Mention the book in the morning and by midday Largehearted Boy talks to the editor. David Ohle provides a Book Notes contribution for Cursed From Birth: The Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs:
Usually a friend and I went over to Bill Sr.’s house on Thursdays for an evening of cocktails (cold cheap vodka and Coke for Bill Sr., no ice), dinner (I cooked most of the time), conversation, and occasionally music. Allen Ginsberg visited once or twice a year. He’d sit on the cat-clawed sofa and play his little harmonium and sing Blake songs. Patti Smith showed up with Lenny Kaye and Oliver Ray once, played her guitar and sang. Kurt Cobain paid a visit, too, though I wasn’t there. Jello Biafra and John Cage were other musical celebrities I missed. Sometimes the Old Man got into the act. For a short time he had a boom box and a couple of tapes he liked to play. I remember a Hoagy Carmichael number, “Yabba Dabba Dabba Dabba Do,” Cab Calloway’s jumpin jive versions of Minnie the Moocher and Reefer Man,and Ry Cooder’s ‘Paris, Texas’ soundtrack (Bill Sr. liked this one so much he wanted it to be played at his wake, which it was).
In case you missed it, this morning's post has a link to a home movie of Burroughs Sr. being paid a visit by Ginsberg and Smith, among others. Worth the download if you're a WSB fan.
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