Video and Audio of William S. Burroughs

One of the many things that make William S. Burroughs unique among writers is the fact that he spent a lot of his creative energy not writing, presumably as a way to accomplish his mission of “rubbing out the word.” Burroughs painted, experimented with collage, manipulated tape recordings, collaborated on film projects, toyed with weird contraptions like the orgone accumulator and Brion Gysin’s dream machine. His interest in technology ran from the sophisticated down to the homely, as his usage of scissors and guns can attest. Contemplating the extraliterary range of Burroughs’ work, you can’t help but get the sense that he accomplished in aesthetics what Malcolm X sought to accomplish in politics with the slogan “by any means necessary.” Burroughs may have been a writer, but for him the tools of the trade were not confined to typewriters or pens. He wrote with anything that could make a mark or leave a trace, a tape effect or a shotgun blast.

Accordingly, although there are many good collections of Burroughs audio online, RealityStudio has sought to make available some of his other multimedia, particularly his video. Please note that there some interesting DVDs available for those interested in further exploring Burroughs’ multimedia work, and RealityStudio recommends those put out by ScreenEdge in particular.

Burroughs Filmography

There are any number of filmographies available online, but the extensive Burroughs filmography at Internet Movie Database has fast become the authoritative one.

Burroughs / Balch Video Experiment

Read about the experiment and watch the video.

This video experiment created by Jan Herman features filmmaker Antony Balch projecting the film “Bill and Tony” on Burroughs’ face. Prior to appearing here on RealityStudio, it had never been seen by anyone but the participants.

Towers Open Fire

Towers Open Fire (QuickTime 16.1 MB)

This film was directed by Anthony Balch from a script by William S. Burroughs in 1963. It’s an experimental montage, supposedly based in part on The Soft Machine, that features readings by Burroughs, the dream machine of Brion Gysin, some Moroccan music, and various other bits of randomness.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Thanksgiving Prayer (QuickTime 7.6 MB)

“Thanksgiving Prayer” was a poem first included in the chapbook Tornado Alley. (Read the text here.) Director Gus Van Sant then put together this montage whose power derives almost solely from Burroughs’ reading and, perhaps, the strange sad-old-man expression of his staring eyes at the end.

The Dark Eye

Annabel Lee (Requires Shockwave 5.4 MB)

Masque of the Red Death (MP3 18.2 MB)

The Dark Eye was a CD-ROM game published in 1996. (You can download the whole game at the-underdogs.org.) Loosely based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the game featured William S. Burroughs doing voiceover for an old man character and reading two works by Poe. The Masque of the Red Death has been extracted directly from the game (that’s as good as the audio gets). And using the original game assets, RealityStudio has recreated the montage that features Burroughs reading Annabel Lee.

Doctor Benway

Doctor Benway (RealVideo 4.0 MB)

ScreenEdge.com has provided this lengthy snippet of Burroughs reading the Doctor Benway routine from Naked Lunch, a clip featured on ScreenEdge’s Burroughs DVD The Final Academy Documents.

Thee Films

Thee Films (RealVideo 6.3 MB)

ScreenEdge.com has provided this excerpt “Bill and Tony” from its Thee Films DVD. These films were a collaboration between William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Anthony Balch.

Ah Pook Is Here

Ah Pook Is Here (Streaming Flash)

Taking as its starting point the line “When I become Death, Death is the seed from which I grow,” this short film is an animated interpretation of Burroughs’ book Ah Pook Is Here. It features the voice of Burroughs set to an astonishing series of award-winning animations.

“Lawrence, Kansas” by Draw

Lawrence, Kansas (MP3 5.4 MB)

This tribute in song to William S. Burroughs was graciously provided to RealityStudio by Brian Hunt. It comes from his band Draw’s album Fun to Fall. Brian describes how the song came to be written:

I discovered Burroughs almost by mistake as a college freshman in the late 70s and became a voracious fan of his work. Through his books, I got introduced to much of what in art continues to matter to me, including the Beats, Patti Smith and Brion Gysin.

I was in Kansas City for a business trip in 2001, skipped out for an afternoon to rent a car and pay homage. I was surprised that no one there seemed to have any idea of Burroughs’ importance, or really even care much that he lived there.

Even the bookstore had nothing more than Naked Lunch. The woman there, when I asked where he lived, said something about a red house over there a ways. I stopped at a coffee shop where the clerk did say Burroughs and his entourage had occasionally stopped by. I did find the house, stood out front for a bit, and then pretty much wrote the lyrics on the way back to Kansas City (driving by the methodone clinic for another).