Review of On the Road with Ellison, Volume 3

SFFaudio Review

On the Road with Harlan Ellison, Volume 3On The Road With Ellison, Volume Three
Live Performance by Harlan Ellison
1 CD – 1 hour – [LIVE PERFORMANCE]
Publisher: Deep Shag Records
Published: 2007
ISBN: None
Themes: / Live Performance / Publishing / Writing / Film / Middle East / ERA / Education / Chandeliers / The Abyss /

I think there’s a part of every writer, once he or she comes in contact with Harlan Ellison through his writing or in person, that wishes one could squeeze the man’s passion into an aerosol can for use at the right times. I also think there are a lot of people who wouldn’t mind that the squeezing would leave Ellison a wrinkled raisin, for they’ve heard enough from him.

I have not heard enough from him, and as a writer, I marvel at his honesty and his willingness to open doors and pour himself through them in both his fiction and in his live appearances. His fiction is available everywhere, and some of his live appearances have been captured in a series of CDs that are available from Deep Shag Records.

In this, On the Road with Ellison, Volume 3, Ellison speaks in front of live audiences about being on the set while filming a scene that means a particular lot to him, about buying copies of Alone Against Tomorrow back from the publisher, and about the professor and the chandelier. Track after track of wonderful stories, this time true, told by a master storyteller. I was moved, I laughed, and I was annoyed at different times throughout. In short, I loved it, and bet you will too.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

New Arrival from Deep Shag Records

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Just in from Deep Shag Records!

On the Road with Harlan Ellison, Volume 3On The Road With Ellison Volume Three is the latest report in from Harlan Ellison and a life lived on the road. Here we find the author contemplating mortality – his own and that of the world; always with a keen eye, a sharp tongue, and one foot planted firmly in the ass of the terminally stupid. And why did he drop that chandelier on those people? This is Ellison live on stage and anything goes.

And yes, Deep Shag Records has On the Road Volumes 1 and 2 as well, with samples from all three recordings – find it all here.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of On the Road with Ellison: Volume One

SFFaudio Author of the Month

On the Road with Ellison, Vol. 1On The Road With Ellison, Volume 1
Live performance by Harlan Ellison
1 CD – 60 minutes
Publisher: Deep Shag Records
Published: 2001 (reissue from 1983)
UPC: 809879000322
Themes : / Non-fiction / Writing / Politics / Publishing /

On the Road with Ellison, Volume 1 is a collection of live lecture/performances by Harlan Ellison in 1981, 1982, and 1983 in front of three different university corwds. When he talks of mailing a dead gopher to an editor (er… comptroller) he’s hilarious, and when he reads an essay he wrote (“An Edge in My Voice: Installment #54”) he rattles our collective cage, making us look at a man who threatened to blow up the Washington Monument in a whole new way.

From the very first track, where he warns audience members to leave if words offend them, Ellison is abrasive yet totally engaging. Or perhaps he’s totally engaging because he’s so abrasive. Either way, the tracks are thoroughly enjoyable, and the album is worth grabbing.

And yes, there’s a Volume 2, also available from Deep Shag.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson