By the 1980s through ’90s, the Beat and postmodernist writer and artist William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) had become friends and started collaborating with a steady stream of musicians, including Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, Sonic Youth, and Throbbing Gristle. Burroughs’ collaborations continued into the late 1990s just before his death in 1997 at age 83.
Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Thom Yorke, and Ministry‘s Al Jourgensen, are just a few artists who implemented Burroughs’ “cut-up” method of writing, first introduced to him by artist Brion Gysin and inspired by a similar technique used by a Dadaists by the 1920s. Burroughs’ transgressive literature and other works also influenced everyone from Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd to Lou Reed, Patti Smith, who called him “a very good teacher,” and many others.
“I have always been drawn to the Bill Burroughs of this world, who produce a vocabulary that is not necessarily a personal one, but something that is made up of ciphers and signifiers which are regurgitated, reformed, and re-accumulated,” said Bowie, who was even interviewed by Burroughs for Rolling Stone in 1974.
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Throughout his career, Burroughs also released a collection of spoken word and collaborative albums including his 1965 debut Call Me Burroughs, featuring readings from his 1959 classic Naked Lunch, along with The Soft Machine, and Nova Express.
After collaborating with Waits and Nick Cave on a collection of prose, Smack My Crack, Burroughs contributed to its accompanying spoken-word album from 1987 with the track “Kim Like The Great Gatsby” alongside contributions from Blondie‘s Chris Stein, Butthole Surfers, Diamanda Galás, Swans, Einstürzende Neubauten, and more. Burroughs also co-wrote Waits’ 1990 play The Black Rider, and his song “That’s the Way” is featured on the 1993 album of the same name of studio recorded versions from the production.
In 1990, Burroughs also released Dead City Radio, a line of readings set to musical compositions by John Cale, Steely Dan‘s Donald Fagen, Sonic Youth, and more.
Here’s a look at some of Burrough’s most striking collaborations from the later part of his life.
1. “Sharkey’s Night,” Laurie Anderson (1984)
Written by Laurie Anderson and William S. Burroughs
In 1981, Laurie Anderson, John Giorno, and Burroughs collaborated on the spoken word album You’re the Guy I Want to Share My Money With. A few years later, Anderson’s second album, Mister Heartbreak, featured an early collaboration with Peter Gabriel, “Excellent Birds” and another contribution from Burroughs, their co-written closing track “Sharkey’s Night.” A bookend to the album opener “Sharkey’s Day,” the song features Burroughs speaking the lyrics and was later featured on Anderson’s 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.
Sun’s going down. Like a big bald head.
Disappearing behind the boulevard. (Oooeee.) It’s Sharkey’s night.
Yeah. It’s Sharkey’s night tonight. And the manager says: Sharkey?
He’s not at his desk right now. (Oh yeah.) Could I take a message?
And Sharkey says: Hey, kemosabe! Long time no see.
He says: Hey sport. You connect the dots. You pick up the pieces.
He says: You know, I can see two tiny pictures of myself
And there’s one in each of you eyes. And they’re doin’ everything I do.
Every time I light a cigarette, they light up theirs.
I take a drink and I look in and they’re drinkin’ too.
It’s drivin’ me crazy. It’s drivin’ me nuts.
2. “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him,” William S. Burroughs and Kurt Cobain (1993)
Written by Kurt Cobain and William S. Burroughs
In high school, Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain was first exposed to William S. Burroughs’ work, which heavily influenced his own writing. Cobain even enforced Burrough’s “cut-up” method. “My lyrics are total cut-up,” said Cobain.”I take lines from different poems that I’ve written. I build on a theme if I can, but sometimes I can’t even come up with an idea of what the song is about.”
Cobain first reached out to Burroughs about collaborating in 1992. Burroughs responded by sending Cobain “The Junky’s Christmas,” which was recorded in his Lawrence, Kansas studio. After Cobain added some guitar to the piece in Seattle, the two met in Kansas to work on “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him,” a spoken-word version of Burroughs’ erratic tale about a heroic addict trying to score a fix on Christmas Eve.
Fight tuberculosis, folks
Christmas Eve, an old junkie selling Christmas seals
On North Park Street
The “Priest” they called him
Fight tuberculosis, folks
People hurried by, gray shadows on a distant wall
It was getting late and no money to score
He turned into a side street and the lake wind hit him like a knife
Cab stop just ahead under a streetlight
Boy got out with a suitcase
Thin kid in prep school clothes
Familiar face, the Priest told himself
Watching from the doorway
Burroughs later released “The Junky’s Christmas” on his 1993 spoken word album Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales.
[RELATED: Why Kurt Cobain Hated Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”]
3. “Quick Fix,” Ministry (1993)
Written by William S. Burroughs
When Ministry was working on their fifth album Psalm 69, they enlisted Burroughs, who singer Al Jourgensen had recently befriended. “I was using the same cut-up method that William Burroughs used, only I was doing it with music, which is why he and I hit it off a few years later when we met to work on the song ‘Just One Fix,’” wrote Jourgensen in his 2013 memoir Ministry: the lost gospels according to Al Jourgensen.
Burroughs provided the cover art for the single and appeared in the video for “Just One Fix,” then wrote a remix of the song, which he also appears on, “Quick Fix.”
Put it country simple
Earth has a lot of things other folks might want like the whole planet. And maybe these folks would like a few changes made
Like more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and room for their way of life
We’ve seen this happen before right in these United States. Your way of life destroyed the Indian’s way of life
The Indian Reservation is extinction
But I offer this distinction: I’m with the invaders, no use trying to hide that
And at the same time I disagree with some of the things they are doing
Oh, we’re not united any more than you are
Oh, we’re not united any more than you are
[RELATED: Ministry Flush Out Fallacies on ‘Moral Hygiene’]
4. “Star Me Kitten,” R.E.M. (1996)
Written by Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Michael Mills, and Peter Buck
In 1996, Burroughs joined R.E.M.’s re-recording of a slower tempo “Star Me Kitten,” originally featured on their 1992 album Automatic for the People. The new version with Burroughs was released on the compilation Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files.
The song is about a broken love, and one half who who has already changed the locks on the other.
Keys cut, three for the price of one
Nothing’s free but guaranteed for a lifetime’s use
I’ve changed the locks
And you can’t have one
You, you know the other two
The brakes have worn so thin that you could hear
I hear them screeching through the door from our driveway
Hey, love, look into your glove box heart
What is there for me inside? This love is tired
I’ve changed the locks
Have I misplaced you?
Have we lost our minds?
Will this never end?
It could depend on your take
You, me, we used to be on fire
If keys are all that stand between
Can I throw in the ring?
No gasoline
Just f–k me kitten
You are wild and I’m in your possession
Nothing’s free so, f–k me, kitten
[RELATED: R.E.M. Performs for First Time in 17 Years at the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame]
Photo: Tb/Ts/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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