William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll by Casey Rae

Author:Casey Rae [Rae, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781477316504
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 1959-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

Bunkers, Punkers, and Junkies

Since music is registered with the whole body it can serve as a means of communication between one organism and another. . . . Agent attends a concert and receives his instructions.

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, The Western Lands

Nova Mob

“Where’s Keith?” the kids shouted from the audience of the stately Entermedia Theater at 189 Second Avenue in New York, today known as Village East Cinema. Brion Gysin was onstage reading through every possible permutation of a single cut-up sentence, but only some in the audience were paying attention. The bridge-and-tunnel crowd wanted a real live Rolling Stone, like they’d been promised. Keith Richards had indeed been booked to appear at the 1978 Nova Convention—a three-day multimedia celebration of Burroughs’ life and work—but he canceled at the last minute. Having recently been busted for heroin in Toronto, Richards and his minders thought it too risky for the rock star to attend a celebration for the Pope of Dope, as Burroughs was known to the denizens of the Lower East Side. Even if they’d never read a word, most attendees knew Burroughs by reputation—that ashen old junkie who shot his wife and wrote Naked Lunch. They were in for an interesting show, to say the least.

Like the man it celebrated, the 1978 Nova Convention was alternately impenetrable and enthralling. Rockers rubbed elbows with academics, authors, poets, performers, and provocateurs, including Susan Sontag, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Allen Ginsberg, Merce Cunningham, and John Giorno, to name a few. Burroughs himself gave lively readings, appeared in panel discussions, and held court backstage. The festivities wrapped up with a December 2 concert at the Ukrainian Theater that spilled over to Club 57 at Irving Plaza early the next morning. Performers included Blondie, Robert Fripp, Suicide, and the B-52s—a new wave party for the ages.

The convention proper also featured musical performances. Minimalist composer Philip Glass played a selection from Einstein on the Beach, an experimental theater piece cowritten with Robert Wilson (who would later collaborate with Burroughs and Tom Waits on the 1990 stage musical The Black Rider). Glass coaxed cascading waves of sound from his synthesizers, evoking exotic panoramas and languid, humid climes. With eyes closed, one could almost picture a younger Burroughs smoking kif under an arabesque archway in Tangier. In conversation with a New York Times reporter, Glass called Burroughs “the most important writer of our day,” whose work helped set him on his own creative course. “Twenty years ago, the crucial events of my life were coming across his work and John Cage’s work,” he said. “They were both completely new and completely American, with no connection to European tradition. Burroughs really created a new American artistic tradition.”1

Cage was also scheduled to perform, not that it mattered much to the rock ’n’ rollers in the crowd. At least there was Frank Zappa, who had been hastily booked as a replacement for Richards. Zappa wasn’t the only star on hand, however. Patti Smith arrived early and was hiding out backstage, nursing a bad cough.

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