Casey Rae
Autore di William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll
Opere di Casey Rae
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome canonico
- Rae, Casey
- Sesso
- male
Utenti
Recensioni
Liste
Entertainment (1)
Statistiche
- Opere
- 2
- Utenti
- 45
- Popolarità
- #340,917
- Voto
- 4.3
- Recensioni
- 1
- ISBN
- 6
- Lingue
- 1
That’s from the introduction to this book, and it’s a good yet imperfect synopsis; this tome manages, better than any other that I have read on William S. Burroughs, to both incorporate all pop-music elements that I’ve heard and previously not heard of, and also provide meaningful and deep analysis of that.
Not only does the author, Casey Rae, delve into the music, the musicians, and wrap all of that up with how Burroughs reacted, but also provides valuable context and analysis of how Burroughs’s work influenced both artists and entire musical genres.
There is a lot of hyperkinetic movement in this book; this is good, as Burroughs was undoubtedly hyperkinetic himself, not in a stressful manner, but more in that he kept his antennae to more than one world at a time, often while ingesting different types of drugs, which further expanded his consciousness.
Like this book says:
If you’re wondering just how much of Burroughs that seeped into musical culture, just check this short list:
That’s only a few of the countless examples of how Burroughs directly, or indirectly, affected popular culture, and still does. I mean, David Bowie still used cut-up techniques while making his last album, “Blackstar“.
Also, Burroughs’s words on The Word Virus is very contagious, and Rae explains this in an easy-to-read way:
One of the main themes throughout this book, and also Burroughs’s writing, was Control and the idea of language as a virus:
Naturally, the book mentions Burroughs’s cut-ups:
This book does delve into areas such as his wife’s death—whom Burroughs shot to death in a tragic Wilhelm Tell-like accident—his very close relationship with Brion Gysin, his travels through cities like Tangers and New York City (both where he lived for some time), his interests in the supernatural and cats, meeting Patti Smith, David Bowie, other celebs, and, naturally, writing "Naked Lunch":
Altogether, there’s been a vacuum for this book, and it fills it nicely; even though the book is somewhat repetitive at times, it still holds up to both intellectual examination and has style, the mix of the two being hard to come by in success; this book pulls that off, with flair.
This book is original, well written, and a complete payoff. To everybody who’s both interested in Burroughs from a musical perspective or otherwise, this is a very good book.… (altro)