Strange days!

Hi Tony

finally I mailed a pretty big parcel today
you will receive it in 5-6 days
sent it air-mail
and there is a few books and one cd
I think you will enjoy the stuff

I will send you some more next week
like I told you
some dvd (2)
and another cd of a recent album I did
which is pretty good
the lyrics are great
and the music also
but to much sinthé
I was on smack for the 6 months of the recording
I spent a winter and spring in the studio
making Japanese tea and smoking H

what I sent you today
contains some vintage books
and some recent one
like I explained

1. ROMAN D'AMOUR
that little book was written in the early seventies when I was doing a lot of acid and smoking grass
and mushroom and all psychedelics drugs... I was traveling between Mtl, Vancouver, L.A. and Frisco
sometimes leaving in communes sometimes on skid-row etc etc exile on main street time
When I wrote that little book I was having a heartbreak with Suzanne Queen of the Underground
everybody wanted to take her away from me and was too busy with other girls and dope
so I lost her and got sad and got mad and sad and mad etc etc and wrote that book
I very well known writer of that era read it on acid and he was a teacher at University
and he freaked out took himself for Billy the Kid and went thru a plate-glass window
and cut himself pretty badly and that made the new at the time
so I was a hero of the underground and over ground before making any albums
my books were put down by the straight in the tabloid and that was unusual for a poet
to see his name and books mentioned in those tabloid and everyday papers
So this book is a classic of that area and impossible to find and it sells for close to a hundred dollars
It is a pulp psychedelic kind of a novel that was never completed but it made history

2. CHANSONS D'ÉPOUVANTE
That cd sold very well and receive a lot of good critics because the musicians were great and well known
all coming from different alternative rock band that were and are legendary
the songs were the same that I had recorded in 1974 for CBS
we played them live on tape and did not change anything
the sound is more powerful and my voice a bit different more mature
and that edition is a special one for a TV promotion with a bonus second album
with one song recorded in 1987 when my daughter was born
and the song was produce by a friend of mine a huge rock star of Quebec
Gerry Boulet of Offenbach... (Kathy Reichs mentioned him at the beginning of her first novel) the first French rock band ever in Quebec
he died 2 years after sometimes in 1990 he sings with me and that is another collector’s item
I had written that song when I was touring in France with my band (French musicians)
so that song has a special meaning for me although I would do the voice differently today
but I did it at the time like Gerry wanted me to do it and I followed his guidance


if you have any question feel free to ask me anything when you go thru the stuff...

So take care Tony

best of



lucien

Letter to Tony O'Neill

Ok Tony
back home
read the story

it is a great read! Very well translated: I was scared before reading it because, for us québécois writers, those French translations were and still are, as far as «hip-beat-books» are concerned, badly and poorly and painfully done! The early translations of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs (especially!) were so depressing... How can I explain Tony: it would be like reading a translation of Céline done by a British writer instead of an American writer... tight in the ass if I may say... A very good friend of mine, Claude Pélieu (married to artist Mary Beach and a French member of the Beat Generation and a smack user till is death) was the first translator of Burroughs and it was aggravating and I told him... But now they (the French) do a better job and your story is perfectly translated... It gets bad usually when they try to match the slang... it would sound better in «Quebecois«... but the market for such translation is to limited: so better a few bugging words in French-slang to reach a wider market. A hip book that would be translated by a Quebecois writer would read better but could not make it in the French market, but a book translated even badly by a French writer will sell in Québec! So your story has the best of both world: very well translated with no ridicule French-slang, and «Notre Dame...» will sell in all the francophone territories!!! There you go! And by the way, thank god (or Buddha) Burroughs is being or has been translated again and it is a good read! What is hard to match in the translation of American avant-garde books, is the slang: french-québécois is closer to the American idiomatic slang than «french argot»! But we do not have the market for such hip books...

Re-reading my precedent email, I noticed a lot of typing mistakes...hope it did not give y our to much trouble Tony! And by the way I thought it was touching to think of you feeding your daughter: brought back souvenirs here... As long as you can kiss the little feet of your daughter, you are safe... When you will have to stop doing it: watch out! be aware... she will be close to adolescence... and then you have to be on your toes (how do we say: «no pun intended»)! They go through their teenage years so early these days... It starts at 12... Surely due to the cell phone, Internet, reality TV etc etc and having a single daughter is very special... in all the meanings of the word! If you want to have an idea of what my little Virginia whose feet I was tenderly kissing turn out to become, type her name on Google or Facebook... Until 13, she was grunge, roots, and then... foxy Virginie, in love with a Latino rapper and delinquent! Ti stay close to Virginie, I got myself involve with her Urbano, got him in the studio recording is raps on music played by my musicians and took him on the road with me were he came on the stage at the end and did after letting him do his thing with one song we would do a rap number together and I got him some airplay on the radio! After 4 years of that relation, Virginie dumped him and came back to be our little baby at 18! And listen to this: We have 10,000 books in the house but she doesn't read (except when I find her a disturbing life bio about teenagers in distress or a young woman in hell bound skid...) Tony, You are having the best years now with you daughter... hold on to it! Think of it, how old is she ?... under 6? 5?

Like I said, and surely repeating myself: can't wait to receive the «parcel» you are sending me, and can't wait to read you upcoming novel... When you say that you find it hard to get the critic attention or something like that... Shit there are so many books being released every week (not to mention all the cds now that we can record on a laptop!)... How can one draw attention... but I think that your are doing well: man I found your book at Urban Outfitter, a hip-cool clothing store downtown Montreal! You are thus far you are one of the hot avant-garde elected selected few! They had on the shelf both colors cover... I choose the yellow one although red coca-cola is my color! But the yellow cover was the first one that caught my eyes!

In you email you mention 2-3 writers that I am going to look into! I read all Bukowski... Wow! I just re-read all Kerouac... You know, Tony, talking of not being noticed as much as we wishes, well I find it discussing to not find Kerouac in some major scalar anthology! Jesus-Christ the man changed totally the contemporary literature! And some of those university assholes do not find him worth being in their anthology... I my dreams I spit HIV saliva in their ignorant eyes! Kerouac man! Burroughs, Ginsberg, Corso were found of him to the point of saying that he was the mastermind of all the beat and modern literature! So we have ourselves a long way to go... Myself, I got it made in Québec being studied in all school levels... but although I have published in France, and made my mark in the avant-garde, I have still a lot of work to do... and time is running out... I am healthy but I am sixty... ( those Beatles lyrics come to mind...)

You are so right (right?) when you say that the intelligentsia only take notice of «reality books)... but they fade away fast... and the type of writing that you do will stay! All you need is keep at it... Man look at Patricia Highsmith, she was not recognised in her own country until after 40 years of publishing best sellers... Then if you would get a bestseller you would be comfortable money wise but under so much press ion by the business to come up with a follow up that would sell as much or more!

Sorry for again writing so much... But I know one thing for sure Tony: do it while you feel it! Because nothing last! My appreciation of you work and feeling toward you personally as much as professionally will last... but the «heart pouring writing» will not last... We will go on with life individually... but we will have at least something to show in demonstration of what we are and feel for each other work and life trajectory... I took a chance sending you an email and here we are sharing like old friends...

I now have to go drive my daughter downtown Mtl, - I bought her a Jeep Liberty but daddy has to still drive her... I prefer that because it is Saturday and Saturday night tends to be a big night... Better not being stuck with a vehicle parked somewhere and the temptation to drive it high... Last year Virginie had a very bad accident: she wrecked bumper to bumper the Mustang GT that I had given her for her 18 birthdays: when I saw the car, I started shaking... I could she come out of it without a scratch... plus the fact that she was under the ... And the cups knew me and let her go without a test... When I saw the movie «Taken» 2 week ago, it shooked me to my soul... Go see it Tony but do not bring your wife: she will lock you d daughter in her room and will not let her out of her sight! But what a great movie!

Take care Tony
give my best to your wife and daughter

(I mentioned reading your book on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, etc... might not mean much but I felt like doing it...)

les gitans reviennent toujours
sur les lieux de leurs amours

Francoeur xx
(I should re-read myself for mistakes, grammage... but to lazy!

Lettre à Tony O'Oneil écrivain américain

Hi there Tony

thanks for your touching e-mail...
If it makes you feel good reading my e-mails
let me tell you that it makes it worthwhile writing them
and knowing that they understood
as coming from the bottom of my heart

today your e-mail made my day and more...

Hey Tony, Chet Baker...
I just received from France «Let's get Lost» that I ordered and although I kind of knew it would be in the European Mode,
I wanted it so bad that I still ordered it anyway... hoping that there would also be an American Mode... but no way! So I played it on
my computer via my «home cinema» projector... and today I took it to a teck who will transfer it in normal mode...

I am a huge fan of Chet... have about 30 cds and vinyl of his... Please do write the book! And if you have a chance and do not already own it, get the box-set, album size, of his French recordings... it his so fantastic...

What a super name, Nico... It was on my list .... I chose Virginie for that Stones song: «Sweet Virginia»... and the movie «Paul et Virginie»...
and «Virginia is for lovers» and because it was rare at the time...
Nico is great! And 5 years young is marvellous... it stays that way until 8... then it starts to change and slowly but surely, after 10
well the outside world takes over and at 12 the parents are not the total universe anymore... So make the best out of it my friend...
And your wife and yourself make a couple like Claudine and me: her and I the rebel the stable one! It is important that the child has both parents
idiosyncrasy...

Good luck with your novel... it seems almost there... Also can't wait to get the translation of «Down and out...» so Claudine can read it... By the way she is also a well-known poet... in Quebec and France... As a matter of fact she received one of the 2 most important literary award of the francophonie: The Tristan Tzara for poetry!...2-3 years ago...
and that made her happen in France... As far as myself over there: when my daughter was born in 1987 I stop going there and let go of my career... to stay home and do the John Lennon trip with my daughter... I'll never regret that choice I made... well sometimes a little bit... I was doing great over there: songs on the radio, TV...my own band over there... etc etc.... contracts with RCA and CBS...

Also, when I will receive your book, I will order the other from Amazon Canada... there is only one that I will have to order from Amazon Britain or may be USA: « Songs from the shooting...» And like I said I will send you some of my stuff: book(s) and cd(s) etc...

Again Chet Baker is a big thing for me... is to jazz what Jim Morrison was to rock! I have a lot of things of and about Jim Morrison...

I am going to look into John Fante... and also into the bands that you mention in «Down and out» and in your website...where I spent some time and really enjoyed it!

So Tony,... make the best of those years before you turn 50... If I could start again I would write a lot more and record a lot more outrageous stuff like I was doing in the beginning... because when I became more of a notoriety, and had Virginie, my style changed and today kids are looking into my old stuff, and I wish I had done more wild writing!... So do it while you can! We all change (luckily!) when we grow older and become more accepted... we tend, well me and most of us, to «simmer down»... is that a good expression? You know what I mean anyway...

Well I am going to listen to some Chet Baker and Art Pepper and read James Crumley «The right madness»...

Oh yeah take a look at Claudine's literary magazine on the net: «mouvances.ca»... the only one in French literature...
She just got back from Africa where she was invited to read her poetry... then spent 2 weeks in France to get her summer trip (2 months) ready... She works a lot and has the success that comes with it...

Me I am the lazy type... smack mood... I take things as they come...

Praise the Web, for making our connection possible! And for sure life will take over and take away the intensity of our e-mails, but as far as I am concern the bound is there forever... I took a chance doing what I almost never do: reach out... and I had a good intuition... we have a lot in common: the lifestyle (freak past as much as straight present); the «reality writing»... «road writing» sort of....; life as a couple with one child and a daughter... the music... the old girlfriend Suzanne (eve if it is a fiction name) who played a role... Chet Baker (another coincidence) and like they say there are no coincidence...

so take good care Tony
best of the best
to you and wife and daughter…