Customer Reviews

Spare Ass Annie & Other Tales

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

 

 

I had become a fan of the sardonic humor, baroque visions and gross-out charm of William S. Burroughs by way of such stunning books as Interzone, Junky and Naked Lunch. When I bought Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales, I knew nothing of his collaborators on this spoken word album, the Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy but one of my favorites authors on tape was enough for my money. I was pleased to discover that the Heroes, Michael Franti and Rono Tse, have the perfect sense of texture and cartoony whimsy to back up the legendary beatnik. The bouncy drum and bass of “Dr. Benway Operates,” “One God Universe” and the tense “Did I Ever Tell You About the Man That Taught His (...) to Talk?” spotlessly and cohesively convey Burroughs’ raspy words while parodies such as the swanky downtown jazz of “Mildred Pierce Reporting” (about police apathy during a gang rape), 50s television-commercial glitz of “Warning to Young Couples” (about jealous family dogs snatching newborns) and the choirs, festive sounds and use of traditional carols on “the Junky’s Christmas” show the Disposable Heroes’ keen understanding of the irony of the author’s crass magic realism. Fanti and Tse show sure talent, yet they never try to override Burroughs, always working behind the writer’s commanding, often hilarious words. The author searched through seven of his best books of strange expressions and offbeat satire for the readings and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy bring those legendary writings into a new dimension on Spare Ass Annie. I am sure other Burroughs fans will certainly be pleased by the fine ways in which these extraordinary young talents enhance the innovative writer’s uncanny work.

Sometimes when I am just reading Burroughs, I manage to forget how damn funny the guy is. I get put off by his vividly grotesque descriptions of lobotomies and flying fecal matter and neglect to notice the scathing humor behind it all.
This album really highlights Burroughs the satirist. Hearing Burroughs speaking with his loooong drrryyy draaawwwwwllll really reminds you how he's trying to push your buttons. Burroughs is one of my all time favorite authors to hear read his own stuff, and this CD is no exception in that department.
Plus, as an added bonus, the reading is set to some great music, nice acid jazz and, in the case of the 10+ minute "Junkie's Christmas," traditional x-mas carols, creating one of the most increcdible juxtapoitions in a story of all time and an hilarious piece. All in all, this collection is one of my favorites of Burroughs' readings.

serendipity. very cool mixture of Hiphopricy's jazz/funk/hiphop grooves and Burrough's always ahead-of-his-time future rants, stream-o-conciousness, and political concerns. whoever thought of this idea was an absolute genius. the production is top notch, and often collides with what Burroughs is talking about in a hilarious or bizarre manner. interesting guest stars too. Ras I Zulu. shooty yeah. out before Dr.Octagon's futuristic blend of wacked-ot lyrics and spaced beats would evolve hiphop two years later. a crucial ingredient. burroughs, disposable hereoes of hiphopricy. burroughs, kurt cobain. these collaborations are priceless.

WSB's humor is terribly underrated. He was deadpan,
with a cynical but wildly hilarious take on the world. He always told it the way he saw it, regardless of the consequences.
A nice back up by the Heroes, I liked the combination.

I had heard and like the Disposable Heroes and had a notion of Burroughs as "some writer" when I bought this album. Boy, was I in for an education! This recording is different from all the other Burroughs recordings I have encountered. It makes an effort to really enhance and in some cases alter the effect of Burroughs' reading. In other recordings like Call Me Burroughs and Dead City Radio, either he has no accompanyment or the music in the background doesn't really alter the words. But this album really uses music in a creative way, making it a true collaboration/

Fabulous. Though it's very close, I think I prefer this one to the excellent Dead City Radio. The background music, provided by the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, makes this one a bit more cohesive. The track "A Junkie's Christmas" is a FAR superior version of the only track from the Burroughs/Cobain disc "The Priest They Called Him."

When I first seen the cover of this cd I thought it was going to be some Timothy Leary type of project. Upon listening to I was releived to see that Burroughs hasn't changed his style he just added a background score.
Personally I thought the music for the most part enhanced the readings and that in a way it reminded me how far removed he is from this type of music and yet he still managed to make it work. Words of advice for young people alone is worth the price of admission.
It seems odd to me that he even managed to live this long with such a lifestyle. I think if he had been given more exposure as a spoken word artist he could have greatly expanded his audience and more people would see the humor in his books.
Overall I recommend this cd there were two slow spots but they only last a few minutes overall it is very entertaining.

Veteren Burroughs readers will be familiar with these mostly old readings (Spare Ass Annie, The man who taught his asshole to talk, the junky's christmas, etc). They've been recorded better, and the music of heroes of hiphoprasy adds little to the readings, being an annoying distraction. All the material on the cd is good, but can be found other places in a much more powerful form.

William S. Burroughs is a confessed junkie, and one of the wild boys. His beat poet-prose just was born to go over some great sampling. It is hard to take burroughs to seriously so this is just cryptic verbal fun.

Burrows has a great reading voice and you just got to love the stuff that comes out of this man. The mild hip hop that is sampled for the readings is a pure delight Many selections are from his novels including Spare ass annie from the naked lunch. I hate to read this sort of stuff but it is great to hear in the background. It will raise some eye brows at parties.

I love advise for young people, Junkies Chistmas and Spare ass anni as well as Mildred peirce reporting.

I you are easily offended by explicited sexual language or attacks on the goverment religon and common desesnce please avoid this at all costs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Disposable Heroes have ruined these readings. This CD would have been great if not for the ridiculously cheesy white boy elevator "jazz" muzak and the "so urban it hurts" cliched drum machine samples and Jamaican guy pretensiously farting a few of W.S.B.'s words in his "oh so cool" poetry-slam nonsense. Don't bother with this if you are a lifelong Burroughs reader. You will be very disappointed. This is nothing more than a schoolboy's effort to introduce Burroughs to an audience of contemporary urban hipsters with short attention spans. Get "Call Me Burroughs" or "Dead City Radio" instead, trust me.