Bukowski Reads His Poetry: 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 1995, Black Sparrow Press released Heat Wave, a collaboration of Bukowski poems with art by Ken Price. For some reason, publisher John Martin decided to include this CD of the 1969 recordings in the package. The CD had nothing to do with the rest of the package, so I assume Martin’s motivation was to go “high tech” and put out a Black Sparrow CD.

As for individual copies like this one, I imagine back then Martin needed to purchase a minimum run of the CDs that was more than the 200 or so copies of Heat Wave that were produced. To my knowledge, the remaining CDs were never sold by Black Sparrow itself. More than likely Martin gave them to booksellers he knew. In 1998, King Mob records would release these poems and 23 more on the CD At Terror Street and Agony Way.

This copy is still in the shrink wrap, so the CDs have never been played. But there are cracks on the front and back of the CD and the pin on the upper hinge has broken off.

If the CDs are damaged in any way, I will refund the purchase price and shipping immediately and you can just throw it away.

NOTE: Other than the name, this recording has nothing in common with 1980 album release by Takoma records. That recording is from the live reading at the City Lights Poets Theater in San Francisco, September 14, 1972.

The poems on this CD include:

1. The State Of World Affairs From A 3rd Floor Window
2. Winter Comes In A Lot Of Places In August
3. Sundays Kill More Men Than Bombs
4. A 350 Dollar Horse And A Hundred Dollar Whore
5. Shot Of Red Eye
6. Beerbottle
7. 7th Race When The Angels Swung Low And Burned
8. On Going Out To Get The Mail
9. True Story
10. The Weather Is Hot On The Back Of My Watch
11. John Dillinger And Le Chasseur Maudit
12. From The Dept. Of English
13. Fire Station (For Jane, With Love)
14. No Lady Godiva
15. Don't Come Around But If You Do
16. They, All Of Them, Know
17. The Tragedy Of The Leaves

Shelf 2