An open reel tape recording of the BBC radio programme featuring Daevid Allen’s tape composition, “The Switch Doctor”, broadcast on the Third Programme on September 19, 1967. Quarter inch tape on a 7-inch plastic spool, recorded at 7.5 ips. Duration 32.20 (including George MacBeth’s introduction, in which he refers to Soft Machine’s “experimental amalgam of poetry, psychedelics and pop”, and the continuity announcer who begins and ends the broadcast in true BBC received pronunciation). Allen was commissioned to make the tape collage for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1965, and he produced it in 1966 using..... More about The Switch Doctor

Santa Barbara, CA: Cadmus Editions, 1981. Double LP record (FPV47423). Erratum slip present. One of 100 numbered copies SIGNED by the author. The colophon sheet prints an important essay by Bowles, who made the recordings on a Uher 1000 Report L in Tangier in 1978. The tapes, which feature Bowles reading his Moroccan kif stories, were edited by John Taylor and Daniel Webster in Hollywood, California. Sleeve design by Graham Mackintosh. The cover illustration features a colour reproduction of the Djmaa el Fna, a watercolour by Brion Gysin (not found in the trade edition)... More about A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard

Hollywood, CA: private pressing (produced and distributed by Lenny Bruce), c. 1962/63. 10-inch LP record (LB-9001/9002). An unopened copy, still factory sealed in shrink wrap. Acquired from the record producer and recording engineer, Bones Howe, who helped Lenny make the record (Howe later worked with Elvis Presley and Tom Waits, among others). Contains a recording of Lenny’s performance at San Francisco’s Jazz Workshop in October 1961, which he intended to play at his trial in March 1962. The routines are “A Pretty Bizarre Show” (in which the use of the word “cocksuckers” led to his arrest for giving..... More about Recording Submitted As Evidence In The San Francisco Obscenity Trial In March 1962

SF: Bitter Lemon Records, 1975. LP record. Sleeve photographs by Edmund Shea (best known for his Brautigan book covers). Produced by Joe Wolberg (then manager of City Lights Books), with brief sleeve notes by him (“Bukowski lives in the underbelly of America… with the whores, pimps, gamblers, bouncers and bums of Hollywood”). Bukowski recorded live reading selections from his work at the City Lights Poets Theater, San Francisco, September 14, 1973 (stated, though actually 1972). This famous event, sponsored by City Lights and Bukowski’s biggest live reading to date, was held at the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood..... More about Poems & Insults!

Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1978. LP record (7021). Front cover photograph by Michael Montfort. Edited by Carl Weissner. Bukowski reading in the Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany, May 18, 1978. The gatefold sleeve prints the texts of the poems in both English and German. Lacks the large photographic poster of the author originally issued with the record. Disc Near Mint in Very Good, slightly rubbed and lightly worn sleeve. More about Hello, It’s Good To Be Back

Coventry: Beat Scene, nd. (1991). Single-side 331/3rpm 7-inch flexi-disc (BS 001), originally issued with Beat Scene #12. Insert photograph by Linda King. A live recording, with the usual interaction between Bukowski and the audience. Disc excellent, with Near Fine printed insert and outer polythene sleeve, as issued. More about Love & Fame & Death/I’ve Always Had Trouble With Money

Quarter inch tape on two 10.5-inch aluminium NAB reels. 70.00 + 32.00; recording speeds vary (7.5 + 3.75 ips). i) The first part of the first tape (10.53) consists of cut-up radio broadcasts; the second section (approx. 20.00) comprises a recording of “One Step Beyond”, an American TV documentary inspired by Andrija Puharich (who features in the programme) and his book “The Sacred Mushroom: Key to the Door of Eternity”; the third part (approx. 26.00) features radio and other cut-up recordings intersecting with an unidentified person reading from a critical text on Burroughs, with Burroughs’ cut-in responses; and the..... More about Two open reel tapes featuring approximately 100 minutes of recordings made by William Burroughs...

Quarter inch tape on 7-inch plastic spools. Duration 76.00 + 41.00; 3.75 ips. Tapes housed in a hinged BASF box with typed title labels to front and spine (probably typed by Burroughs, who often used black and red typewriter ribbons), and an Audiotape box with Burroughs’ ink holograph title, “The Inheritors”, to upper panel. i) The first tape begins with a good sound quality recording of Burroughs reading “The Last Words of Hassan-i Sabbah”, made in Paris at the Beat Hotel in 1959. The tape is listed in the “Catalogue of the William S. Burroughs Archive II” (Bonn/Basel..... More about Two open reel tapes, including recordings of William Burroughs reading “The Last Words of...

Probably recorded in either Tangier, Paris or London, c. 1961/62 (the precise locations and dates are difficult to determine since Burroughs moved frequently during this period and always took his machines and tapes with him). Quarter inch tape on a 5-inch BASF plastic spool. Duration 31.30; 3.75 ips. Housed in a plain white card tape box with number ‘2’ written on the lid, together with the original circular plastic cover and printed BASF insert card, inscribed in pencil by Brion Gysin: “Marrakesh music WSB singing medleys”. The tape begins with percussive Jajouka music (approx. 6.24), excerpts..... More about An open reel tape of William Burroughs singing titles and lyrics from the Great American...

Paris: The English Bookshop, (June) 1965. LP record. Virtually as new (vinyl unplayed and Mint; original plain paper inner sleeve and jacket near perfect). An exceptional copy. More about Call Me Burroughs

NY: Roaring Fork Press, 1967. 8-inch double-sided 331/3 rpm flexi-disc, originally issued as part of Aspen 5 + 6. One side features two extracts from side 2 of “Call Me Burroughs”, and the other features Alain Robbe-Grillet reading an extract from “Jealousy”, recorded by Aspen in Paris in November 1967. Fair condition only, with marks, scratches and bends; plays ok, but with pronounced snap, crackle and pop background noise. More about Nova Express (excerpts

London: Industrial Records, 1981. LP record (IR 0016). Cut-ups and other tape recorder experiments from Burroughs’ archives, dating from 1959 to 1978, but mainly from the early 60s, compiled by Peter Christopherson and James Grauerholz. Front cover photograph and sleeve design by Christopherson; sleeve notes by Genesis P-Orridge (an announcement for the album in Industrial News in 1980 read: “We recommend all writings by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin as some of the most important alchemical writing relating to mass media, control processes, sexuality and humankind”). The album (the title for which came from “The..... More about Nothing Here Now but the Recordings

Np.: Les Temps Modernes, 1986. LP record (LTM V:XX). Cover photographs by Brion Gysin and John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins. Contains “Twilight’s Last Gleamings”, “The Doctor is on the Market”, “Old Sarge Smiles”, “From Here to Eternity”, “Meeting of International Conference of Technical Psychiatry”, “Ah Pook is Here (Excerpt)”, “Junkie (Excerpt)” and “Towers Open Fire”. The album was dedicated to Brion Gysin, who died a few months before its release. Near Mint in sleeve. More about The Doctor Is On The Market

(Brussels): Interior Music, 1987. LP record (IM001). “Minutes to Go! is respectfully dedicated to William Seward Burroughs and his CutUp method of composition. Listen to his Last Words anywhere.” Burroughs contributes four tracks: “Abandoned Artifacts”, “Towers Open Fire”, “On The Nova Lark”, and “Twilight’s Last Gleamings”. The other writers and artists featured are The Anti Group, Cabaret Voltaire, Tuxedomoon, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Derrida, and Winston Tong. Scratch to The Anti Group track, which clicks throughout but plays, o/w Very Good plus in sleeve. More about Minutes To Go!

Portland, OR: Tim/Kerr Records (1993), new edition (1997). Single-sided 10-inch picture-disc record (TK9210044), with the etched signatures of William Burroughs and Kurt Cobain to one side. Produced by James Grauerholz. Burroughs reading extracts from “Exterminator!” backed by Kurt Cobain, with Burroughs recorded at Red House Studios in Lawrence, Kansas, in September 1992 and Cobain’s feedback/noise overdubbed separately at Laundry Room Studios in Seattle two months later (one of his last recordings). Mint in sleeve. More about The “Priest” They Called Him

NY: Grove Press, 1998. First edition. 532pp. Edited by James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg. Introduction by Ann Douglas. Prints eight sections and extracts from “The Naked Lunch”, along with other selections from Burroughs’ most important work. A CD of Burroughs reading (a selection from “The Best of William Burroughs From Giorno Poetry Systems”) is contained in a sleeve at the rear of the book. CD sleeve opened, o/w Fine in dw. More about Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

(London): Paradigm Discs, 2016. LP record (PD31), fourth edition. Clear vinyl. Limited edition of 500 copies, each one individually numbered on a large insert which reproduces a scaled-up contact sheet of nine photographs of Burroughs in London (1960) by Harriet Crowder on one side and prints “The London Years”, a text by Ben Harper, to the other. The sleeve’s front cover prints one of Crowder’s London photos of Burroughs on the front and one from his trip to Wales in 1960 on the back (the very next frame was used for the cover of “Call Me Burroughs”)... More about Curse Go Back

(London): Paradigm Discs, 2021. LP record (PD36). Limited edition of 1000 copies, each one individually numbered on a large insert which prints a photograph of the Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton on one side and detailed notes on the recordings by Jim Pennington to the other. The sleeve’s front cover prints a photograph of Burroughs at the Beat Hotel (1962) by Aldo Durazzi, and the back cover shows him in Brecon (1960) in a photograph by Harriet Crowder. The record is a re-issue of “Ali’s Smile”, mastered from the original vinyl recording, and “Nova Dispatches”, a tape..... More about Ali's Smile

Ingatestone, Essex: 1974. Ed. Henri Chopin. A 331/3 rpm 10-inch LP record featuring a reading by William Burroughs (a second excerpt from “Valentine Day Reading”), and sound poetry by Åke Hodell, Charles Amirkhanian, Ladislav Novák, Arthur Rimbaud, and Henri Chopin. Originally issued as part of the final issue of Revue OU, this is one of a small number of copies released separately by Chopin. Unplayed, in cellophane inner sleeve and plain white card outer sleeve. More about OU Revue-Disque 42-43-44

Santa Barbara, CA: Am Here Books Catalogue Five, 1981/1982. Trade issue (there was also a deluxe edition issued with various inserts). 4to. Stiff glossy wrps. Cover design (a homage to Brion Gysin) by the proprietor of Am Here Books, Richard Aaron. Printed at the Peace Press, Los Angeles. A catalogue of modern literature offered for sale (more than 2000 items), with commentary by William Burroughs (“The Last Words of Hassan-i Sabbah”, which runs through the catalogue as a tickertape at the top of each page and culminates in two full pages). A pocket on the inside..... More about In The Beginning Was The Word: A Collection of Post-Modern Poetry Books, Manuscripts & Letters

A poster announcing the tribute event organised by Benn Posset and presented by Eddie Woods and Johannes van Dam at the Melkweg, Amsterdam, September 23 (1993). Printed offset litho in black on canary yellow paper stock (there was also a version on pink stock). 42x29.7cm. Photo-illustration of Burroughs by Richard Avedon. Lists the participants: Klaus Maeck; Ira Cohen; Udo Breger; William Levy; Jürgen Ploog; and the Psychick Warriors ov Gaia. Burroughs participated via a telephone link from his home in Kansas. Also announces the accompanying exhibition of paintings by Burroughs from the Soyo Productions collection, and photographs of..... More about A Tribute to William S. Burroughs

50.5x38.8cm. Design by Les Levine. Illustrated with a drawing of a cat and photo-portraits of Burroughs and Giorno. Printed offset litho in black and red on cream coloured paper stock. Winston Leyland, editor of Gay Sunshine Press and Gay Sunshine Journal (which co-sponsored the readings with the Berkeley Barb), introduced Burroughs and Giorno at the First Unitarian Church, where Giorno read “Hamburger Meditation/The Big Mac” and “Suicide Sutra”, and Burroughs read “Sexual Conditioning”, “What Washington? What Orders?”, “From Here to Eternity” and “Virus B-23”. Burroughs’ readings from “The Wild Boys” (“The Chief Smiles”) and “Exterminator!” (“From..... More about Poetry Reading. A poster announcing readings on November 4 and November 7 (1974) at the First...

(High Peak, Derbyshire): Cold Spring, 2021. LP record (CSR293LP). Front cover photograph by Charles Gatewood. Extensive sleeve notes by Colin Fallows. Previously released on CD in 2012. The recordings were taken from tapes in the British Library collection and include an unedited 42-minute recording of Burroughs reading live in Liverpool on October 5, 1982 (an adjunct to the Final Academy tour), performances by Gysin of a selection of his permutated poems (c. 1960-62), as well as home recordings made by Burroughs and Gysin in Paris in March 1970. As new (still factory sealed), with promo postcard reproducing Gatewood’s photograph. More about William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin

NY: Links Books, 1973. First edition. Sq. 8vo. Wrps., 180pp. Illustrated in b/w throughout. Includes “Neal Cassady Raps”, a double-sided 331/3 rpm transparent Eva-Tone soundsheet loosely inserted: “This recording represents the voice of Neal Cassady at the grand opening of the Straight Theater in September 1967. Neal went to Mexico shortly after this recording was made, and he never returned… This recording is an edited version of a longer performance. The Grateful Dead are in the background making Prankster music and the totality is reminiscent of the acid tests.” The book’s author, Hank Harrison, was a controversial figure..... More about The Dead Book: A Social History of the Grateful Dead

NY/Tangier: Trance Records, nd. (1966). LP record (TRR 1225). Produced by Ira Cohen from field recordings of trance music by the Jilala, a sect of Moroccan dervishes, made on October 8, 1965 by Brion Gysin (on a portable Martel) and Paul Bowles (on his Uher). Extensive sleeve notes by “I.C.” (Ira Cohen), with 13 photo-portraits of various Jilali musicians. The name of the album, ‘Jilala’, refers to glory of God, as well as to the 12th-century saint of Baghdad, Moulay ‘Abd el-Quadir el Jilani or ‘Jilali’, and the magenta colour of the record’s labels echoes that of the..... More about Jilala LP + Typed Postcard Signed

As above. Variant sleeve, with lettering to front cover printed in blue (priority unknown). 16pp. booklet present (staple slightly rusted); old central horizontal fold, small lower right corner loss and two corner stains to accompanying promotional poster. Disc Near Mint in Very Good plus sleeve. More about COLD TURKEY/KLACTO PRESENTS (+ promo poster

Düsseldorf/München: S Press Tonbandverlag, 1975. C45 mono cassette tape (S Press Tape No. 40-41). Approx. 42min. Folded insert with printed notes: “Recorded by Michael Köhler in Buffalo, on April 16th, 17th and 18th, 1974” (Creeley was teaching at the State University of New York at Buffalo at the time). Edition S Press, founded in 1969 by Angela Koehler, Nikolaus Einhorn and Axel Knipschild in Hattingen near Bochum, West Germany (joined in 1972 by Michael Koehler), later released “For Love” (No. 41), a second cassette by Creeley, from recordings made at the same time. Near Fine. More about The Door. Selected Poems

Quarter inch tape on a 7-inch plastic spool. Duration 23.40; 7.5 ips. Part of the series “Poets on Tape” produced by Intersound Recordings, an audiotape tape label created by John and Helen Cassidy and Fred Hunter in London in the mid-sixties. It’s not known exactly when or where the recording was made (at one point, Finstein refers to being in New Mexico, where he co-founded the New Buffalo commune in 1966, one of the most famous communes in Taos), but likely to be London, c. 1966/67. There are at least two other known audio recordings of..... More about An open reel tape of Max Finstein reading a short prose piece and more than 30 poems

NY: EMR Enterprises, Ltd., 1969. LP record (RH-6). Written and produced by Jerry Levin. A documentary record produced by EMR for Random House, “based on” and intended to promote the publication of “Paterfamilias: Allen Ginsberg in America” by Jane Kramer (a staff writer at The New Yorker whose lengthy pieces on him for the magazine became the book). The LP’s “electronic sketch” features extracts from Jerry Levin’s taped conversations with Ginsberg (in which he discusses his thoughts on, among other topics, politics, ecology, cosmic consciousness, and William Blake); recordings of live performances and readings (including excerpts..... More about Allen Ginsberg and the Daily Planet

NY: Douglas Recording Corp., 1970. LP record (SD 801). A reissue of Ginsberg’s reading at the 1967 Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy (item #90). Sleeve notes by Vincent R. Tortora (who produced the recording) in which he mentions that “The local police stationed agents there [Spoleto] to listen for any hints of oscenita”, and how, after he was accused of violating the Italian penal code, Ginsberg “showed up at the police station carrying a bouquet of flowers and gesturing a mudra over the officer’s head to expel demons.” Disc excellent in Very Good plus..... More about Ginsberg's Thing

Hollywood, CA: MGM Records, 1974. LP record (M3F-4951). A reissue of item #78, with a new sleeve design, new sleeve notes by Tony Cohan providing background to the original recording, and Allen Ginsberg’s descriptions of Blake’s poems printed on a one-sided insert (rather than on the sleeve). Disc Mint in original printed inner sleeve; outer sleeve Very Good plus. More about Archetypes

Single sheet. Approx. 63 words. Ginsberg, who, according to the list, sang at least 12 songs, was accompanied on stage by Peter Orlovsky, Steven Taylor, Mark Kramer, as well as by Don Cherry. The concert was recorded and one of the songs on the set list, “Airplane Blues”, was included on the CD “More Rags, Ballads, and Blues 1971-1984”, part of “The Last Word on First Blues” compilation released by Omnivore Recordings in 2016 (as was “Feeding Them Raspberries To Grow”, though this title doesn’t appear on the set list). On the day after..... More about Allen Ginsberg’s pencil holograph set sheet from his concert performance with Don Cherry at...

Clearwater, FL: Eva-Tone Soundsheets, 1988. Double-sided 331/3rpm flexi-disc, bound in to CHICAGO HISTORY Vol. XVII, #1 & 2 (Chicago: Spring/Summer 1988). Sm. 4to. Wrps., 118pp. The Ginsberg readings are taken from the Big Table benefit held at the Sherman Hotel, Chicago, January 29, 1959, and the disc accompanies a 20pp. article by Gerald Brennan on the controversy surrounding the suppression of the Chicago Review and subsequent launch of Big Table in Spring 1959 (illustrated with photographs of its editors and contributors). Other articles include David Farber and Stef Leinwohl on the Chicago ’68 police riots, featuring..... More about Selections from Howl

NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. First edition. 8vo. 288pp. + facsimile reproduction of the 1956 mimeograph edition (11pp.) + CD contained in envelope attached to rear endpaper. Includes contributions from, among others, Vivian Gornick; Amiri Baraka; Marjorie Perloff; Bob Rosenthal; Andrei Codrescu; Rick Moody; Eileen Myles; Gordon Ball; Jane Kramer; John Cage; Marge Piercy; and Anne Waldman, as well as Allen Ginsberg (“I’ve Lived With and Enjoyed ‘Howl’ ”, 5pp.). The accompanying CD (32.01) contains the first known recording of Allen Ginsberg reciting “Howl”, taped on March 18, 1956, at a public reading at the..... More about The Poem That Changed America. “Howl” Fifty Years Later

Printed in mauve on white stock. 31.7x21.5cm. Designed by Drew Andersen at Avian Design. As well as the four poets, the benefit for the Living Theatre (imprisoned for several months during their tour of Brazil) also featured the Magic Theater, Saul Landau (“Filmmaker of Torture in Brazil”), and the Cockettes, who appeared last and performed “Pearls Over Shanghai”. The gig, presented by ASUC [Associated Students of the University of California] and produced by Berkeley Barb photographer Harold Adler, raised $2000 for the Living Theatre’s defence fund. Fine. More about A large handbill announcing a benefit for the Living Theatre at the Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley,...

Amsterdam: One World Poetry for Vinyl Records. 7-inch flexi-disc, originally issued as an insert in Vinyl, Vol. 3, #24 (April 1983). Ginsberg recited the poem with guitar backing in 1971 when he opened the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, after which John Lennon suggested that he should “treat it like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ with a string quartet.” Twelve years later, backed by the Mondriaan Quartet, Ginsberg used the recording equipment at the Melkweg in Amsterdam to record the arrangement for Benn Posset’s One World Poetry project. The other side features Niew Hip Stilen by the Mondriaan Quartet. Near..... More about September on Jessore Road

Invite printed in black on pale cream card stock (14x11.1cm.); ticket printed in black on purple card (3.8x9cm.). Jointly organised by the Gotham Book Mart (owned since 1967 by Andreas Brown) and The Poetry Center, the reception was held immediately before the evening reading, tickets for which must have gone quickly as the card has ‘sold out’ printed below the announcement. Gotham Book Mart’s founder, Frances Steloff, who still lived above the store, had once hired a 19-year old Ginsberg as a clerk (in 1945), but she fired him after only a few weeks. Both items Near Fine. More about A printed invite to “a reception in honor of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder” at the Gotham...

(NY): John Giorno, 1967. LP record (LP-501). Cover design by Les Levine. Giorno’s first record, a celebration of queer sexuality and the precursor to his series of Dial-A-Poem albums. Influenced by his collaborations with Rauschenberg and Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), the album features Giorno’s home-made tape recordings of 15 artists and writers, with the stereo tracks played slightly out of synch and varying levels of echo applied to each voice. Giorno wrote later that “The repetition created a rhythm and a beat, and brought out the musical qualities inherent in the words..... More about The Intravenus Mind Presents Poems By John Giorno: Raspberry & Pornographic Poem + Typed Letter

a) THE DIAL-A-POEM POETS (GPS 001-002). Double album, gatefold sleeve. 1972. Contains 1 hour and 47 minutes of recordings selected from 48 hours of (mainly) GPS tapes recorded over the previous 14 years (most date from 1968-72). Features contributions from Ted Berrigan; Brion Gysin (“I Am That I Am”, BBC, 1960); William Burroughs; John Sinclair; Bobby Seale; Taylor Mead; Frank O’Hara; Allen Ginsberg; Emmett Williams; Lenore Kandel; Diane di Prima; Aram Saroyan; John Cage; Jim Carroll; David Henderson; Bernadette Mayer; Joe Brainard; Robert Creeley; Kathleen Cleaver; Michael Brownstein; Clark Coolidge (onetime drummer with David Meltzer’s band, The Serpent Power); Ed..... More about A complete run of the Giorno Poetry Systems series of LP record releases (NYC: 1972-1984). Twenty...