The story of �Dr. Hunter S. Thompson�s Private Stash�
A few weeks after Dr. Thompson�s suicide, an auction titled �HST
unpublished works and tapes� appeared on ebay; we won it for a few
hundred dollars. Put up by a person we believe to be one of Thompson�s
former assistants, it included a Xeroxed collection titled �Drafts, Notes &
Work Papers of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson 1988 � 1990�� correspondence,
columns, and unpublished pieces complete with his editing marks. (That
collection is NOT included here. Sorry.)
There were also three 90 minute audio tapes. We�d heard that HST taped
his conversations and interviews, which isn�t surprising considering that
he kept carbons of every letter he ever wrote. At the very least, the USA
Today tapes begin with him saying, �This is for my own reference.� (One
article in the collection, �Static Detonates the Gel,� describes the episode of
Nightline that he and the interviewer are watching in Part 1 of the USA
Today interview.) That conversation, incidentally, was split between two
tapes with no continuity, so we named them Part 1 and Part 2.
As for the sound, the amateur nature of these recordings was most obvious
in the Today Show tape. It�s NOT a feed, as you�ll soon tell! In fact, we
imagine it was recorded with a cheap, desktop recorder, because whenever
someone hit the mic�which happened a lot!�the volume crashed
dramatically and took a few seconds to return to normal. This is most
obvious about 20 minutes in, when Thompson gets interviewer Stone
Phillips to shoot one of his handguns into the darkness off his Woody Creek
porch! We left a few of those jostlings intact, partly to preserve the
conversation and partly because it added to the charm of the recording.
There are some fluctuations in volume, but �Hunter S. Thompson�s Private
Stash� is surprisingly listenable, especially considering the source. We spent
about 15 hours micro-editing the first and only playing of the Today Show
tape alone; the USA Today tape took far less work. Frankly we think they
both sound pretty good�and we hope you agree. They�re great for their
political insight, interesting opinions, classic wit, and the cries of
Thompson�s peacocks wandering the grounds (the background sound in
the Today Show tape is rain). At one point in the USA Today interview, you
hear a strange snorting sound, too�
How they came into the possession of the auctioneer, we honestly don�t
know. We believe they�re Hunter�s own copies�hence the title�and thus the
only ones in existence. We certainly can�t imagine Hunter�s assistants
keeping backup copies of every tape he made. We do, however feel safe in
saying that these tapes have never circulated.
Until now. After debating for years whether to liberate these recordings or
return them to Thompson�s estate, we decided on the latter and offered to
give them to Anita, free of charge, through an email to her wonderful
website, www.gonzostore.com. She never replied, so light one up, crack
one open, and start tapping the glass�then dip into �Hunter S. Thompson�s
Private Stash.�
Here�s to you, Hunter!
brmc69 (8.23.08)
Lineage: HST Mast Cassettes> Soundstudio to aiff> Itunes 7 to wav> Flac 8>
You
Track List:
DISC ONE (TT 60.24): Today Show (Raw) 06-21-88: 1. The Gideon
Bible; I Have A General Distaste For Activists; 1968 Democratic Convention
2. We Were Mean; Ed Meese; A Victim of Some Kind of Horrible Mental
Illness 3. Are You Michael Jackson?; I Should Live Like I Want To; Be
Careful, That�s a Hair Trigger! 4. The Examiner Column; We�re In The
Business Of Controlling Our Environment 5. Is There Anyone That Inspires
You Today?; The Ethic of Enlightened Self-Interest; If You Don�t Do It,
Somebody Else Will 6. How Do You Translate To The Europeans?; Are You
Disappointed in the American Public? 7. Watergate; A Lesson Of Some Sort;
Journalism 8. Television Versus Print; Libel; Writing 9. I�d Rather Write
Poems; You Know That Meese Is A Swine; Nixon 10. Have You Ever Made
Too Harsh A Judgment? Regrets; I Have Lawyers DISC TWO (TT 73.27):
11. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas; It Worked Fine And It Didn�t Hurt; It All
Gets Back To Being Lazy 12. I Love Writing; I Steal From The Right People;
One Long Sentence 13. I Never Thought Of Myself As A Journalist; I�ve
Been Expecting To Die For So Long; It�s Fun To Take The Chances 14.
Mortality; A Magnificent Luxury; Bad Whiskey Is Like Tea 15. Doing
Cutaways
USA Today Part 1 07-08-88: 1. This Is For My Own Reference; George
McGovern; Why Get Into Politics? 2. We Had Good People on Our Side; The
Kennedys; All the Good Things Have Happened 3. It�s Hard To Avoid
Reality; Jesse Jackson; Why Did This Thing Ring? 4. This Dumb Bastard;
Billionaires; Where Is the Progress? 5. The War On Drugs; Guns
6. I Beat the Hell Out of Journalism; Did Terry Take the Motherfucking
Tape Out of There?; Tracking the Video 7. This, That, Beta, VHS;
Journalism; I Know I Can Change One More Vote
DISC THREE (TT 45.58): USA Today Part 2 07-08-88: 1. A Dangerous
Thing; Dukakis; Ted Kennedy 2. Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick 3. Let
the Record Show; Pat Buchanan; A Fellow Thug and Brawler 4. Jim Brady;
A Cheap Thief; Nixon�s House in China 5. Are There Any Politicians You Do
Respect?; Harvard Law School 6. Political Talent; Freak Power; They
Haven�t Got Me Yet 7. That�s All We Eat Out Here; AIDS 8. I Would Kill Most
Of The People Here; White Trash Behavior; I Insist That This Business Be
Fun 9. The Conventions; Look What Happened To Julian Bond; I Told A Guy
From NBC� 10. Generation of Swine; Tattoos; I�ll Take Any Excuse Not To
Work
Artwork is included, designed for a 3-cd jewel case.
It�s a pdf. Print it out at 100 percent and not �scale to fit.�