The “Priest” They Called Him: A Dark Collaboration Between Kurt Cobain & William S. Burroughs

It was a dark collaboration folks. There’s no denying it. In September of 1992, the Beat writer William S. Burroughs entered a studio in Lawrence, Kansas and recorded a narration of “The “Priest” They Called Him,” a short story originally published in his 1973 collection The Exterminator. It’s a grim tale about heroin, addiction, withdrawal, and the “immaculate fix.” Two months later, the reading was given a soundtrack when Kurt Cobain, then the frontman for Nirvana, stepped into a Seattle studio and gave Burrough’s reading a soundtrack full of harsh, dissonant guitar riffs that captured the spirit of the story. Mixed together  by E. J. Rose and James Grauerholz, the collaborative recording was released as a limited edition vinyl picture disc in 1993, and then again on CD and 10-inch vinyl.

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via BoingBoing

Related Content:

Nirvana’s Home Videos: An Intimate Look at the Band’s Life Away From the Spotlight (1988)

William S. Burroughs Explains What Artists & Creative Thinkers Do for Humanity: From Galileo to Cézanne and James Joyce

William S. Burroughs Reads His First Novel, Junky

William S. Burroughs on Saturday Night Live, 1981


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