Cheap Elvis Of Letters (Music) (William S. Burroughs) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Elvis Of Letters

The Third Mind Sings
Just four tracks of old-school Burroughs sound-bites (cut up, even!) over guitar/drum/bass folky jazziness by Van Sant the future filmmaker. Unlike most of the work WSB did with Bill Laswell et al., these are less about the content of his writing and more about its effects. They demonstrate cut-ups and repetition and inching and can launch endless psychosensory experimentation.

I must say that I was disturbed at first by the mundanity of Van Sant's music, but now appreciate it as inobtrusive. It does what it does quite well, providing quiet rhythm to Burroughs' "melodies." The man's voice lends itself remarkably well to musical accompaniment, even when cut-up - it's amazing that any kind of verbal flow can remain after cut-and-paste, much less normal-sounding speech! You've never heard anything like this before, though it seems as familiar as a remembered dream.

---

WSB Meets GVS
Originally released in 1985, this EP was one of Gus Van Sant's last music releases before his career as a film director took off with "Mala Noche." It features Van Sant's wonderful rolling guitar backing up the voice of William S. Burroughs. Most of the vocals are snipped from the 1966 "Call Me Burroughs" album, and are looped, altered, and ran through delay pedals in the tradition of the cut-up technique made famous by Brion Gysin and Burroughs. This formula produces the best results on "Millions of Images," easily the disc's best track. The selections shift back and forth from impressive, dreamlike sonic washes of guitar and voice to jagged, disorienting collages of verbal dementia. Out of the numerous audio titles available by Burroughs, this is far from essential. However, it's interesting enough to warrant attention from fans of the legendary writer, and the few who have followed Van Sant's musical output (he has two other CDs of home-recorded material from 1983-84 on the Pop Secret label). Van Sant would work with the author again by putting him in his films "Drugstore Cowboy" and "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues."