"Pry Yourself Loose and Listen" (1964)

Tangier, Morocco: Ira Cohen (chapbook), 1964.
8.5" x 5.5", ten pages, stapled wraps.

Pry Yourself Loose and Listen by William S. Burroughs, a chapbook produced by Ira Cohen (Tangier, Morocco), 1964, in an unknown number of copies. Quite scarce. A version also exists with a different cover, in tan–colored card. These are the texts that Ira Cohen published in Gnaoua in Spring of 1964, and the type is set the same.

The full text of "Pry Yourself Loose and Listen" can be found in Nova Express (at pages 16-18 of the Grove Press first edition), and the text of "Notes on Page One" corresponds with the footnote to that text (at pages 16-17 of the Grove Press first edition). This chapbook and Gnoaua only present a portion of "Pry Yourself Loose and Listen" [see Oliver Harris' note at page 199 of Nova Express: The Restored Text (Grove Press, 2013)].  I am not currently aware of "Ancient Face Gone Out" and "Just So Long and Long Enough" being included in one of Burroughs' primary works.

In a conversation with Jeffrey Ball on 15 August 2012, Barry Miles wrote: "Gnaoua magazine was published in Tangier but printed in Antwerp, Belgium. Some years ago I looked at the dossier of papers and proofs connected with the printing of the magazine which were for sale by an Antwerp rare book seller and there was no mention of an offprint. Had there been I am sure I would have taken note and tried to find a copy. Of course the printer’s dossier may not have been complete but I would suggest that the offprint is a later bootleg."

This is supported by the size of the publication, which, when open, is 11" x 8.5", a US-sized sheet.

In March 2021, on the Facebook "Burroughs & Assosciates" group, Aloes Books publisher James Pennington noted "closer examination reveals a typeface anomaly - the way the capital letters (in the text pages) seem a bit bolder or even an ever slightly different face than the lower case. They are not precisely base-aligned either. This is kind of thing you see on typewriter setting but this isn’t a typewriter. Possibly a Varityper. Even possibly cranky hand-set letterpress, proofed on a flat-bed to galleys, pasted up and then photo-litho’d. Your memory post caught me at exact same time as I had the copy of Gnaoua in my hand that I used for White Subway. I had it out to compare its text for Pry yourself... with that which is in Nova Express in the Grove and the later Harris 'revisited' edition. I’m doing liner notes for the forthcoming Paradigm LP of Ali’s Smile and Nova Dispatches so all of these texts I’ve been comparing with the spoken word tape for the Nova Dispatch that matches Pry Yourself Loose. Which it looks to me was written at same time as Burroughs and Gysin did a thing at ICA in 1963. And sent a typescript to Ira Cohen at same time."

Not in M&M.
Not in Shoaf.
Schottlaender v4.A11.

Contents:

• "Pry Yourself Loose and Listen"
• "Notes on Page One"
• "Ancient Face Gone Out"
• "Just So Long and Long Enough"

External Links:

• RealityStudio: Pry Yourself Loose and Listen