Customer Reviews

Priest They Called Him

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Priest They Called Him" featuring Kurt Cobain on a noise gutiar and William S. Burroughs doing a spoken word story. This is a story that is fairly hard to follow, in my opinion, but between Burroughs' voice and words, along with Kurt Cobain's straining and mood-defying harmonic noise guitar-playing, this album is one you shouldn't pass up!! I bought it back in the Winter of 1994, and used to listen to it every once in a while. It is only 9 minutes long, but just to hear Kurt Cobain playing the "Silent Night" in the background of an erie Christmastime story by William S. Burroughs. I bought this when I was a huge fan of Nirvana, but still years later I found the vinyl, which is a limited edition picture disc of 50,000 numbered copies. It is still sealed of course : ) I strongly recommend it since it'll be out of print one day and it's cool to see things like Kris Novoselic on the cover in a priest's outfit!! : ) Later!!

The story is the one that is included in WSB "Exterminator!" If you are a WSB reader, you'd say this is the original, and the "Junkie's Christmas" is the variation... but that's not an important distinction. A nice sarchastic (but warm) story, while Kurt Cobain starts from "Silent night, Holey night"and then wanders off into his trademark random distorted noisy tunes.

The feel of the thing is well represented in the sample recording provided on the page, so give it a shot if you're in doubt. The 2 never met actually, they recorded their part individually and then someone mixed it down.

The whole thing lasts 9minutes and 44 seconds.

I like it, and the cimbination is interesting, but it's short, so if you're not a big fan, well, you might want to weigh your options there. If you ARE a big fan... then, you're going to buy this anyway, right?

If you like this, you should really get Burroughs and Ministry on their "Just on Fix" CD single. There's a track called "quick fix" which is as good as the priest (the only drawback is that it's even shorter than this 9 minute masterpiece).

William Burroughs unique voice reads his eartening Xmas story while Kurt Cobain indulges in an orgy of feedback behind him. The combination works surprisingly well. While it may not bear constant listening, it does stand up well over time.

A very dark and grim story, the narration is perfectly interpreted by Kurt Cobain's harsh guitar. The music seems to express what's going on inside the heart of the priest in this story. Especially incredible is the junkie priest's death as we seem to hear his soul spiral out of this world into oblivion. A haunting story for Christmas and an incredible performance by Cobain.

On this audio CD Burroughs reads a different take on the familiar story of a junkie's day, Christmas day, while Cobain ravages his guitar strings to the tune of a popular Christmas carol. The intellectual resonance of these two cats is fascinating; although you have to peice it together: that is to say they do not mesh well on this CD. If fact, they weren't it seems in the same recording studio. Nevertheless, it still sounds better than the collaboration of Ginsberg (Howl) and Kronos Quartet. Finally, Cobain sang, "No I don't have a gun...No I don't have a gun," but after meeting with Burroughs, a gun aficionado, he acquired a weapon and not soon after off'd himself. Burroughs however in no way condones suicide. END

If you're a fan of William S. Burroughs, or a collector of Kurt Cobain, this is an excellent buy. For the musically inclined, if you like the Fripp/Eno collaboration, that's similar to what the guitar sounds like on this piece. This is a mystical variation of the WSB short story "A Junky's Christmas". As text, I prefer Junky's Christmas, but I think The Priest translates quite nicely to spoken word.

An interesting piece, but definately inferior to "A Junkie's Christmas," from "Spare Ass Annie." If you're a Burroughs or Cobain collector, this is worth having. Otherwise, skip this & go for "Spare Ass Annie" or "Dead City Radio."

I can do naught but love this story. And can do naught but love it more when it is placed with a background (and sometimes foreground) of grunge-Christmas music. The story, about a junkie's Christmas, was incredibly touching and almost had me, wuss that I am, crying along with the drifting guitar solo of Kurt Cobain. The BEST Christmas Special ever. END

from the much troubled genius that was and is kurt cobain, only this time actually coupled with another genius in his own right, none other than william burroughs. kurt seems to play magnificantly, beautifully even, with an haunting quality. mr burroughs however, simply does what he does best, which is of course, create superb narrative through out. like i said, all in all, an excellent purchase.