Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.

The stories about William S. Burrows are insane.

He left his son and wife alone in a foreign country

so he could go score ayahuasca in the jungle.

He shot the head off a mouse,

while the person holding it by the tail feared for their life.

He was a convicted killer who only did 13 days in jail, and all this before he became a literary icon.

An icon whose novel, Naked Lunch, one of the signature works of the Beat Generation, was banned and went on trial for obscenity.

William Burroughs's writing was so evocative that it inspired generations of musicians,

from the Rolling Stones and Patty Smith to Kirk Cobain to make great music.

Unlike that loop I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music.

That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Modern Life is Luscious

MK1. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to come on to my house

by Rosemary Cooney. And why would I play you that specific slice of forbidden candy cheese

could I afford it?

Because that was the number one song in America on September 6, 1951.

And that was the day that William S. Burroughs, at the time an unknown and mostly failed writer,

made the most fateful decision of his life

when he pointed a gun at a highball glass

balanced atop his wife's head

and pulled the trigger.

On this episode,

...