Hunter S. Thompson
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Born: July 18, 1937
Louisville, Kentucky
Died: February 20, 2005
Woody Creek, Colorado
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 - February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author. He is credited as the creator of gonzo journalism, a style of reporting which blurs distinctions between author and subject, fiction and nonfiction.
Early years
A Louisville, Kentucky native, Thompson grew up in the Cherokee Triangle neighborhood of the Highlands and attended Louisville Male High School. His parents, Jack (d. 1952) and Virginia (d. 1999), married in 1935. Jack's death left three sons?-Hunter, Davison, and James?-to be brought up by their mother, who was a heavy drinker.[1]
Hunter was arrested in 1956 for robbery. After crashing an employer's delivery truck, he joined the U.S. Air Force during the mandatory waiting period before army conscription. After working in the information services department at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida in 1956, he became the sports editor of the base's newspaper, The Command Courier. He also wrote for several local newspapers, which was against Air Force regulations.
He was honorably discharged in 1958 as an airman second class, having been recommended for an early discharge by his commanding officer. In summary, this airman, although talented will not be guided by policy, Col. W.S. Evans, chief of information services wrote to the Eglin personnel office. Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other airmen staff members. Thompson claimed in a mock press release he wrote about the end of his duty to have been issued a "totally unclassifiable" status.[2]
After the Air Force he moved to New York City and on the GI Bill attended Columbia University's School of General Studies where he took classes on short story writing.[3]
During this time he worked briefly for Time Magazine as a copywriter for $50 a week. While working, he copied F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms onto a typewriter, saying that he wanted to learn about the writing styles of the authors. In 1959, Time fired him for insubordination.[4] Later that year, he worked as a reporter for the Middletown Daily Record in New York. He was fired from this job after damaging an office candy machine and arguing with the owner of a local restaurant who happened to be an advertiser with the paper.[5]
A modification of one of Thompson's original Gonzo flyers during his bid for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado.In 1960 Thompson moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico to take a job with the sporting magazine El Sportivo which soon folded. But the move to Puerto Rico allowed Thompson to travel in the Caribbean and South America writing freelance articles for several American daily newspapers. While in Puerto Rico he befriended journalist William Kennedy. Thompson also spent time as a South American correspondent for a Dow Jones-owned weekly newspaper, the National Observer. During an eight-month period in 1961 he lived and worked as a security guard and caretaker at Big Sur Hot Springs just before it became the Esalen Institute. While living in San Francisco in the 1960s, Thompson received a doctorate in Divinity from a mail-order church.
During that time, Thompson wrote two novels (Prince Jellyfish and The Rum Diary) and submitted many short stories to publishers. The Rum Diary was eventually published in 1998 after Thompson had become famous. Kennedy later remarked that he and Thompson were both failed novelists who had turned to journalism to make a living.[citation needed]
He married his longtime girlfriend Sandra Dawn Conklin (aka Sandy Conklin Thompson, now Sondi Wright) on May 19, 1963 and they had one son, Juan Fitzgerald Thompson, born March 23, 1964. The couple conceived five more times together. Three were miscarriages and two died shortly after birth. In a tribute issue for Hunter in Rolling Stone issue 970, Sandy wrote, " I ... want to acknowledge the five children Hunter and I lost ?- two full term babies, three miscarriages.... I had so wanted more Hunters! One of the most beautiful gifts that Hunter ever gave me ... Sarah, our full term, eight-pound baby, lived about twelve hours. I lay there in Aspen Valley Hospital waiting, and when I saw the doctor's face it was unbearable. I thought I might go mad. Hunter leaned over the bed and said, 'Sandy, if you want to go out there for a while ?- do that, just know that Juan and I really need you.' I was back." After nineteen years together and seventeen years of marriage, Hunter and Sandy divorced in 1980; the two remained close friends until Hunter's death.
In 1965, The Nation editor Carey McWilliams offered Thompson an opportunity to write a story based on his experience with the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Previously, Thompson spent a year living and riding with the Hells Angels, but the relationship broke down when the bikers suspected that Thompson made money from his writing. The gang demanded a share of the profits and Thompson ended up with a savage beating, or 'stomping' as the Angels referred to it. After the The Nation published the article (May 17, 1965), Thompson received several book offers and Random House published the hard cover Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in 1966.
Thompson also worked freelance for a number of different outlets. While writing a Wall Street Journal feature about the mine in Butte Montana, he made the acquaintance of a small folk band. The Big Sky Singers were then playing the Gun Room at the Finlen Hotel. Thompson subsequently wrote the liner notes for their debut album, which appeared in 1966.[1]
Middle years
Portrait of Hunter S. ThompsonMost of Thompson's best work was published in Rolling Stone magazine, his first article published in the magazine was "Freak Power in the Rockies", an article describing his 1970 bid for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado on the "Freak Power" ticket. Thompson narrowly lost the election, having run on a platform promoting drugs decriminalization (but for use only, not trafficking, as he disapproved of profiteering), tearing up the streets and turning them into grassy pedestrian malls, banning any building so tall as to obscure the view of the mountains, and renaming Aspen, Colorado to "Fat City" ?- . The incumbent Republican sheriff whom he ran against had a crew cut, prompting Thompson to shave his head bald and refer to his opposition as "my long-haired opponent."
Thompson went on to work as a political correspondent for Rolling Stone, retaining the title of chief of the "National Affairs Desk" on the magazine's masthead for over thirty years until his death. Two of his books, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, were first serialized there. Along with Joe Eszterhas and David Felton Thompson would be instrumental in expanding the focus of the magazine past music criticism; indeed, Thompson was the only staff writer of the epoch never to contribute a music feature to the magazine. Nevertheless, it should be noted that his articles were always peppered with a wide array of pop music references ranging from Howlin' Wolf to Lou Reed. Armed with early fax machines wherever he went, he became notorious for haphazardly sending sometimes illegible material to the magazine's San Francisco offices immediately as they were to go to press.
Published in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is a first-person account by a journalist (Thompson himself, under the pseudonym "Raoul Duke") on a trip to Las Vegas with his "300-pound Samoan" attorney, "Dr. Gonzo" (a character inspired by Thompson's friend, Chicano lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta) to cover a narcotics officers' convention and the "fabulous Mint 400" motorcycle race. During the trip, he and his lawyer become sidetracked by a search for the American dream, with the aid of copious amounts of alcohol, LSD, ether, adrenochrome, mescaline, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs. Ralph Steadman, who collaborated with Thompson on several projects, contributed expressionist pen and ink illustrations.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is a collection of Rolling Stone articles he wrote while covering the election campaigns of President Richard M. Nixon and his unsuccessful opponent, Senator George McGovern. The book focuses largely on the Democratic Party's primaries (Nixon, as an incumbent, performed little campaign work) and its breakdown due to splits between the different candidates; McGovern was extolled throughout while fellow candidates Ed Muskie and Hubert Humphrey were ridiculed. As an early supporter of McGovern, it could be argued that his unflattering coverage of the rival campaigns along with the rapidly expanding circulation of Rolling Stone played a role in the senator's nomination.
Thompson would go on to become a fierce critic of Nixon, both during and after his presidency. After Nixon's death in 1994, Thompson famously described him in Rolling Stone as a man who "could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time" and said "his casket [should] have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. [He] was an evil man--evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it." [2]
Later years
1980 marked both his divorce from Sandra Conklin and the release of Where The Buffalo Roam, a loose film adaptation of situations from Thompson's early 1970s work, with Bill Murray starring as the author. Murray spent considerable time with Thompson as part of his preparation prior to production and inevitably picked up many of the latter's mannerisms. After the lukewarm reception of the film, Thompson temporarily relocated to Hawaii to work on a novel. The Curse of Lono was a gonzo-style account of a marathon in the state that was extensively illustrated by Ralph Steadman, first appearing in Running magazine in 1981 as "The Charge of the Weird Brigade" and before being excerpted in Playboy in 1983 [3].
In 1983, he covered the U.S. invasion of Grenada but would not discuss these experiences until the publication of Kingdom of Fear twenty years later. Later that year he authored a piece for Rolling Stone called "A Dog Took My Place", an expose of the scandalous Roxanne Pulitzer divorce and what he termed the "Palm Beach lifestyle". The article contained dubious insinuations of beastiality (among other things) but was considered to be a return to proper form by many.
Shortly thereafter, Thompson accepted an advance to write about "couples pornography" for Playboy. As part of his research, he moved to San Francisco and accepted the position of night manager of the O'Farrell Theater, the cornerstone of the Mitchell brothers' porn empire. Eventually evolving into a full length nonfiction novel tentatively titled The Night Manager, the project never materialized. At the behest of old friend and editor Warren Hinkle, he became a media critic for the San Francisco Examiner until the end of the decade.
Thompson continued to contribute irregularly to Rolling Stone. "Fear and Loathing in Elko", published in 1992, was a well received fictional rallying cry against Clarence Thomas, while "Mr. Bill's Neighborhood" was a largely non-fictional account of an interview with Bill Clinton in an Arkansas diner. Rather than embarking on the campaign trail as he had done in previous presidential elections, Thompson monitored the proceedings from cable television; Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie, his account of the 1992 campaign, is comprised of reactionary faxes sent to Rolling Stone. A decade later, he contributed "Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004"--an account of a road jaunt with John Kerry during his presidential campaign that would be Thompson's final magazine feature.
The Gonzo Papers
Despite publishing a novel and numerous newspaper and magazine articles, the majority of Thompson's literary output after 1979 took the form of a 4-volume series of books called The Gonzo Papers. Beginning with The Great Shark Hunt in 1979 and ending with Better than Sex in 1994, the series is largely a collection of rare newspaper and magazine pieces from the pre-gonzo period, along with almost all of his Rolling Stone short pieces, excerpts from the Fear and Loathing... books, and etc.
By the late 1970s Thompson recieved complaints from critics, fans and friends alike that he was regurgitating his past glories without much in the way of new innovation on his part; these concerns are alluded to in the introduction of The Great Shark Hunt, where Thompson eerily suggested that his "old self" commit suicide.
Perhaps in response to this and the failure of his marriage, Thompson became more reclusive after 1980, often retreating to his compound in Woody Creek and rejecting and/or refusing to complete assignments. Despite the dearth of new material, Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner kept Thompson on the Rolling Stone masthead as chief of the "National Affairs Desk", a position he would hold until his death.
Fear and Loathing, Again
However, Thompson's work was popularized again with the 1998 mainstream release of the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which opened to considerable fanfare. The novel was reprinted to coincide with the film (as were t-shirts, bumper stickers, posters, etc), and Thompson's work was introduced to a new generation of fans.
Thompson's next and penultimate collection, Kingdom of Fear, was a combination of new material, selected newspaper clippings, and some older works. Released in 2003, it was perceived by critics to be an angry, vitrolic commentary on the passing of the American Century. In addition, Thompson penned a sports column for ESPN "Page 2" during the early 2000's, which was later compiled into the book Hey Rube : Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness Modern History from the Sports Desk (2005).
Thompson was fond of firearms and was an avid firearms enthusiast with a vast collection of handguns, rifles, shotguns, numerous forms of gaseous crowd control, automatic and semi-automatic weaponry, and virtually every form of manufactured and homemade explosive known to man.
Thompson's brother James (born 1949 and died from AIDS complications in 1994) claimed Thompson was offended by his homosexuality, and the two were never close. James complained how the burden of caring for their drunken mother fell to him over the many years Hunter was away, including sometimes having to take a taxi to pick her up off the pavement where she had passed out.
Hunter married Anita Bejmuk, his long-time assistant, on April 24, 2003.
Death
Thompson died at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado, at 5:42 p.m. on February 20, 2005, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was 67 years old.
Thompson's son (Juan), daughter-in-law (Jennifer Winkel Thompson) and grandson (Will Thompson) were visiting for the weekend at the time of his suicide. Will and Jennifer were in the adjacent room when they heard the gunshot, though the gunshot was mistaken for a book falling, and so they continued with their activities for a few minutes before checking on him; "Winkel Thompson continued playing 20 questions with Will, Juan Thompson continued taking a photo" Thompson was sitting at his typewriter with the word "counselor" written in the center of the page. 2
They reported to the press that they do not believe his suicide was out of desperation, but was a well-thought out act resulting from Thompson's many painful medical conditions.[6] Thompson's wife, Anita, who was at the gym at the time of her husband's death, was on the phone with Thompson when he ended his life.
Artist and friend Ralph Steadman wrote:
"...He told me 25 years ago that he would feel real trapped if he didn't know that he could commit suicide at any moment. I don't know if that is brave or stupid or what, but it was inevitable. I think that the truth of what rings through all his writing is that he meant what he said. If that is entertainment to you, well, that's OK. If you think that it enlightened you, well, that's even better. If you wonder if he's gone to Heaven or Hell ?-rest assured he will check out them both, find out which one Richard Milhous Nixon went to ?-and go there. He could never stand being bored. But there must be Football too ?-and Peacocks..."[7]
Three months later, Rolling Stone released what was claimed to be Thompson's final written words, written with a marker four days before his death, The title was "Football Season is over":
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun?-for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax?-This won't hurt."
Funeral
On August 20, 2005, in a private ceremony, Thompson's ashes were fired from a cannon atop a 153-foot tower of his own design (in the shape of a double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button) to the tune of Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, known to be the song most respected by the late writer. Red, white, blue and green fireworks were launched along with his ashes. As the city of Aspen would not allow the cannon to remain for more than a month, the cannon has been dismantled and put into storage until a suitable permanent location can be found. There is talk of a public party sometime in the summer of 2006. According to widow Anita Thompson, the actor Johnny Depp, a close friend of Thompson (and who portrayed Thompson in the movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), financed the funeral. Depp told the Associated Press, "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out." [4] Other famous attendees at the funeral included: U.S. Senator John Kerry and former U.S. Senator George McGovern; 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley; actors Bill Murray (who portrayed Hunter S. Thompson in the movie Where the Buffalo Roam), Sean Penn and Josh Hartnett; singers Lyle Lovett and John Oates; and numerous other friends. An estimated 280 people attended the funeral.
The plans for this impressive monument were initially drawn by Thompson and Ralph Steadman and were shown as part of an Omnibus program on the BBC entitled Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision (1978). It is included as a special feature on the second disc of the 2003 Criterion Collection DVD release of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The video footage of Steadman and Thompson drawing the plans and outdoor footage showing where he wanted the cannon constructed were played prior to the unveiling of his cannon at the funeral.
Douglas Brinkley, a friend and now the family's spokesman, said of the ceremony: "If that's what he wanted, we'll see if we can pull it off."[8]
Legacy
DVD cover of the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas[edit]
Writing style and persona
Thompson is often credited as the creator of gonzo journalism, a style of writing that blurs distinctions between fiction and nonfiction. The term gonzo has since been applied in kind to numerous other forms of artistic expression.
Thompson's writing aimed to be humorous, colorful and bizarre, often exaggerating events to be more entertaining. He almost always wrote in the first person and frequently used action verbs.
Thompson's work and style is considered to be a major part of the New Journalism literary movement of the 1960's and 1970's, which attempted to break free from the purely objectivist style of mainstream reportage of the time.
Hunter often portrayed himself as a callous, erratic, self-destructive journalist who constantly took alcohol and hallucinatory drugs. During a BBC interview, he said that he sometimes felt obligated to live up to the fictional self that he had created.
Thompson's writing style and eccentric persona gave him a cult following in both literary and drug circles, and Thompson's cult status expanded into broader areas after being twice portrayed in major motion pictures. Hence, both his writing style and persona have been widely imitated [5], and his likeness has even become a popular costume choice for Halloween [6].
Popular slogans
A slogan of Thompson's, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro," appears as a chapter heading in Kingdom of Fear. He was also quoted as saying, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." Another one of his favorite sayings, "Buy the ticket, take the ride," is easily applied to virtually all of his exploits. "Too weird to live, too rare to die", a phrase applied to Oscar Zeta Acosta (Dr. Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), has been widely used to qualify the "Good Doctor" after his death. In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, he would be known to say "bad craziness".
The Hawaiian word "mahalo" also frequently appears in Thompson's works and correspondence. Loosely translated, it means "may you be in divine breath." On more than one occasion, "mahalo" followed Thompson's usage of "buy the ticket, take the ride."
Letters
Thompson wrote many letters and they were his primary means of personal conversation. Thompson made carbon copies of all his letters, usually typed, a habit that began in his teenage years. His letters were sent to friends, public officials and reporters.
Some of his letters have begun to be published in a series of books called The Fear and Loathing Letters. The first volume, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman 1955 - 1967, is over 650 pages, while the second volume Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist passed 700. Douglas Brinkley, who edits the letter series, said that for every letter included, fifteen were cut. Brinkley estimated Thompson's own archive to contain over 20,000 letters. According to Amazon.com, the last of the three planned volumes of Thompson's letters will be published on October 1, 2006 as The Mutineer: Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop 1977-2005.
Many biographies have been written about Thompson, although he did not write an autobiography himself. But his letters contained "asides" to "his biographers" that he assumed could be "reading in" on his collected letters. Some of these letters were already bundled into Thompson's Kingdom of Fear, though it is not considered an autobiography.
Accolades and direct influence
Author Tom Wolfe has called Thompson the greatest American comic writer of the 20th century.("As Gonzo in Life as in His Work: Hunter S. Thompson died as he lived.", Tuesday, February 22, 2005 - Wall Street Journal, Opinion Journal).
Hunter Thompson appears as Uncle Duke in Doonesbury, the Garry Trudeau comic strip. (Raoul Duke was a pseudonym used by Thompson.) When the character was first introduced, Thompson protested, (he was once quoted in an interview saying that he would set Trudeau on fire if the two ever met) [7] although it was reported that he liked the character in later years.
Between 7 March 2005 (roughly two weeks after Thompson's suicide) and 12 March 2005, the strip ran a tribute to Hunter, with Uncle Duke lamenting the death of the man he called his "inspiration." The first of these strips [8] featured a panel with artwork similar to that of Ralph Steadman, and later strips featured various non sequiturs (with Duke variously transforming into a monster, melting, and shrinking to the size of an empty drinking glass) which seemed to mirror some the effects of hallucinatory drugs described in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Spider Jerusalem, the gonzo journalist protagonist of Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan, is partly based on Thompson.
Adult Swim's animated series The Venture Bros. features a character named Hunter Gathers (who looks and acts much like Thompson) employed by the fictional Office of Secret Intelligence as a trainer.
Political beliefs
Thompson's early letters to friends suggest an interest in Ayn Rand's Objectivism, but he later drifted away from Rand's version of politics. His political writings during the 1972 and 1976 elections suggest that he embraced democracy and freedom. His political position was frequently libertarian, anarchist, and socialist. In the documentary "Breakfast With Hunter", Thompson can be seen in several scenes wearing different Che Guevara t-shirts, while his son Juan Thompson acknowledges that his father had "a perverse resistance to security and predictability, and a deliberate disregard for propriety."
Thompson's official biographer and longtime friend Douglas Brinkley said:
"He's both a kind of old-fashioned believer in democratic virtues, but also an anarchist. There's always that unpredictable element with him. In any given situation, as soon as he feels there's a system closing in, he'll destroy it."
In 2004 Thompson, regarding politics, wrote: "Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for?-but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush-Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him." (Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004, Rolling Stone)
Movies
The film Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) depicts Thompson's attempts at writing stories for both the Super Bowl and the 1972 U.S. presidential election. It stars Bill Murray as Thompson and Peter Boyle as Thompson's attorney Oscar Acosta, referred to in the movie as Carl Laslow, Esq.
The 1998 film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was directed by Monty Python veteran Terry Gilliam, and starred Johnny Depp (who moved into Hunter's basement to 'study' Thompson's persona before assuming his role in the film) as "Hunter Thompson/Raoul Duke" and Benicio Del Toro as "Dr. Gonzo". Thompson appeared in the scene at the club "The Matrix", sitting at a table. The film has achieved something of a cult following.
The film Breakfast With Hunter (2003) was directed and edited by Wayne Ewing. It documents Thompson's work on the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his arrest for drunk driving, and his subsequent fight with the court system.
"When I Die," (2005), also by Wayne Ewing, is a video chronicle of making Thompson's final farewell wishes a reality and the great send-off itself.
A new film is in production as of 2005, based upon Thompson's novel The Rum Diary. Depp is signed on to star in this new Thompson film. Del Toro was supposed to have directed and starred as Sala, but he withdrew from directing in January 2004; Officially he is not signed on to star. Bruce Robinson is directing instead.
Thompson was long rumored to have appeared on the early 90's Nickelodeon TV series, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, in the episode "New Years Pete." However, the creators have since debunked this in several interviews, explaining that the "Man on the Street" was simply an extra who, coincidentally, happened to be named Hunter Thompson. [9]
Trivia
Thompson appeared on the cover of the 1000th Rolling Stone issue (May 18 - June 1, 2006). He appeared as a devil playing the guitar next to the two "L"'s in the word Rolling Stone.
Johnny Depp, portraying Thompson, also appeared on the cover.
Avenged Sevenfold's song Bat Country was dedicated, in the CD booklet, to Thompson and the song's video was also heavily influenced by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Gonzo Imperial Porter is a beer produced by an Aspen, Colorado brewery, Flying Dog Brewery, in memory of the late Hunter S. Thompson.
Flying Dog Brewery sponsored a contest to attend the final farewell to Thompson by placing a Golden Ticket inside one bottle of their tribute brew, Gonzo Imperial Porter.
In an episode titled Assassinanny 911 for the Adult Swim series The Venture Bros., it is revealed that bodyguard Brock Samson was trained by a character named "Hunter", whose appearance (sunglasses, cigarette holder, and short pants), neurotic tendenices and speech patterns are based on Thompson. "Hunter" works for the Office of Secret Intelligence, which has been protecting this nation since the Second American Revolution- "The invisible one".
In the episode "Viva Ned Flanders" of The Simpsons, Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo are shown driving in the cherry red convertible out of Vegas.
Boston rock band Piebald paid tribute to Thompson with the song "Fear and Loathing on Cape Cod" from their 2002 album "We Are the Only Friends That We Have." The album was critically aclaimed but only garnered modest commercial attention. The lyrics include numerous lines alluding to Thompson's favorite topics and imagery.
Ah, there she is, folks. Great montage again, PA. Know them all, for once.
Oscar Peterson and Paul Desmond gave this song, in which Red starred, an entirely different slant, folks.
Short and sweet:
Artist: Frank Sinatra Lyrics
Song: Three Little Words Lyrics
Three little words, oh what I'd give for that wonderful phrase,
To hear those three little words, that's all I'd live for the rest of my days.
And what I feel in my heart, they tell sincerely.
No other words can tell it half so clearly.
Three little words, eight little letters which simply mean I love you.
Hey, hamburger. Thanks for the songwriter in person, now here's a singer of songs in person. Let's just say it's from one Stewart to another:
Maggie May
Rod Stewart/Martin Quittenton
Wake up Maggie I think I got something to say to you
It's late September and I really should be back at school
I know I keep you amused but I feel I'm being used
Oh Maggie I couldn't have tried any more
You lured me away from home just to save you from being alone
You stole my heart and that's what really hurt
The morning sun when it's in your face really shows your age
But that don't worry me none in my eyes you're everything
I laughed at all of your jokes my love you didn't need to coax
Oh, Maggie I couldn't have tried any more
You lured me away from home, just to save you from being alone
You stole my soul and that's a pain I can do without
All I needed was a friend to lend a guiding hand
But you turned into a lover and
mother what a lover, you wore me out
All you did was wreck my bed
and in the morning kick me in the head
Oh Maggie I couldn't have tried anymore
You lured me away from home 'cause you didn't want to be alone
You stole my heart I couldn't leave you if I tried
I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school
Or steal my daddy's cue and make a living out of playing pool
Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helpin' hand
Oh Maggie I wish I'd never seen your face
You made a first-class fool out of me
But I'm as blind as a fool can be
You stole my heart but I love you anyway
Maggie I wish I'd never seen your face
I'll get on back home one of these days
Over Under Sideways Down (The Yardbirds)
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Cars and girls are easy come by in this day and age,
Laughing, joking, drinking, smoking,
Till I've spent my wage.
When I was young people spoke of immorality,
All the things they said were wrong,
Are what I want to be.
(Hey)
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
(Hey)
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
When will it end, when will it end,
When will it end, when will it end.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
I find comment 'bout my looks irrelativity,
Think I'll go and have some fun,
'Cos it's all for free.
I'm not searching for a reason to enjoy myself,
Seems it's better done,
Than argued with somebody else.
(Hey)
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
(Hey)
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
When will it end, when will it end,
When will it end, when will it end.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Over under sideways down...
Walter, Welcome back to our wee studio. Over, Under, Sideways, Down?
Wow! I would have to say that's an ecstasy of sound.
So, let's go to.......
(or, a Vision in a Dream, a Fragment)
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
here's a fun little number from the nifty 50's:
I know a cat named Way Out Willie
He's got a cool little chick named Rockin' Millie
He can walk and stroll and Susie Q
And do that crazy hand jive too
/ G - - - / / C7 - - - / G - - - /
Papa told Willie, you'll ruin my home
You and that hand jive have got to go
Willie said, Papa, don't put me down
They're doin' the hand jive all over town
Hand jive, hand jive, hand jive, doin' that crazy hand jive
/ C7 - G - D7 C7 G - /
Mama, Mama look at Uncle Joe
He's doin' that hand jive with sister Flo
Grandma gave baby sister a dime
Said, do that hand jive one more time
Well, the doctor and the lawyer and Indian chief
They all dig that crazy beat
Way Out Willie gave 'em all a treat
When he did that hand jive with his feet
Hand jive, hand jive, hand jive, doin' that crazy hand jive
Willie and Millie got married last fall
They had a little Willie Junior, and a-that ain't all
You know, the baby got famous in his crib, you see
Doin' that hand jive on TV
Hand jive, hand jive, hand jive, doin' that crazy hand jive
low chanting)
In the bad bad lands of Australia many years ago
The Aborigine tribes were meeting, having a big pow-wow
(chanting)
(low voice): We've got a lot of trouble, Chief, on account of your son Mac!
(midrange voice): My boy Mac, what's wrong with him?
(high-pitched voice, young prince): My boomerang won't come back!
(low voices): Your boomerang won't come back
(prince): My boomerang won't come back
My boomerang won't come back
I've waved the thing all over the place
Practiced till I was black in the face
I'm a big disgrace t' the Aborigine race
My boomerang won't back
I want a kangaroo (yeah yeah)
Make kangatoo stew (yea yeah)
But I'm a big disgrace t' the Aborigine race
My boomerang won't back
They banished him from the tribes' lair & sent him on his way
He had a hapless boomerang, so here he could not stay
(shrieks of animals)
(prince): This is nice, isn't it? Getting banished at my time in life. What a way to
spend an evening. Sittin' on a rock in the middle of the desert with me boomerang in me
hand. I should very likely get bushwhacked. (animal shriek) (prince): Get out of here,
nasty bushwhackin' animal! Think I'll make a nice cup of tea. (boing boing boing)
(prince): Good gracious! There goes a kangaroo! I must have practice with me boomerang.
Hey, right behind the left elbow, then slowly back... (kangaroo): If you throw that thing
at me, I'll jump right on your head! (laughs) (prince): Ain't it marvelous! In a land
full of kangaroos I might not get that one!
For 3 long months he sat there, or maybe it was 4
Then an old old man in a kangaroo skin came a-knockin' at his door
(old man): I'm the local with doctor, son. They call me Joe Joseph Black.
Now tell me, what's your trouble, boy?
(prince): My boomerang won't come back!
(old man): Your boomerang won't come back
(prince): My boomerang won't come back
My boomerang won't come back
I've waved the thing all over the place
Practiced till I was black in the face
I'm a big disgrace t' the Aborigine race
My boomerang won't back
(old man): Don't worry, boy, I know the trick & to you I'm gonna show it
If you want your boomerang to come back, well, first you've got to throw it!
(prince): Oh yes, never thought of that. Daddy will be pleased. Must have a girl...
(old man): Excuse me. Now then, slowly back...& throw! (sound of boomerang flying)
(old man): Oh my God! Avit the flying doctah! He-he-he-he!
(prince): Can you do farther eat?
(old man): Don't talk to me about first taste boy; you owe me 14 chickens for teaching
you to throw the boomerang; first things first. (prince): Yes, I know that, but I mean, I
think, on this occasion, you know ...& fade
Hey, edgar. Great song. I remember that one, Texas, and what do you call a boomerang that won't come back? A stick.
So, for Dutchy and all who have gone astray:
Nik Kershaw
Stick Around
Drink the good stuff down in one
Call for another, have yourself some fun
Here's to the good life, drink it down
Stick around
The morning after, playing dead
Don't see the black clouds gather overhead
Consequences raining down
Stick around
You might just learn something
God only knows what that could be
Stick around
You might just learn something
God only knows and he won't say
The wolf is in your dressing gown
He's huffing, puffing,
blowing your house down
The party's over, the love is gone
Think what to do you better run,
yeah you better run or
Stick around
You might just learn something
God only knows what that could be
Stick around
You might just learn something
God only knows so don't ask me
Stick around
What doesn't hurt me kills me slow
What doesn't scare me is nothing I don't know
What doesn't kill me makes me strong
When everything goes bad,
when everything goes wrong
Stick around
You might just learn something
God only knows what that could be
Stick around
You might just learn something
God only knows and he won't say
Great, Dutchy. We love having you here.
and for Try:
We are not only living on the edge, buddy, we we may be on......
The eastern world, it is exploding
Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'
But you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.
Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say
Can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today?
If the button is pushed, there's no runnin' away
There'll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
[Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy]
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.
Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin'
I'm sitting here just contemplatin'
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation.
Handful of senators don't pass legislation
And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.
Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace
And
tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don't believe
We're on the eve
Of destruction
Mm, no no, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.
By Barry McGuire
Well Letty my first contribution to this wonderful gallery. I trust this is the sort of item you post here? This is one from probably Australia's most famous poet, Henry Lawson.
The Sliprails and the Spur
by
Henry Lawson
(1867-1922)
The colours of the setting sun
Withdrew across the Western Land-
He raised the sliprails, one by one,
And shot them home with trembling hand ;
Her brown hands clung - her face grew pale-
Ah! quivering chin and eyes that brim!-
One quick, fierce kiss across the rail,
And, 'Good-bye, Mary!' 'Good-bye, Jim!'
Oh, he rides hard to race the pain
Who rides from love, who rides from home;
But he rides slowly home again,
Whose heart as learnt to love and roam
A hand upon the horse's mane,
And one foot in the stirrup set,
And, stooping back to kiss again,
With 'Good-bye, Mary ! don't you fret !
When I come back ' - he laughed for her-
'We do not know how soon 'twill be;
I'll whistle as I round the spur -
You let the sliprails down for me.'
She gasped for sudden loss of hope,
As, with a backward wave to her,
He cantered down the grassy slope
And swiftly round the dark'ning spur.
Black-pencilled panels standing high,
And darkness fading into stars,
And, blurring fast against the sky,
A faint white form beside the bars.
And often at the set of sun,
In winter bleak and summer brown,
She'd steal across the little run,
And shyly let the sliprails down,
And listen there when darkness shut
The nearer spur in silence deep,
And when they called her from the hut
Steal home and cry herself to sleep.
And he rides hard to dull the pain
Who rides from one that loves him best....
And he rides slowly back again,
Whose restless heart must rove for rest.
Ah, Dutchy. I am truly spellbound. I especially love this verse:
And often at the set of sun,
In winter bleak and summer brown,
She'd steal across the little run,
And shyly let the sliprails down,
And listen there when darkness shut
The nearer spur in silence deep,
And when they called her from the hut
Steal home and cry herself to sleep.
Bravo, Ozman.
Our Mr. Turtle has never heard this one, so I thought that I would play it for him:
Pennies in a stream...
Falling leaves of sycamore...
Moonlight in Vermont.
Icy finger waves...
Ski trails on a mountain side...
Moonlight in Vermont.
(Bridge:)
Telegraph cables, they sing down the highway
As they travel each bend in the road
People who meet in this romantic setting
Are so hypnotized be the lovely...
Evening summer breeze...
Warblings of the meadowlark...
Moonlight in Vermont...
(Coda:)
You and me and moonlight in Vermont
It goes so well, listeners, with the setting sun.
