Doesn’t look like Jourgensen is involved in this. There’s a brief shot of the clip used in the video to ‘Just One Fix’ but that’s as far as Ministry’s involvement goes from what I can gather.
What do ye make of Burroughs anyway. I thought Junky lived up to the hype but some of his other stuff… I’d pass.
uhm the state called him and i quote “Old dead homosexual junky”…
I liked some of his work. and his cut and paste technique certainly was inspirational to both literature writers and also song writers. Bowie was quiet fond of using that method in composing lyrics. in fact he had a computer program designed (according to interviews) that was a random lyric rearranger or sorts based on the cut and paste method.
no mention of al? i thought they lived together for a few years towards the end?
The books of his I’ve read “Queer”, “Junkie” and “Naked Lunch” were superb. The imagery I got from alot of his words were amazingly gruesome. I thought his black humor was hilarious. Quite frankly the man was a genius.
On a side note…in Stockbridge, Edinburgh we have an extremely crazy intellectual weirdo dude who ALWAYS has a copy of Naked Lunch on him. Apparently he reads it over and over again. He doesn’t read any other books…just constantly reads Naked Lunch.
Junky changed my life. The book is written in such a matter of fact mood considering the topic.
When I was a senior in college at the University of Kansas I took an elective called “America in the 1960’s”. Burroughs lived in Lawrence Kansas the last 14 years of his life. This was 1999 and he was dead, but the executor of his estate came in and gave a presentation on William. The lecture culminated with the Just One Fix video. James had a million stories regarding the video shoot. Apparently Uncle Bill and Al were doped up for the majority of the shoot. And Al took the car from the video shoot home. He just got in it and decided to drive it to Chicago.
Being a huge Ministry fan at the time, this was by far the best lecuture I ever had in college.
Wasn’t it Leary that lived with Al, not Burroughs?
Anyway… I’ve seen the Naked Lunch movie and loved it, I think the only book I’ve read was a biography on him though, which was very interesting… hmm must get around to reading his actual work.
Yeah I heard it was Leary who Al lived with. I need to get into Burroughs more. I think he’s really a genius. Some of the cutup stuff I heard on this “Industrial Revolution” or whatever video comp was amazing…
Bowie was quiet fond of using that method in composing lyrics. in fact he had a computer program designed (according to interviews) that was a random lyric rearranger or sorts based on the cut and paste method.
Ministry did that too… thanks to the Fairlight II 
On a side note…in Stockbridge, Edinburgh we have an extremely crazy intellectual weirdo dude who ALWAYS has a copy of Naked Lunch on him. Apparently he reads it over and over again. He doesn’t read any other books…just constantly reads Naked Lunch.
I can’t blame him! I do it a lot as well, it’s such a scattered mess of a book that you can just open it at any page and get into it… that’s the beauty of it! I honestly think that’s the only way to read it… going from start to finish is not going to do you any favours.
But given I was 16 when I first read it, yeah… I made that mistake. [crazy] FAIL.
When I was a senior in college at the University of Kansas I took an elective called “America in the 1960’s”. Burroughs lived in Lawrence Kansas the last 14 years of his life. This was 1999 and he was dead, but the executor of his estate came in and gave a presentation on William. The lecture culminated with the Just One Fix video. James had a million stories regarding the video shoot. Apparently Uncle Bill and Al were doped up for the majority of the shoot. And Al took the car from the video shoot home. He just got in it and decided to drive it to Chicago.
Being a huge Ministry fan at the time, this was by far the best lecuture I ever had in college
THAT’S AWESOME! Any more stories from that?
Fuck man… almost makes me wish I was in a band again. Bands are always a great source of wild, stupid, wacky tales, insofar as the music you’re playing doesn’t sound like that Snow Patrol mellow bullshit.
I don’t think Al ever lived with Burroughs.
I do remember a story about Al giving Burroughs some domestic advice: how to deal with gophers (or some other garden pest). He told him to smear opium around the garden which would slow down the animal then he could pick them off with a shotgun, which supposedly Burroughs did and was well pleased with the results.
I’ve heard Al lived with Burroughs and Leary at different stages of his life.
hm. can’t quite recall the leary details.
something about leary booting him out because of his …
have to let you know when my old boring brain gets hijacked by some saintly figures, who will show me the error of my ways.
have a groundbreaking sunday.
btw., al had zero to do with this movie.
Haven’t read Burroughs in years - probably not since art school ('93 - '95).
Never read The Naked Lunch funnily enough. Read Queer and Junky and Soft Machine (my fave). But I did see the Cronenberg version which I liked despite not particularly caring for the films of Cronenberg one iota.
I need to buy ‘Call Me Burroughs’. Saw it on vinyl on ebay but it was a tad expensive.
I know that he was good friends with Genesis P. Orridge. In fact, P. Orridge got done for sending indecent images through the mail to Burroughs and I think was locked up for a few months. He was sending postcards with cut outs from magazines stuck on the front and some of the cut outs were of school kids doing…‘stuff’ to each other.
Naughty Gen!
[crazy]
I know that he was good friends with Genesis P. Orridge. In fact, P. Orridge got done for sending indecent images through the mail to Burroughs and I think was locked up for a few months. He was sending postcards with cut outs from magazines stuck on the front and some of the cut outs were of school kids doing…‘stuff’ to each other.
Was this before, or after the ‘exile’, or the events that led to them?
I’ve always been curious about the specific details behind what he was accused of exactly… I heard it involved ‘satanic propaganda’ P-TV had been making that incorporated sex acts with kids. Well, they never found videos, but some schizophrenic guy accused them of it (without any grounds), and they got hounded out of England for it. They were lucky to be in Nepal at the time, and basically just couldn’t return. Genesis Polanski-Orridge…
hate to say it, fucked up as Gen seems, I really doubt he’d be into that shit… he seems like he’d be a nice gentleladyboy.
I know that he was good friends with Genesis P. Orridge. In fact, P. Orridge got done for sending indecent images through the mail to Burroughs and I think was locked up for a few months. He was sending postcards with cut outs from magazines stuck on the front and some of the cut outs were of school kids doing…‘stuff’ to each other.
Was this before, or after the ‘exile’, or the events that led to them?
I’ve always been curious about the specific details behind what he was accused of exactly… I heard it involved ‘satanic propaganda’ P-TV had been making that incorporated sex acts with kids. Well, they never found videos, but some schizophrenic guy accused them of it (without any grounds), and they got hounded out of England for it. They were lucky to be in Nepal at the time, and basically just couldn’t return. Genesis Polanski-Orridge…
hate to say it, fucked up as Gen seems, I really doubt he’d be into that shit… he seems like he’d be a nice gentleladyboy.
Genesis goes pretty far into the details in his essay in the new Process book out from Feral House. I don’t have it here at yhe moment so I can’t say specifics. The video in question an old one iirc.
Was this before, or after the ‘exile’, or the events that led to them?
I’ve always been curious about the specific details behind what he was accused of exactly… I heard it involved ‘satanic propaganda’ P-TV had been making that incorporated sex acts with kids. Well, they never found videos, but some schizophrenic guy accused them of it (without any grounds), and they got hounded out of England for it. They were lucky to be in Nepal at the time, and basically just couldn’t return. Genesis Polanski-Orridge…
Yeah, there were some videos made of Psychic TV gigs, which showed his young daughters cavorting with naked dancers on stage while art porn clips were played on a screen behind the band. That much is TRUE. Also, the kids of band members were exposed to alot of drug use at home, something the authorities tried to harrass them for. There was also rumour of ‘magick’ rituals performed by his cult of followers that did involve kids in some way. I don’t know how much weight those allegations carry.
Although I have read early interviews with the man and I can tell you that the P Orridge of 30 years ago was a radically different character than the P Orridge of today. So, anything is possible.
I mean, the guy got caught mailing indecent art porn through the mail…something yr average guy wouldn’t really agree with…
Looks cool. My ex-girlfriend got me into Burroughs, and I got her into Ministry. Match made in fucking heaven. Too bad she turned out to be just another fucking bass player.
I first attempted to read Burroughs as an 11yr old. I was blown away.
IcePick, what exactly is wrong with female bass players? Apart from Melissa Auf de maur?
I first attempted to read Burroughs as an 11yr old. I was blown away.
IcePick, what exactly is wrong with female bass players? Apart from Melissa Auf de maur?
I think he meant that she was “just another Bass player” as in he can’t stand her now the way Al Can’t stand paul and calls him just a fucking bass player!
Late,
grmpysmrf
Oh I get it, I get jokes.
It’s too early for prongs.
the new thing isn’t female bassists, now it’s female keyboard players. i’m waiting for the eddie Van Halen of female guitarists to come around though.