At Terror Street and Agony Way: Bukowski Home Recording from 1969 (Zapple)

In 1969, Charles Bukowski was approached about making an album for Zapple, a label created by the Beatles that was a play on Apple Records. The label’s aim was to produce more artsy type productions. In addition to Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure and others were approached.

Bukowski had been asked to record albums in the studio on previous occasions, but he felt he’d trip himself up under the pressure of recording in front of others, so he always demanded that he be able to record in his apartments on his own time. In February 1969, Zapple representative Barry Miles (who would much later write a biography on Bukowski) visited Bukowski at his DeLongpre address in Los Angeles and dropped off an Ampex 3000 tape recorder and twelve 30-minute tapes. When Miles returned a few days later, Bukowski had filled all the tapes with his poems.

Unfortunately, Zapple was short-lived with the label. It folded in June 1969 with the turbulence surrounding Apple Records and the Beatles themselves.

The recordings sat dormant for almost 25 years until Miles began the process of getting the recordings mixed in 1993. In 1998, he released this double CD on the King Mob label. It contains 40 poems from those original recordings. In addition, Miles includes the story behind the recordings and several rare period photographs taken by Miles himself.

This is an uncommon record in the United States where the album was not officially distributed.

I don’t have the experience to rate CDs, but the packaging is in great condition and I don’t believe the CDs have ever been played.

NOTE: Other than the name, this recording has nothing in common with the recording published by Black Sparrow Press in 1968.

The poems include:

1. One For Ging, With Klux Top
2. A Trainride In Hell
3. Ignus Fatuus
4. Yellow
5. The Colored Birds
6. From The Dept. Of English
7. The Underground
8. Fire Station (For Jane, With Love)
9. Birth
10. No Lady Godiva
11. Don't Come Around But If You Do
12. Number Six
13. They, All Of Them, Know
14. Flyleaf
15. The Tragedy Of The Leaves
16. I Cannot Stand Tears
17. A Real Thing, A Good Woman
18. Man In The Sun
19. One Hundred And Ninety-Nine Pounds Of Clay Leaning Forward
20. The State Of World Affairs From A 3rd Floor Window
21. Winter Comes In A Lot Of Places In August
22. No Charge
23. A Literary Romance
24. The Twins
25. Regard Me
26. Love Is A Piece Of Paper Torn To Bits
27. Song For Sadists Without A Place To Sit Down
28. Sundays Kill More Men Than Bombs
29. A 350 Dollar Horse And A Hundred Dollar Whore
30. Shot Of Red Eye
31. Beerbottle
32. K.O.
33. 7th Race When The Angels Swung Low And Burned
34. On Going Out To Get The Mail
35. I Wanted To Overthrow The Government But All I Brought Down Was Somebody's Wife
36. 35 Seconds
37. True Story
38. Sour Ghost
39. The Weather Is Hot On The Back Of My Watch
40. John Dillinger And Le Chasseur Maudit

Shelf 2