Bass Lake Run: All the Empty Cans and Beer Cartons Are Up on Top of the
Bass Lake Run: No Notes After Two Days of This Hell's Angels Thing.
Terry the Tramp Interview #1: It's August 5, Thursday Night. We're on t
Terry the Tramp Interview #1: Was Clovis a Run?
Terry the Tramp Interview #1: You Ever Try Peyote, Hunter?
Terry the Tramp Interview #1: I'm Not Worried Until the Book Comes Out.
Terry the Tramp Interview #1: I'm Puttin' You to a Terrible Inconvenien
Driving Back Through Oakland: On My Way Back Now from Taking Terry the
Driving Back Through Oakland: When I Was Talking to the Frisco Angels t
Driving Back Through Oakland: Also Like to Get the Idea Down.
The Merry Pranksters Welcome the Hell's Angels: What Follows Here Is a Conv
The Merry Pranksters Welcome the Hell's Angels: Ambulance Rolling, Code 3
It's a Long Story...Ha-Ha, Not Thump-Thump: Tonight Was Saturday, Augus
Terry the Tramp Interview #2: They Run It Down That This Girl Was a Poo
Terry the Tramp Interview #2: Porterville Is the One That Time Used, Ri
Terry the Tramp Interview #2: Who Was She? Had You Ever Seen Her?
Terry the Tramp Interview #2: Do You Remember What Day It Was?
Zing Zong Wing Ding Rush: We're Going to Have to Get Some Wisdom, Some
A Question for the Ages: It's Snow Outside, Getting Light.
Track Listings (18) - Disc #2
We Have Seized the High Ground: It's Monday Afternoon, We Have a White
We Have Seized the High Ground: Did You See the Way That Guy Looked at
We Have Seized the High Ground: Well, She Was Crazy. It Was Clear When
One Toke Over the Line: Abbe Lane at the Desert Inn. Louis Prima, Stard
One Toke Over the Line: You Get What You Pay For.
One Toke Over the Line: What We Should Do Is Just Call the Free Press.
One Toke Over the Line: We Could Certainly Use Some Mescaline.
If All Else Fails We Must Get Ether: The White House Says the Guest Lis
If All Else Fails We Must Get Ether: Let Me Call Wilcock If I Can and S
If All Else Fails We Must Get Ether: Oh Hi, Is Jay There?
If All Else Fails We Must Get Ether: It's Ringing.
In Search of the American Dream: Remote Control RM15
In Search of the American Dream: Maybe That's Where We've Gone Wrong.
Terry's Taco Stand, USA: I'm Getting Tired of Giving You Advice That Yo
Anybody in Search of the American Dream Needs a Lawyer, A Doctor and a
Anybody in Search of the American Dream Needs a Lawyer, A Doctor and a
Anybody in Search of the American Dream Needs a Lawyer, A Doctor and a
While Taking a Piss There It Suddenly Struck Me What's Going on Her.
Track Listings (20) - Disc #3
Goddamn! This Monster's Licking My Arm!: As Usual, You're Afraid of Mex
Goddamn! This Monster's Licking My Arm!: We're Approaching the Fog Cutt
Goddamn! This Monster's Licking My Arm!: We're Going to the Pussycat No
Goddamn! This Monster's Licking My Arm!: Chances Are Very Good That I'l
Goddamn! This Monster's Licking My Arm!: Yes, This Is Oscar Acosta in R
Oscar Fled in Terror...Drug Up...Weird Road: Boulder Highway, Heading T
Oscar Fled in Terror...Drug Up...Weird Road: Two Things We Should Proba
Oscar Fled in Terror...Drug Up...Weird Road: Ah Yes, We're Coming Over
Oscar Fled in Terror...Drug Up...Weird Road: I Was Just Kind of Walking
Oscar Fled in Terror...Drug Up...Weird Road: A Strange Backwaters of So
Oscar Fled in Terror...Drug Up...Weird Road: I'm Pulling off on a Side
Oscar Fled in Terror...Drug Up...Weird Road: Aw Jesus.
Across This Treacherous Sand...A Huge Tidal Wave Will Come in on Me Now
Across This Treacherous Sand...A Huge Tidal Wave Will Come in on Me Now
Across This Treacherous Sand...A Huge Tidal Wave Will Come in on Me Now
Vegas D.A. Final Notes...the Whole Room Is Total Chaos: Las Vegas, Apri
Vegas D.A. Final Notes...the Whole Room Is Total Chaos: I Can't Imagine
Wenner Calls...with a Big "W" in 65-Pt Type: When I Start to Grapple wi
Wenner Calls...with a Big "W" in 65-Pt Type: I Figure I'm Going to Star
Wenner Calls...with a Big "W" in 65-Pt Type: Anyway, There's Vegas to B
Track Listings (28) - Disc #4
Guts Ball: This Microphone Wound Up Beneath Something Down There.
Guts Ball: There's Signs of Group Hysteria in the Passengers.
Guts Ball: Some Are Just Weeping Now.
Guts Ball: Well, The Beauty of the Whole Thing...
Gozumel: It's March 30; Actually March 31.
Fear and Loathing in Acapulco: The Piece Was Interrupted; the Piece End
Fear and Loathing in Acapulco: Have Found Thompson, He's with Kissinger
Fear and Loathing in Acapulco: They Still Can't Reach Me.
Fear and Loathing in Acapulco: The Story Is Fear and Loathing in Acapul
Fear and Loathing in Acapulco: Telephone Call Between Duke and Gonzo.
Fear and Loathing in Acapulco: The Girls Are Laughing.
Freud Cocaine Papers: Here's the First Symptom of This Goddamn Evil Dru
Freud Cocaine Papers: I've Done What Most People Would Consider an Exce
Freud Cocaine Papers: This Is Wednesday Night, The Third Day of Our Coc
Freud Cocaine Papers: I Would Not Be Inclined.
Freud Cocaine Papers: There Appears to Be Some Minimal But at Least Not
Freud Cocaine Papers: June 28. I Think It's a Friday.
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: We're out Here, It's, Uh, I Don't Know W
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: Yeah, We Should Just Relax for a Second.
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: Lying Down on the Bed in This Stinking L
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: I Have Every Reason to Believe That We W
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: Fiendish. The Thing Is So Bad There's No
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: Tomorrow Morning at 6 O'Clock in the Hot
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: There's No Way You Can Conceive What's G
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: ...Called a Meeting Here.
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: I Realize It's Difficult This Time of Ni
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: We Really Have No Tickets
Fear and Loathing in Kinshasa: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Captain Has Tu
Track Listings (17) - Disc #5
I'm the One That's Supposed to Be Crazy: Hello, Hunter.
I'm the One That's Supposed to Be Crazy: Why Don't You Talk to Gloria.
I'm the One That's Supposed to Be Crazy: Hello. Long-Distance Calling f
I'm the One That's Supposed to Be Crazy: When Were You Last There?
I'm the One That's Supposed to Be Crazy: Want to Go, Hunter?
Hotel Continental Palace: We Should Be in Saigon, In Loren Jenkins' Roo
Hotel Continental Palace: I Wasn't in a Position to Interpret That-One
Hotel Continental Palace: Nine O'Clock, Thursday Morning, Saigon, Conti
The Thursday Night Panic: Now It's Friday Morning.
The Thursday Night Panic: What Did You Hear?
Last Stand at Xuan Loc: To Get to Where We Were Yesterday...
Hong Kong: And That Was When This Goddamn Machine Broke.
Hong Kong: And Based on a Prediction That Ford's Speech Is Going to Be
Hong Kong: Meanwhile I Have to Go Over to the Newsweek Office
Hong Kong: Five Minutes of Six, In the Newsweek Office.
Hong Kong: Let's See, The News Tonight.
The Last Dispatch from Saigon: The Last Commercial Airliner Still Flying ou
Recorded by Hunter S. Thompson between 1965 and 1975, these tapes capture his thoughts and descriptions both as they're happening and in reflection, as he would often go back to rerecord commentary while writing. Filmmaker... more » Alex Gibney, producer Eva Orner and Gonzo archivist Don Fleming were given permission by Thompson's widow to explore the boxes of tapes stored in the basement of his Owl Farm home in Woody Creek, Colorado, left behind after Thompson's suicide in 2005. Fleming transferred the audiocassettes and reel-to-reel tapes to digital files, and they made their way to the cutting room for the film Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Now for the first time these previously unreleased recordings are available in a 5-CD set. The Gonzo Tapes features original cover artwork by Gonzo artist Ralph Steadman, an amazing 44-page booklet full of never-before-seen images from Hunter S. Thompson's estate, along with memorable photos and an introduction by film director Alex Gibney, an essay by journalist and Thompson's fellow foreign correspondent Loren Jenkins, and notes by The Gonzo Tapes producer Don Fleming, former front man of the Velvet Monkeys and Gumball who has produced Sonic Youth, Alice Cooper, Hole, and more.« less
Recorded by Hunter S. Thompson between 1965 and 1975, these tapes capture his thoughts and descriptions both as they're happening and in reflection, as he would often go back to rerecord commentary while writing. Filmmaker Alex Gibney, producer Eva Orner and Gonzo archivist Don Fleming were given permission by Thompson's widow to explore the boxes of tapes stored in the basement of his Owl Farm home in Woody Creek, Colorado, left behind after Thompson's suicide in 2005. Fleming transferred the audiocassettes and reel-to-reel tapes to digital files, and they made their way to the cutting room for the film Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Now for the first time these previously unreleased recordings are available in a 5-CD set. The Gonzo Tapes features original cover artwork by Gonzo artist Ralph Steadman, an amazing 44-page booklet full of never-before-seen images from Hunter S. Thompson's estate, along with memorable photos and an introduction by film director Alex Gibney, an essay by journalist and Thompson's fellow foreign correspondent Loren Jenkins, and notes by The Gonzo Tapes producer Don Fleming, former front man of the Velvet Monkeys and Gumball who has produced Sonic Youth, Alice Cooper, Hole, and more.
CD Reviews
For a specific audience only!
Wintertiger | 11/10/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This item is very difficult to rate, as some will love it and most will not care for it. Do not buy this item unless you are a serious Gonzophile who is interested in Hunter's actual process in creating stories, as well as getting some insight into the realities of his life.
Do not buy it if you expect lots of gonzo bad craziness on the tapes: The Vegas portions are pretty pedestrian. Even when he is stoned, you are not experiencing the powerful internal experience; you are listening to it from the outside, and it can sound somewhat tired. You do get a couple interesting hints about how much was real and what really happened, but you have to listen carefully. This is Hunter Thompson the person, not Raoul Duke the personna.
As this is raw material, the sound quality can be really bad sometimes. Music and other conversations can occasionally make it really hard to hear.
You will hear a drug-wrecked Thompson totally incapacitated and useless in Kinsasha, and what he says in Cozumel in 1973 will definitely surprise you. The Politics book period is strangely absent, a shame because for me that was the period where his writing went from brilliant to chaotic.
I found the great hell of being a famous writer shown too often: everyone tries to tell you what your story is. Acosta does it in Vegas and Acapulco (it was eventually the reason for their falling-out), Wenner does it on the Vegas book, and Gloria Emerson goes to great length to put her Fear and Loathing in Saigon concept into him before he goes (the problem is that you cannot elogize the history of a place where you have never been).
The "Guts Ball" section will show pretty clearly why brainstorming a novel on mushrooms is a bad idea, and the Freud Cocaine self-test did not sound like any fun at all.
You will not find out how Hunter got that terrific prose style and those sharp insights onto the page. Both are basically absent from the tapes. The best part of Hunter came when it was just him and his Selectric, and the tape player wasn't running then.
So buy this if you are an aficionado seeking insight into the reality of Hunter Thompson, the kind of aficionado who read his letters collections and liked the Gonzo book of photos. Honestly, the joy of Hunter Thompson is in his writing, and most people would probably be happiest with his major works."
Gonzo Going Gonzo
Ryan Gallagher | Gurnee, IL USA | 11/05/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is Hunter in the middle of his verbal notes. Sometimes he's in a car taking notes on the day as Hell's Angels are drunk and yelling in the background, and sometimes he's out of it with Oscar in Las Vegas. Some people complain that there is too much static or interference. Well, you try and do this kind of crazed in depth journalism Known as Gonzo, and get crisp clean recordings. It's part of the charm, and part of the story. Well worth the price. We will always miss you Hunter."
Fantastic for serious fans!
A. Mccune | Manchester, NH | 12/16/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Meticulous. These tapes serve as a fantastic companion to the books covered in this series. It gives the listener a window into the mind of one of the 20th centuries most brilliant writers. Thompson was meticulous in his audio notebooks. This is a sampling of some of the hours upon hours of those tapes. Producer Don Fleming does a great job of making 40 year old tapes audible. There are still imperfections, but if your a completist, this is what your looking for.
Best part of the entire series: The actual audio from the "Taco Stand" scene from the book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" which is transcribed nearly verbatim in the book.
The only missing part of this series would be Hunter's political work. As this was a companion to the Gonzo documentary, the scope of the work started with that and did not include his political work. Hopefully, they make a "Gonzo Tapes 2" for those...If they do, I'll buy it.
I would have given it one more star if they would have included the political era stuff..."
CONSUMMATE GONZO
Robert D. Scott | Austin, TX | 02/15/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As a fan of Hunter for over 25 years (and not yet 40), this is an addition to the collection that any true fan would be proud to add to their collection. Simply upon receipt, the joy I felt was almost immeasurable; the further one delves into the recordings, the more of an actual bond is felt with the good Doctor through his own musings & observations about politics, society, & simply his own creative process. Highly, highly recommended to any true fan of HST."
The Birth of Gonzo
Mark Pitta | Marin County, Bay Area | 12/08/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I've only finished the Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas disc and I felt like a fly on the dashboard. Who knew that Hunter recorded himself and his trips? What an insight it gives into the man at a time in his life that would become legendary. I loved it when cruising the Vegas strip in a rented convertible, his lawyer says, "I feel this is the right think to do." Hunter mummbles, "It's the right thing to do for the story but not in real life!"