William Burroughs Conversation – continues 10 (Brian Jones & John Giorno)

 

WSB :  What you got?
AG: Oh there’s more but I think we should open it..
GC; Oh, let’s hit a big one,   Well, why don’t we do this and then we can cut out.
AG: ..open it up and…
GC: Open it out and let them ask their shot.
AG: Does anybody else have any specific inquiries?
WSB: Go for it
[silence]
GC:  That’s it.  They ain’t got the shot?
AG: Yes?

Q: How many times have you stayed in Tangier?

WSB: Oh I’ve been there so many times. I was trying to think. I sort of definitely… The last time I was there for any length of time would be in the early, in the early ’60s.

Q:  Did you spend any time with Brian Jones in Tangier?

WSB: Yeah, Indeed I did. He did come back from Joujouka and had made a number of recordings there. And we all worked at the El Minzah And he played these recordings and those later became you know, the “Brian Jones Playing With The Pipes of Pan”. [” Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan At Joujouka“]  But that was an awful lot of editing that went into that. And then Brian Jones died, he died just before this was finished. And the Joujuka musicians who belonged to the Union had to go up there and assert their rights to get anything out of it, because there was nothing of Brian Jones in it except the recording,

AG: Is that a famous recording?

WSB: Well it’s well-known. It was put out in cassette, and it’s really, it’s quite great.. It was not at the time of year, It wasn’t at the actual time when they have this festival. It was put on  more or less for Brian Jones

Yeah

Q: Can you say something about your work with John Giorno ?

WSB: Mine or his?  Oh, well, We have travelled together, you know, (been) on the road together, many times on the same program (we went all over Scandinavia, all over  Mid America and I’ve known him for many years. I knew him in 1965 first. and it was because of him that I move into. the. You see he lives in the same building, it’s the Bunker. It’s because of him that I moved in there. And he’s a very old, close friend and then  of course these records that he puts out, I’ve contributed to all of them’

AG:  He has those.. He has a variety of cut-up, in a way,the repetition that he does, what do you think of that?
WSB:  I …. (tape erases Burroughs’ answer)
GC: It works with you.
WSB: Well it works with the audiences, baby,  I’ve travelled with it.
GC: Right they’re going to check you out (so) they check that fucker out.
WSB: Well he is well-received.
GC: He is outré .What are you going to do – check him out …

to be continued.    

[Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately twenty-eight-and-three-quarter minutes in and concluding at approximately thirty-two minutes in]