Nick Tosches and Hubert Selby, Jr. : Blue Eyes and Exit Wounds

Hubert Selby, Jr., Nick Tosches : Blue Eyes and Exit Wounds

La Vie en Rose

(Selby - CD Track 3)

Published in the first issue of Open City magazine (1991).

The French cabaret singer Edith Piaf (Edith Giovana Gassion) had an American hit record with the song "La Vie en Rose" in the autumn of 1950. (The original, French lyrics to the song were her own, copyrighted in 1947; Mack David rendered the English-language lyrics that she sang in the 1950 Columbia hit version.) Piaf died in the autumn of 1963, at the age of 47.

Billie Holiday, born Eleanor Gough and known as Lady Day, died in 1959, at the age of 44.

The pianist Earl "Bud" Powell worked and recorded with both Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He died on August 1, 1966, at the age of 41.

It Takes One to Know One (Selby - CD Track 6)

From Selby's autobiographical work in progress, "Seeds of Pain, Seeds of Love".

What the Coptic Guy Said

(Tosches - CD Track 7)

The main text of the poem is from "The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus", composed, likely in Syria, in the late first or early second century. The Gospel of Thomas is the second tractate of Codex II of the Coptic gnostic texts known as the Nag Hammadi library, after their discovery, in December 1945, near the modern Upper Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi. Further reading: Marvin Meyer, "The Secret Teachings of Jesus: Four Gnostic Gospels" (New York: Random House, 1984); Marvin Meyer, "The Gospel of Thomas" (San Francisco: Harper, 1992); Elaine Pagels, "The Gnostic Gospels" (New York: Random House, 1979).

A Feast for the Eyes

(Tosches - CD Track 8)

From "Spud Crazy", though, like the rest of the poems in "Spud Crazy", not written expressly for that work. This poem also appeared in print in Lowest Common Denominator, No. 19 (1996).

My Kind of Loving (Tosches - CD Track 10)

Previously recorded by Tosches, in 1994, for the spoken-word anthology "Relationships from Hell" (Big Deal 90104-2), also produced by Harold Goldberg. Published in Open City, No. 4 (1996).

Erebos (Tosches - CD Track 14)

Published in Contents®, No. 15 (1997). The word Erebos is defined by the Liddell-Scott Greek-English Lexicon: "A place of nether darkness, forming a passage from Earth to Hades." The word is encountered in Homer, and was personified in the "Theogony of Hesiod". It was Latinized as Erebus, and occurs in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, in the phrase "darke as Erobus," and, as Erebus, in Milton's evocation of the Hesiodic theogony in Book II of "Paradise Lost".

I with a Knife to the Throat of Cybele

(Tosches - CD Track 15)

The origins of Cybele, the great mother-goddess, have been traced to Asia Minor and the second millennium B.C. In Rome, the annual spring rites of her cult culminated in the Day of Blood and its feast of orgiastic castration.

Dante in Ravenna (Tosches - CD Track 16)

The poet Dante died in Ravenna, Italy, in September 1321.

I Dig Girls (Tosches - CD Track 17)

From "Scratch", a novel in progress. The title phrase is that of a minor hit record by Bobby Rydell from the autumn of 1958.

Blues Eyes and Exit Wounds was recorded, in two long sessions, on October 4, 1997. Selby suggested that the CD be titled "Suck My Dick and Go Home", illustrated with a cover reproduction of the painting commonly known as Whistler's Mother. Tosches went for the title, but preferred a portrait of Princess Di to Whistler's Mother. The CD's producer, Harold Goldberg, threatened to withdraw from the project when Mother Teresa was proposed.

The title "Blue Eyes and Exit Wounds" came to Tosches later, and only later still did he understand why: "That old thing about eyes as the windows of the soul. I guess from there I went to eyes as exit wounds of the soul. And, in one of the pieces I recorded, "Resurrection," another part of "Scratch", which ended up being cut from the CD because it was too long, there was the phrase "exit hole," a variation on the forensic term "exit wound," and that was fresh in my mind; and I guess, somewhere in my mind, there was Cubby's "Last Exit to Brooklyn". Then there was the connection between romance and violence, love and death, which seemed to run through a lot of what we did that day, from Cubby's "In the Heat of the Night" to some of my stuff. The wedding of those two phrases, the one so sweet, familiar, and evocative, the other so cold, clinical, and deadly, seemed to ride the breeze just right.

Track List

HUBERT SELBY, JR.
In the Heat of the Night (excerpt)
Only the Lonely
La Vie en Rose
A Tale of Anticipation
Psalm 16 (Song of Forgiveness)
It Takes One to Know One

NICK TOSCHES
What the Coptic Guy Said
A Feast for the Eyes
From the Dream-Book of Artemidorus
My Kind of Loving
Contrapasso
Ptolemy II
May the Gods without Names Redeem Me
Erebos
I with a Knife to the Throat of Cybele
Dante in Ravenna
I Dig Girls

This limited edition CD is available exclusively through this website.

The image of the crucified serpent is attributed to Nicolas Flamel, a medieval Parisian notary and alchemist who claimed to have uncovered in 1357 a mysterious and ancient bark codex containing hieroglyph symbols whose alleged interpretation for him by a hermetic scholar he called Abraham the Jew, enabled him, he further claimed, to conduct several successful alchemical transformations. The symbol of the crucified serpent was seen as representing the healing power of the Mercurial elixir.

CREDITS

HAROLD GOLDBERG previously produced the 1994 spoken-word anthology Relationships from Hell (Big Deal 90104-2), which featured an earlier version of Nick Tosches's "My Kind of Loving." Goldberg, who is based in New York, is a journalist who has written for The New York Times Book Review, New York, Wired, and Vanity Fair.

DAN BOSWORTH is best-known for his work with the Rolling Stones, which began with the Voodoo Lounge sessions of 1993 and became a dominant force in the recording of the Stones' Bridges to Babylon.

SCOTT LAWRENCE WHITMAN, a multimedia artist and photographer, is creative director of Alchemy Networks, an interactive media company in Los Angeles & San Francisco. Whitman designed this web site as well as the CD and also co-produced and mastered the CD.

There are others to whom thanks are owed. Dan Bosworth's involvement in this project came about through the intercession of the Texas musical luminary Stephen Bruton, whose singular vision shines forth from several CDs that are well worth seeking out. Scott Whitman's involvement came about through the intercession of Lisa Derrick, the Saraswati of West Hollywood. Jerry Stahl, the author of "Permanent Midnight" (Warner Books), served as godfather. Jim Merlis, editor of Smokes Like a Fish (140 Cadman Plaza West #7-E, Brooklyn, NY 11201), served as publicist, propagandist, and bagman.

BOOKS