A conversation between William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg has been published by the Allen Ginsberg Project, that includes Burroughs’ account on Brian Jones’ visit to Tangier and his recordings of the Master Musicians of Joujouka.
The interview includes transcripts from a July 1985 conversation that took place at Naropa Institute, between Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William Burroughs on the occasion of a William Burroughs Conference that Burroughs attended. Part one of the serialised conversations begins here.
An excerpt of the transcript from the conversation follows:
Q: How many times have you stayed in Tangier?
WSB: Oh I’ve been there so many times. I was trying to think. I sort of definitely… The last time I was there for any length of time would be in the early, in the early ’60s.
Q: Did you spend any time with Brian Jones in Tangier?
WSB: Yeah, Indeed I did. He did come back from Joujouka and had made a number of recordings there. And we all worked at the El Minzah And he played these recordings and those later became you know, the “Brian Jones Playing With The Pipes of Pan”. [” Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan At Joujouka“] But that was an awful lot of editing that went into that. And then Brian Jones died, he died just before this was finished. And the Joujuka musicians who belonged to the Union had to go up there and assert their rights to get anything out of it, because there was nothing of Brian Jones in it except the recording,
AG: Is that a famous recording?
WSB: Well it’s well-known. It was put out in cassette, and it’s really, it’s quite great.. It was not at the time of year, It wasn’t at the actual time when they have this festival. It was put on more or less for Brian Jones
Yeah
Read the interview in full at the Allen Ginsberg Project website here
