultimately find the book to be fairly flawed, there are some
interesting musical moments documented here.
Particularly during the periods
where Burroughs lived in London and then New York City in the 1960s and 70s, he
was introduced to many people who were inspired by his work, among them many
musicians. By the 80s and 90s, he was living in Lawrence, KS, and he often
accepted musical collaborations that simply required him to record himself
reading in a studio near his home. From there, his voice recordings were sent
off to various musicians to use as they desired. I suspect that he thought of
these collaborations more as work than pleasure—his income from writing was
never particularly fruitful, and once he became known as a Beat Generation
icon, he realized that he could leverage public appearances and collaborations
as another form of income.
A brief introduction outlines most
of the musicians we’ll learn about in more detail through the rest of the book.
This is followed by a chapter about Burroughs’ single long-distance
collaboration with Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, and a retelling of the later occasion
where they met at Burroughs’ Lawrence home. Then the book dips back in time to
the 60s, from which it moves forward again more or less chronologically to the
end. I found this to be a strange formatting choice—his association with Cobain
was minimal, to be generous, and is Cobain somehow more notable than other
artists mentioned throughout the book like David Bowie or Bob Dylan? The author
is a Gen-X fellow, as am I, so I’m sure his awareness of Burroughs is somehow
associated in time with Cobain’s rise to stardom. But I don’t think there’s a
compelling reason to place Cobain at the beginning of this book. It feels
awkward.
As we get into each musician in
Burroughs’ orbit throughout the book, a similar kind of narrative structure
guides us along: we read a bit about a time and place in Burroughs’ life (and
sometimes we flash back to earlier points for more context), and we get a quick
summary biography of a musician, setting us up for a (usually fleeting)
interaction between the two. As each of these meetings take place, the general
theme of the book comes into view, which is that Burroughs as a counterculture
figure has either influenced the musician in a general way, or that the
Burroughs cut-up methods used in his early 60s “Nova Trilogy” are techniques they’ve
found revelatory for manipulating lyrics, sound, or both. Musicians influenced
by his counterculture status generally manifest the influence explicitly,
through song titles, lyrics, or band names such as The Soft Machine, Steely
Dan, or the Wild Boys. Musicians influenced more by his cut-up techniques
manifest what they’ve borrowed from Burroughs more implicitly, like the
rapid-fire audio cutups of John Oswald or the lyrical manipulation Bob Dylan
and David Bowie tried on a few songs.
But what I find frustrating about
the book is that the relationships aren’t mutual, or even relationships at all.
Burroughs didn’t know much about the work of these artists, and didn’t
particularly care, either. I felt the same way years ago reading the Victor
Bockris book With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker, which
documented many evenings of dinners at the Burroughs “bunker” in NYC. That book
is a succession of folks being brought in front of Burroughs, many of whom
obviously looked up to him while he knew little about them. It felt
exploitative, like the people surrounding him were mostly interested in seeing
what shenanigans might occur. That’s mostly the level of relationship in the
musician/Burroughs interactions featured here. Among the musicians that he
clicks more fully with, it’s because they have mutual interests, experiences or
ideologies that have nothing to do with music.
There are a few little mistakes and
omissions in the book as well. The Burroughs/Cobain collaboration EP is
mentioned as being a “two-song set,” but there is only one. When the
Gysin/Sommerville flicker machine is mentioned, it’s called a “Dream Machine,”
but the actual device was marketed as the stylized “Dreamachine.”
Interestingly, there’s no mention that Burroughs directed Cobain to David
Woodard, a bespoke producer of Dreamachines, and that Cobain had some related
electronic gadgets on hand as well. And some connections that might have made
musical collaborations with Burroughs more interesting are omitted: both Daevid
Allen and Bill Laswell are interviewed, for example, and both worked with
Burroughs, but it would have been noteworthy to mention that Laswell got his
start in the music business playing in Allen’s New York Gong band, which
morphed into Laswell’s early Material project.
So there is an influence to be
documented here, but it’s an abstract one, not really musical, and it’s
fundamentally a pretty obvious kind of influence that might not have merited a
book. If you’re a Burroughs fan, or a fan of various strains of prog, punk,
folk, industrial, hip-hop and pop from the 60s to the 90s, you’ll find some
interesting tidbits to read about here, but ultimately I think the notion that
Burroughs was a pervasive underground influence on music is overstated. While
he was involved with more music-related projects than many of his literary
contemporaries, a lot of that came down to his relative accessibility and his
need for income. While this book provides a unique way to navigate both
Burroughs’ biography and popular music trends of the 60s through the early 90s,
the two elements ultimately remain parallel stories rather than interconnected
relationships.
(If you enjoy this, you may also
wish to try Music of the Counterculture Era by James E. Perone, Gentleman Junkie: The Life and Legacy of William S. Burroughs
by Graham Caveney or Nonbinary: A Memoir by Genesis P-Orridge.)
( official Williams
S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock and Roll web site )
Recommended
by Scott S.
Polley Music Library
Have you read or listened to
this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
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