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An obscure 1981 release that only got anything approaching mainstream notice retroactively -- after Laurie Anderson's surprise breakthrough with 1982's Big Science and its unexpected hit single, "O Superman" -- this is a double-LP set featuring one side each of contributions from Anderson, poet John Giorno, and William S. Burroughs, plus a fourth side that had three lock grooves in it; depending on where the needle was placed, you'd hear more works by one of the three participants. (The 1993 CD simply puts each participant's extras at the end of their section.) Anderson's contributions are rough-sounding early versions of minor pieces that eventually ended up in her masterwork, United States I-IV, plus an early recording of "Born, Never Asked" that's lacking in comparison to the richer-sounding remake on Big Science. Burroughs' pieces are primarily of interest to die-hard Burroughs fans, as they come mostly from the era when he was simply reworking old manuscripts, and as a poet, John Giorno makes a pretty good small-press publisher. For completists only.
People tend to think that alternative rock's commercial breakthrough came in the early 90's, when Nirvana's ??Nevermind?? became a surprise smash, but no one seems to recall the early 80's, more especially '82-'83, when The Plasmatics and The Clash were suddenly filling stadiums, XTC actually got into heavy (if brief) MTV rotation with "Sense Working Overtime," frat boys across the country were...
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