Pussy, King of the Pirates

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
A match made in avant-pop heaven: Kathy Acker, lesbian punk heiress to William Burroughs's edge-of-humanity literature, together with the Mekons, eclectic punk survivors and underground music gods and goddesses. In a musical/literary pairing that easily beats the Burroughs/Cobain collab a few years back, Acker and the Mekons meet to produce what must be a first, a soundtrack to a novel. Pussy, King of the Pirates is an aural companion to Acker's novel of the same name, a typically brutal journey into a wonderland of oblivion where the real and imagined intermingle freely, and horror and obscenity live side by side with childhood fantasy and adventure.

Though the record might make a bit more sense if you've read the novel, the Mekons do an exceptional job of conjuring musically what Acker attempts in words. Acker's recitations of book excerpts introduce each of Pussy's seven songs, which echo the writer's disjointed and cacophonous collage style by mixing samples from pirate radio ("Ange's Song As She Crawled Through London"), dub reggae ("The Song of the Dogs"), lesbian pirate shanties ("Ostracism's Song to Pussycat"), industrial noise ("Into the Strange"), and disco synth-pop ("Antigone Speaking of Herself"). Acker brings out the Mekons' savage female side--with Jon Langford's vocals taking a back seat to Sally Timms's singing and Susie Honeyman's shrill fiddle--while the Mekons bring Acker's lyrics into a new, sensual realm without compromising the power of her naked words. --Roni Sarig --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Pussy, King of the Pirates
Average customer rating:

Terrible waste of paper...neo-dadaist crap.

the best Acker

I did want to like it though

Brilliant!

Right ho!

Pussy, King of the Pirates
The Mekons w , and Kathy Acker
Manufacturer: Quarter Stick
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000037O5
Release Date: 1996-01-30

Tracks:

'My Name is 'O'
Ange's Song As She Crawled Through London
' I Want To Tell You About Myself'
The Song Of The Dogs
'We're Just Outside London...'
Ostracism's Song To Pussycat
'Antigone, You See Her'
Antigone Speaks About Herself
'Now Let Me Tell You...'
My Song At Night
'Since Ange And Me Are Innocent'
Into The Strange
Rats come out from broken eggs
Captured By Pirates
A Prayer For All Sailors

Amazon.com

A match made in avant-pop heaven: Kathy Acker, lesbian punk heiress to William Burroughs's edge-of-humanity literature, together with the Mekons, eclectic punk survivors and underground music gods and goddesses. In a musical/literary pairing that easily beats the Burroughs/Cobain collab a few years back, Acker and the Mekons meet to produce what must be a first, a soundtrack to a novel. Pussy, King of the Pirates is an aural companion to Acker's novel of the same name, a typically brutal journey into a wonderland of oblivion where the real and imagined intermingle freely, and horror and obscenity live side by side with childhood fantasy and adventure.

Customer Reviews:

Terrible waste of paper...neo-dadaist crap........2004-05-07

Kathy Acker has struck a new low for novels. This was singuatly the worst example of slaughtering trees needlessly. The plot is not worth discussing(I couldn't really follow it anyway), the book is mainly a screed against men and its readers. Inane dialogue and no feeling of setting. Calling this anything but a waste of paper would be a travesty

By the way, the neo-Dadaist reference is to an art movement in the '20s to "destroy" art by flouting conventions, and that is an apt analogy for this book.

the best Acker.......2002-10-18

Kathy Acker is, in my opinion, the best avant-garde author who ever existed, and "Pussy King of Pirates" is her greatest work--topping even "Empire of the Senseless"--which is too bad that it was her last.
following the exploits of girls seeking treasure, Pirate girls, and surreal avatars of writers like Antonin Artaud, "Pussy King of Pirates" goes farther than Acker has ever gone with the conventions of literature. ...the book is like a jazz riff, replayed and improvised at numerous times.
i cannot rave enough.
furthermore, "Pussy King of Pirates" has a soundtrack, that Acker recorded with the Mekons, which is also phenomenal.

I did want to like it though.......2002-06-30

Using a style a bit like that of William Burroughs, Acker weaves a tale of various girls struggling against (society, men, each other, etc.). There are moments of crisp clarity where Acker conveys aspects of the story she's telling with the potent voices she uses, but these are not often enough to bring the story together except for the dedicated transgressive reader. This is the type of book that relies more on voice and atmosphere than on linear storylines, and Acker does succeed in giving us fascinating characters, but I was still left bewildered and numb by the end, as well as left wondering what this book was meant to convey.

Brilliant!.......2001-03-06

Kathy Acker is probably one of the most talented authors of the latter half of the 20th century. This album is an excellent expose for her book of the same title.

Acker and the Mekons do an excellent job of finding different styles of music to fit with the different moods of the book. Acker's literature is reknowned for its avant-garde method of "plagiarism" (she blatantly steals from other authors and restructures their ideas to fit her own); this album is no different. Many songs sound like other songs--of various genres--that you might have heard before.

Songs on this album range from industrial to trance-esque electronica to disco to reggae-ish folk to post-modern sea shanty. Interspersed between every song is Acker's spoken word.

A must have for anyone who loves Acker's works.

Right ho!.......1999-04-13