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
I have another lp of his called “Welcome to the Monkey House” that is really good. I love the way he reads.
yo hcrink- do you know if all the stories from the book are on that album?
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.