The Sensational Alex Harvey Band circa 1973. The SAHB was popular in the UK, but didn’t catch on in the US (with the exception of the Cleveland Ohio region).
On 4 February 1982, a day short of his 47th birthday, Harvey suffered a massive heart attack while waiting to take a ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium back to England after performing a Belgian gig with his new band, the Electric Cowboys. He suffered a second fatal attack in an ambulance on the way to hospital [Wiki].
One thing is for sure. Tony Clifton is larger than life, and his imposing image on the Las Vegas Strip deserves to be spilled into the right hand margin. If you don’t like him, you can leave this blog right now. He’s that big.
The late Andy Kaufman knew Tony Clifton personally. For those who only remember Kaufman as Latka Gravas from the TV series “Taxi,” you’re missing out, as Kaufman was an awesome, if eccentric, comedian. Prior to his stints on SNL, Kaufman was a stand up comic whose specialty was long set ups that often had no punch line, yet occasionally provided a responsive audience transportation to a local venue for milk and cookies. He was also a talented impersonator.
Kaufman impersonated Elvis, Tito Puente and Jerry Lawler, but his epitome [embodiment, exemplification, quintessence, essence, perfect example, exemplar, representative, type, typification, personification, incarnation, archetype, model, prototype, pattern, ultimate, last word; see also model] was Tony Clifton, and it was spot on.
Acoustic Alchemy, led by Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale on guitars, Fred White/keyboard, Greg Grainger/drums and Gary Grainger/bass, Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, CA.
Looks like that’ll do for this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend.
That image was in the “One Of These Days I’m Going To Post It” file. Might as well post it now since Jane Henson, muppeteer and wife of the late Jim Henson, passed away 2 April 2013.
Jane Nebel Henson passed away at the age of 78 on 2 April 2013. Although her late husband is more well known, Jane Henson was an important contributor. Married in 1959, she and Jim Henson reinvented the ancient art of puppetry and created a huge entertainment industry: The Muppets.
[Jane] Nebel and [Jim] Henson met in a puppetry course at the University of Maryland, College Park, where they were both undergraduates. At the time, Nebel was a senior majoring in art education and Henson was a freshman studying to become a commercial artist. Nebel later became Henson’s puppeteering partner on the television show Sam and Friends, and the two eventually married. [via]
Prior to the creation of Sesame Street, the Hensons produced awesome entertainment for advertisers and television shows. Here are some arbitrary pre-Sesame Street selections.
Talented people are often under-appreciated until they’re gone, especially those who leave such a great legacy. RIP Jane.
Kinda creeps me out, not so much for the snails, but for everything else – the solar cooker, the scary dude lurking behind the canvas recliner, the ominous black car that the thug drove up in…
Apparently that’s Fin Keheler from Sandy UT, attempting to break the Guinness Book of World Records for keeping the most live snails on his face for ten seconds. He succeeded with 43 in 2009, breaking the previous record of 36.
This song was a hit on pop radio in the early 1960s, and it’s enough to make you wanna puke. [Wiki: The song was composed by Ghanaian musician Guy Warren in 1956 under the original title "An African's Prayer (Eyi Wala Dong)".]
Meade’s earliest printed citation for this is Sandburg’s ‘American Songbag’ (1927), the same year as the Carter Family’s recording and 4 years after the first recording by Henry Whitter in 1923. Other recordings earlier than the Carters were: Ernest Thompson (1924), George Reneau (1925), Kelly Harrell (1926), Ernest Stoneman (1926), Burnett & Rutherford (1926) and Holland Puckett (1927). [Info from Meade et alia 'Country Music Sources' p 197.]
Very cool. You can hear the Carter Family’s version here.
That’s a wrap for this Saturday Matinee, and have a great weekend.