Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. reads Cat’s Cradle


Being a DJ that comes from a ‘turntablist’ (god I hate that word) background, spoken word records were the mother lode for me and my friends. Although I’m not as scratchcratchratchatch as I used to be, I still relish the oddball talkie record. I found this bad boy and scooped it up immediately because my girlfriend is a diehard Vonnegut fan. And it’s great too! Nothing like hearing an author read his own work. You can just imagine KVJ sitting in a studio with his unkempt hair and bushy mustache reading away with cigarette in hand. In classic Vonnegut style, it’s a cautionary, neo-futuristic tale of a strange bio-warfare chemical that takes place presumably during WWII. It’s definitely abriged, but it’s a great taste of what it was like to listen to a book before the whole audio-tapes and CDs blew up.

additonal note: the liner notes on the back cover are written by none other than Isaac Asimov!

3 Comments

  • hcrink says:

    I have another lp of his called “Welcome to the Monkey House” that is really good. I love the way he reads.

  • gir says:

    yo hcrink- do you know if all the stories from the book are on that album?

  • endwar says:

    His reading of Breakfast of Champions, also on Caedmon, is brilliant. It is highly condensed, but seemed to have the whole feel of the book. If anything, i found listening to the record had more emotional impact than reading the book.

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