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22.
Call Me Burroughs.
Paris: The English Bookshop, (June) 1965. LP record. Burroughs’ first record release, this copy SIGNED twice by him, first in the lower margin of the back cover - “William Burroughs” - and again next to his printed name in the upper section - “For Allen De Loach William Burroughs” (De Loach first published work by Burroughs in Intrepid in March 1965).
According to Burroughs, the record originated from an idea by Gaït Frogé at the Librairie Anglaise, and it contains Burroughs reading extracts from “The Naked Lunch” on side 1 and from “The Soft Machine” and “Nova Express” on side 2.
The tapes were recorded (possibly in late 1964) in the cellar of Frogé’s English Bookshop at 42 rue de Seine using Brion Gysin’s Uher tape machine and edited by Ian Sommerville in Paris.
The sleeve's grey title lettering is by Tientje Louw, a poet, illustrator and graphic designer who moved to Paris from Amsterdam in 1960 and married Guy Harloff, then living at the Beat Hotel (his paintings were exhibited in the cellar below Frogé's bookshop).
The sleeve’s front cover photograph by Harriet Crowder (misspelt ‘Crowther’) portrays Burroughs in Brecon, Wales, in 1960, and the notes printed on the back cover are by Emmett Williams (a member of Le Domaine Poétique) and Jean-Jacques Lebel (who first met Burroughs at a reading from his work in progress, “The Naked Lunch”, in the same bookshop cellar in 1958).
Disc Excellent (slightly dusty); short tear to original inner liner; sleeve Very Good plus or better. 1000 copies pressed; seldom found signed.
