Steven J. Bernstein
Steven Jesse Bernstein (December 4, 1950 – October 22, 1991) was an America… Read Full Bio ↴Steven Jesse Bernstein (December 4, 1950 – October 22, 1991) was an American underground writer and performance artist who is most famous for his recordings with Sub Pop Records and close relationship with William S. Burroughs. Bernstein's substance abuse issues and mental illness contributed to shaping his provocative local celebrity, though they ultimately culminated in his suicide.
Bernstein was born in Los Angeles, California. He later moved to Seattle, Washington and began performing his poetry there during the mid 1980s. In Seattle, Bernstein would become something of an icon to many in the underground music scene, his fan base including such notable names as Kurt Cobain and Oliver Stone. Bernstein's mental illness was not as alarming as it might have been off the stage, as his drug-reinforced manic episodes were harnessed and channelled into engrossing, often perverse, entertainment. According to one Seattle newspaper, he opened for music acts such as Nirvana, Big Black, Soundgarden, U-Men, and the Crows:
He read poems from a stage with a live rodent in his mouth, its tail twitching as baseline punctuation. He tried to cut his heart out in order to hold it in his hands and calm it down. He once urinated on a heckler and tended to throw things: beer bottles, manuscripts, drumsticks, his wallet, a sandwich.[1]
Bernstein recorded the album Prison with Steve Fisk at a correction center in Monroe, Washington during 1991. The album was intended to be produced along the same lines as Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison.[2] Fisk later decided to score the recordings with jazz and ambient music. The album was only partially completed when Bernstein committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat three times with a knife. He was 40 years old when he died - about a month and a half before his 41st birthday.
It was released on April 1st, 1992. In 1994, one of these recordings was used in the film Natural Born Killers.
I am Secretly an Important Man, a collection of poetry, short stories, and spoken performances, was released in March of 1996 by Zero Hour Publishing.
Bernstein was born in Los Angeles, California. He later moved to Seattle, Washington and began performing his poetry there during the mid 1980s. In Seattle, Bernstein would become something of an icon to many in the underground music scene, his fan base including such notable names as Kurt Cobain and Oliver Stone. Bernstein's mental illness was not as alarming as it might have been off the stage, as his drug-reinforced manic episodes were harnessed and channelled into engrossing, often perverse, entertainment. According to one Seattle newspaper, he opened for music acts such as Nirvana, Big Black, Soundgarden, U-Men, and the Crows:
He read poems from a stage with a live rodent in his mouth, its tail twitching as baseline punctuation. He tried to cut his heart out in order to hold it in his hands and calm it down. He once urinated on a heckler and tended to throw things: beer bottles, manuscripts, drumsticks, his wallet, a sandwich.[1]
Bernstein recorded the album Prison with Steve Fisk at a correction center in Monroe, Washington during 1991. The album was intended to be produced along the same lines as Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison.[2] Fisk later decided to score the recordings with jazz and ambient music. The album was only partially completed when Bernstein committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat three times with a knife. He was 40 years old when he died - about a month and a half before his 41st birthday.
It was released on April 1st, 1992. In 1994, one of these recordings was used in the film Natural Born Killers.
I am Secretly an Important Man, a collection of poetry, short stories, and spoken performances, was released in March of 1996 by Zero Hour Publishing.
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