Customer Reviews

Listening to Richard Brautigan

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I found it fascinating to hear Richard Brautigan reading his own works, and for that matter, to actually to hear his voice at all. It added a whole new dimension to my attempts to understand him and his work. And it was mostly entertaining to boot. We're very lucky to have this in print. Recommended for Brautigan fans.

...to hear his voice after years of reading and re-reading his works. Priceless.

This album was recorded in early 1969, near the peak of Richard's popularity, as the first of a projected series of spoken word albums on The Beatles experimental record label Zapple. Others in the series would have included Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Charles Olson, Charles Bukowski and Allen Ginsberg. Unfortunately, Zapple crashed and burned after only two releases, "Life With The Lions" and "Electronic Sound," leaving Zapple #3 without a label.

It eventually saw limited U.S.-only release, without much publicity, on EMI Harvest in late 1970 and quickly became a high-priced collector's album. I've seen it trade hands for hundreds of dollars.

What makes this album interesting, besides being the only known recording of Richard reading his own poetry, are the stories and unrehearsed conversations also captured. It was one of the first "audio verité" recordings, setting up microphones in Richard's kitchen and simply capturing the sounds of his life. This unscripted glimpse into 1969 in San Francisco gives not only unusual insights into the writer's life (after a rocket-propelled climb to fame) but also into one of the hotbeds of American culture in a unique time & place.

All in all it's a fascinating document and it's nice to see it mass-marketed finally.

It is actually good to hear the voice of an icon of the 60's such as Brautigan. I did not expect such a mellow, soft, almost effeminate diction. Bad thing about this CD there's much static noise, so typical of the era (say, recording of the water dripping from a faucet or such).
The questions to ponder are these:
how well has the work of Richard Brautigan sustained the burden of time? And how does his lyrical short fiction compare to his poems heavily imbued with an impromtu surrealist Americana of the 60's.

poor richard brautigan...gone too soon and by his own poetic hands.

you mustn't have a hippie's sensibility to appreciate this lovely but sparse overview of his work. brautigan's cadence has a touch of stephen hawking's voice machine (seriously, it does), but it is a gentle and intelligent voice that warrants repeat playings. i won't bore you with a critique; brautigan inhabits a private landscape that he aptly reveals with a few well constructed sentences. other writers often take pages to create such vivid imagery.
the cd quality is excellent. any incidental background noise is nicely incorporated into the texture of poem. the only grievance is the playing time of the disc--56 minutes. would've been nice to have had about 25 more minutes of his peculiar musings.

When I was in High School I used to sleep with the radio turned to an eclectic "underground" station, WPHD, in Buffalo, NY. In the months of March and April 1971, I would hear this man talking about trout fishing, the mishaps of a man who lived with him and his mother, and a series of people reciting the same love poem. I discovered Richard Brautigan! I was talking to a girl in my French Class about him and she lent me a book her older brother had, called Trout Fishing in America. I was hooked, no pun intended. During my high school years and early adulthood, I collected every book of prose and poetry this odd man wrote. I searched in vain (and in Buffalo, NY) for the recording that awakened my sensibilities to his art.

These recording are unique in the fact that there was no marketing or thematic thread, except that of the mind of Richard Brautigan. Beautiful. Now this old grey fellow can retire to the ice-mine under the house and reread The Abortion.

Oh yes, it really is so nice to wake up in the morning, alone, and not have to tell someone you love them when you don't love them anymore.

Having been a fan of Richard Brautigan since I first discovered his work almost 40 years ago, this was a joy to find! I had no idea there existed a recording of him reading samples of his work and I couldn't pass up the chance. I've not been disappointed. This was recorded well before his untimely death (suicide) and I was surprised to hear how bright and enthusiastic he sounds. Definitely a must for Brautigan fans!