PBA Galleries

In 1966, Santa Monica poet and bookstore owner Steve Richmond dropped off a tape recorder and some blank tapes at Charles Bukowski’s Hollywood apartment. Bukowski recorded 90 minutes of his poetry onto two reel-to-reel tapes and gave them to back to Richmond. In 1977, Steve Richmond finally issued a 2-record LP set of this recording session - “90 Minutes in Hell.” The records were released under Richmond’s bookstore name, Earth Books, in Santa Monica. In approximately 1990, Steve Richmond sold the two original tapes to Water Row Books and the idea came up to re-issue the LP set. The tapes’ boxes were labeled at Water Row Books and were sent to the professional recording studio, Blue Jay Studios, in Carlisle, Massachusetts, to validate the contents and condition of the tapes. These master tapes were found to be in good condition to use to re-issue the LP set but plans for the reissue fell through and these tapes resided in the Water Row warehouse for over twenty years. There are two individual reel-to-reel tapes, each contained in a separate white generic box. One box has the notation “Side 1 & 2” and the other box has “Side 3 & 4” - both notations written by Steve Richmond. On each box there is also a label and stamp with Water Row Books address information and a written label: Charles Bukowski 90 Minutes in Hell #1 and Charles Bukowski 90 Minutes in Hell #2.