The Nova Convention LP

[Various Artists]

The Nova Convention

New York City, USA: Giorno Poetry Systems, 1979

Gatefold 2LP set

Edition size unknown

“I first met William S. Burroughs in 1978 at the Nova Convention, which was a three-day celebration of his work in New York City. During the day there were seminars about his work with Timothy Leary, Susan Sontag, and many other writers and intellectuals. At night there were concerts by musicians

and poets who'd been influenced by his work. Frank Zappa read the talking asshole section from “Naked Lunch,” Patti Smith played the clarinet, Phil Glass played the piano. There were lots of other people too. It was a real scene. Keith Richards was also supposed to appear, and even though the promoters of this event knew a week ahead of time that he wasn't going to show up, they didn’t announce it. They just tacked up a note and posted it on the inside of the door to the theater.

“Keith Richards will not be appearing tonight” it said in very light pencil. So a couple thousand kids poured through the door and a lot of them were looking for Keith. Phil would be playing a solo piano work and they'd be yelling “KEITH! KEITHII” Nothing would shut them up and since | was one of the emcees, I'd have to keep going out to introduce someone else they didn’t want to hear. “You know, just keep the ball rolling,” the promoters kept saying.

Finally Burroughs shuffled out wearing a porkpie hat and carrying a briefcase and he sat down at a big wooden desk.

“Good evening.” Gravel crunching under a ten ton truck. Plastic ripping in slow motion. That voice! And he started talking about sex and drugs and alienation, things these kids thought they'd invented themselves and they couldn't believe it. But it was that voice that really got to people. And you could never read his books again without hearing that voice saying every word.”

- Laurie Anderson, Stories from the Nerve Bible