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It was all quiet till…

Along Came Jones
The Coasters Lyrics

I plopped down in my easy chair and turned on Channel 2
A bad gunslinger called Salty Sam was chasin' poor Sweet Sue
He trapped her in the old sawmill and said with an evil laugh
'If you don't give me the deed to your ranch
I'll saw you all in half!'
And then he grabbed her (And then)
He tied her up (And then)
He turned on the bandsaw (And then, and then...!)

And then along came Jones
Tall thin Jones
Slow walkin' Jones
Slow talkin' Jones
Along came long, lean, lanky Jones

Commercial came on, so I got up to get myself a snack
You should've seen what was goin' on by the time that I got back
Down in the old abandoned mine, Sweet Sue was havin' fits
That villain said, 'Give me the deed to your ranch
Or I'll blow you all to bits!'
And then he grabbed her (And then)
He tied her up (And then)
He lit the fuse to the dynamite (And then, and then...!)

And then along came Jones
Tall thin Jones
Slow walkin' Jones
Slow talkin' Jones
Along came long, lean, lanky Jones

I got so bugged I turned it off and turned on another show
But there was the same old shoot 'em up and the same old rodeo
Salty Sam was tryin' to stuff Sweet Sue in a burlap sack
He said, 'If you don't give me the deed to your ranch
I'm gonna throw you on the railroad tracks!'
And then he grabbed her (And then)
He tied her up (And then)
He threw her on the railroad tracks (And then)
A train started comin' (And then, and then...!)

And then along came Jones
Tall thin Jones
Slow walkin' Jones
Slow talkin' Jones
Along came long, lean, lanky Jones

Ah, Try, the days of the melodrama. Love it, buddy.

Here's one such song, and the parody thereof.

Father!


'Tis The
SONG OF LITTLE MARY,
Standing at the bar-room door
While the shameful midnight revel
Rages wildly as before.

Father, dear father, come home with me now!
The clock in the steeple strikes one;
You said you were coming right home from the shop,
As soon as your day's work was done.
Our fire has gone out our house is all dark
And mother's been watching since tea, --
With poor brother Benny so sick in her arms,
And no one to help her but me. --
Come home! come home! come home! --
Please, father, dear father, come home. --

Hear the sweet voice of the child
Which the night winds repeat as they roam!
Oh who could resist this most plaintive of prayers?
"Please, father, dear father, come home."

Father, dear father, come home with me now!
The clock in the steeple strikes two;
The night has grown colder, and Benny is worse
But he has been calling for you.
Indeed he is worse Ma says he will die,
Perhaps before morning shall dawn; --
And this is the message she sent me to bring
"Come quickly, or he will be gone." --
Come home! come home! come home! --
Please, father, dear father, come home. --

Hear the sweet voice of the child
Which the night winds repeat as they roam!
Oh who could resist this most plaintive of prayers?
"Please, father, dear father, come home."

Father, dear father, come home with me now!
The clock in the steeple strikes three;
The house is so lonely the hours are so long
For poor weeping mother and me.
Yes, we are alone poor Benny is dead,
And gone with the angels of light; --
And these were the very last words that he said
"I want to kiss Papa good night." --
Come home! come home! come home! --
Please, father, dear father, come home. --

Hear the sweet voice of the child
Which the night winds repeat as they roam!
Oh who could resist this most plaintive of prayers?
"Please, father, dear father, come home."

Parody:

Father, dear father come home with me now,
The clock in the steeple strikes two,
Mother is tied to the railroad track,
And the sawmill is going to get you.

Sounds like it's time to call for…

The Reverend Mr. Black
THE KINGSTON TRIO lyrics -

[Spoken:]
He rode easy in the saddle. He was tall and lean, and at first you'd a-thought nothing but a streak of mean could make a man look so down right strong, but one look in his eyes and you knowed you was wrong. He was a mountain of a man, and I want you to know. He could preach hot hell or freezin' snow. He carried a Bible in a canvas sack and folks just called him The Reverend Mr. Black. He was poor as a beggar, but he rode like a king. Sometimes in the evening, I'd hear him sing:

[Chorus:]
I gotta walk that lonesome valley. I got to walk it by myself. Oh nobody else can walk it for me. I got to walk it by myself.
[2nd & 3rd times:] You got to walk that lonesome valley. You got to walk it by yourself. Oh nobody else can walk it for you. You got to walk it by yourself.

If ever I could have thought this man in black was soft and had any yellow up his back, I gave that notion up the day a lumberjack came in and it wasn't to pray. Yeah, he kicked open the meeting house door and he cussed everybody up and down the floor! Then, when things got quiet in the place, he walked up and cusses in the preacher's face! He hit that Reverend like a kick of a mule and to my way of thinkin' it took a real fool to turn the other face to that lumber jack, but that's what he did, The Reverend Mr. Black. He stood like a rock, a man among men and he let that lumberjack hit him again, and then with a voice as quiet as could be, he cut him down like a big oak tree when he said:

[Chorus]

It's been many years since we had to part and I guess I learned his ways by heart. I can still hear his sermon's ring, down in the valley where he used to sing. I followed him, yes, sir, and I don't regret it and I hope I will always be a credit to his memory 'cause I want you to understand. The Reverend Mr. Black was my old man!

[Chorus]

Hey, Try. I especially like the inserted lyrics in your "Black" song, buddy;

You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta go there by yourself,
Ain't no one here gonna go there with you,
You gotta go there by yourself.

Speaking of black, folks, anyone remember this woman?

Selena
» Amor Prohibido

Con unas ansias locas quiero verte hoy
Espero ese momento en que escuche tu voz
Y cuando al fin estemos juntos los dos,
Qué importa qué diran tu padre y tu mamá
Aquí sólo importa nuestro amor, te quiero
Amor prohibido murmuran por las calles
Porque somos de distintas sociedades
Amor prohibido nos dice todo el mundo
El dinero no importa en ti y en mí, ni en el corazón
Oh, oh baby...
Aunque soy pobre todo esto que te doy
Vale más que el dinero porque sí es amor
Y cuando al fin estemos juntos, los dos,
Qué importa qué diran, tambien la sociedad
Aquí sólo importa nuestro amor, te quiero
Amor prohibido murmuran por las calles
Porque somos de distintas sociedades
Amor prohibido nos dice todo el mundo
El dinero no importa en ti y en mí, ni en el corazón
Oh, oh baby...
(in English)
With crazy longings I want to see you today
I wait for that moment when I can hear your voice
And when at last we are together, the two of us
What does it matter what your mom and dad say
All that matters is our love, I love you
"Forbidden love," they whisper in the streets
Because we are from different societies
"Forbidden love," everyone tells us
Money doesn't matter to you or to me, nor to the heart
Oh, oh baby...
Even though I'm poor, all this that I give you
Is worth more than money because it truly is love
And when at last we are together, the two of us
What does it matter what they say, or the society
All that matters is our love, I love you
"Forbidden love," they whisper in the streets
Because we are from different societies
"Forbidden love," everyone tells us
Money doesn't matter to you or to me, nor to the heart
Oh, oh baby...

I Get Around
Beach Boys Lyrics

Round round get around
I get around
Yeah
Get around round round I get around
I get around
Get around round round I get around
From town to town
Get around round round I get around
Im a real cool head
Get around round round I get around
Im makin real good bread

Im gettin bugged driving up and down the same old strip
I gotta finda new place where the kids are hip

My buddies and me are getting real well known
Yeah, the bad guys know us and they leave us alone

I get around
Get around round round I get around
From town to town
Get around round round I get around
Im a real cool head
Get around round round I get around
Im makin real good bread
Get around round round I get around
I get around
Round
Get around round round oooo
Wah wa ooo
Wah wa ooo
Wah wa ooo

We always take my car cause its never been beat
And weve never missed yet with the girls we meet

None of the guys go steady cause it wouldnt be right
To leave their best girl home now on saturday night

I get around
Get around round round I get around
From town to town
Get around round round I get around
Im a real cool head
Get around round round I get around
Im makin real good bread
Get around round round I get around
I get around
Round
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

Round round get around
I get around
Yeah
Get around round round I get around
Get around round round I get around
Wah wa ooo

Great song, Try. Know it, buddy.

Just a bit of background on the Beach Boys, listeners.

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys story began in Hawthorne, California in 1961, when Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson formed a band with their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine.

The group began as Kenny and the Cadets, Carl and the Passions, and finally the Pendletones. Brian, a fan of the Four Freshman , began teaching the others intricate Freshman styled harmonies. Murray Wilson, the father of the brothers and a sometime songwriter, suggested that the boys approach his publisher, Hite Morgan who owned a small recording and publishing company called Guild Music. The group intended to audition with some old favourites, but Morgan told them that they needed some original material to get recorded.

The Four Freshmen did this one first:

There's a story told of a very gentle boy
And the girl who wore his ring
Through the wintry snow
The world they knew was one
For their hearts were full of spring

As the days grew old
And the nights passed into time
And the weeks and years took wind
Gentle boy, tender girl
Their love remained still young
For their hearts were full of spring

Then one day they died
And their graves were side by side
On a hill where robins sing
And they say violets
Grow there the whole year round
For their hearts were full of spring

Totally a capella and absolutely beautiful.

News update:

Updated: 7:41 a.m. ET Oct 22, 2006
FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. - A parachutist who jumped to his death from a bridge during a festival when his chute opened too late was a retired police lieutenant and an outdoor enthusiast, a former colleague said.

Brian Lee Schubert, 66, died of injuries suffered when he hit the water 876 feet below the New River Gorge Bridge during the annual Bridge Day festival on Saturday, said Fayette County Sheriff Bill Laird.

Schubert, of Alta Loma, Calif., had been well known in the sport of BASE jumping since 1966, when he and a friend became the first people to jump from El Capitan, a nearly 3,000-foot-tall rock formation, in California's Yosemite National Park.

My young friend told me that West Virginia is changing it's "Wild, wonderful" slogan to:

West Virginia, open for business.

When you say I beg your pardon
Then I'll come back to you
When you ask me to forgive you
Then I'll return
Like the swallows to Capistrano -

That's all I recall of the song Jack Benny supposedly wrote on his radio show. He tried for years to get it published, but, there were no takers. All in humor, of course.

those scottish lads sure have a way to beguile the fair maidens !
they are always ready to come to the help of a poor , lost soul :wink:
hbg



The Road and the Miles to Dundee
------------------------------------------
Cauld winter was howlin' o'er moor and o'er mountain
And wild was the surge of the dark rolling sea,
When I met about daybreak a bonnie young lassie,
Wha asked me the road and the miles to Dundee.
2. Says I, "My young lassie, I canna' weel tell ye
The road and the distance I canna' weel gie.
But if you'll permit me tae gang a wee bittie,
I'll show ye the road and the miles to Dundee".

3. At once she consented and gave me her arm,
Ne'er a word did I speir wha the lassie micht be,
She appeared like an angel in feature and form,
As she walked by my side on the road to Dundee.

4. At length wi' the Howe o' Strathmartine behind us,
The spires o' the toon in full view we could see,
She said "Gentle Sir, I can never forget ye
For showing me far on the road to Dundee".

5. I took the gowd pin from the scarf on my bosom
And said "Keep ye this in remembrance o' me
Then bravely I kissed the sweet lips o' the lassie,
E'er I parted wi' her on the road to Dundee.

6. So here's to the lassie, I ne'er can forget her,
And lika young laddie that's list'rlihg to me,
O never be sweer to convoy a young lassie
Though it's only to show her the road to Dundee.

My word, folks. edgar sent me to the archives looking for old radio songs, and I found some that still linger on.

Hey, hamburger. Love your Scotish aire, Canada. Especially like this line:

"and wild was the surge of the dark rolling sea..."

Here's one I found, and if our European friends aren't here, there culture is:

Artist: The Andrews Sisters Lyrics
Song: Bei Mir Bist du Schoen Lyrics
f** all the boys I've known, and I've known some
Until I first met you I was lonesome
And when you came in sight, dear, my heart grew light
And this old world seemed new to me

You're really swell, I have to admit, you
Deserve expressions that really fit you
And so I've wracked my brain, hoping to explain
All the things that you do to me

Bei mir bist du schoen, please let me explain
Bei mir bist du schoen means you're grand
Bei mir bist du schoen, again I'll explain
It means you're the fairest in the land

I could say bella, bella, even say wunderbar
Each language only helps me tell you how grand you are
I've tried to explain, bei mir bist du schoen
So kiss me, and say you understand

Bei mir bist du schoen
You've heard it all before, but let me try to explain
Bei mir bist du schoen means that you're grand
Bei mir bist du schoen
Is such an old refrain, and yet I should explain
It means I am begging for your hand

I could say bella, bella, even say wunderbar
Each language only helps me tell you how grand you are

I could say bella, bella, even say wunderbar
Each language only helps be tell you how grand you are
I've tried to explain, bei mir bist du schoen
So kiss me, and say that you will understand

...bei mir bist du schoen...
1967 world's fair in montreal "montreal expo" :
wayne newton rides into the arena accompanied by a contingent of 'mounties' with lances under their arms .
wayne newton was a rather pudgy young fellow at that time .
the mounties formed a circle and wayne started crooning : "bei mir bist du schoen ... " .
i even have an old black and white photo that i took there .
saw wayne newton again in the mid-eighties when he performed in myrtle beach - he sure knew how to charm the (older :wink: ) ladies .
he was down on one knee singing to one of the ladies in the frontrow ...
quite a showman .
hbg

Ah, yes, hamburger: Wayne had a cameo part in the romantic comedy, "Elvis has Left the Building." He was born in Roanoke, Virginia.

For you, as you sit in your delightful computer room. <smile>

Danke Schoen, darling Danke Schoen.
Thank you for all the joy and pain.
Picture shows, second balcony, was the place we'd meet, second seat, go Dutch treat, you were sweet.

Danke Schoen, darling Danke Schoen.
Thank you for walks down lovers lane.
I can see, hearts carved on a tree, letters inter-twined, for all time, yours and mine, that was fine.

Danke Schoen, darling Danke Schoen.
Thank you for funny cards from Spain.
I recall, Central Park in fall, how you tore your dress, what a mess, I confess, that's not all.

Danke Schoen, darling Danke Schoen.
Thank you for seeing me again.
Though we go, on our seperate ways, still the memory stays, for always, my heart says, Danke Schoen.

Danke Schoen, Auf Wiedersehn, Danke Schoen.

Criminal

I've been a bad, bad girl
I've been careless with a delicate man
And it's a sad, sad world
When a girl will break a boy just because she can

Don't you tell me to deny it
I've done wrong and I want to suffer for my sins
I've come to you 'cause I need guidance to be true
And I just don't know where I can begin

What I need is a good defense
'Cause I'm feeling like a criminal
And I need to be redeemed
To the one I've sinned against
Because he's all I ever knew of love

Heaven help me for the way I am
Save me from these evil deeds before I get them done
I know tomorrow brings the consequence at hand
But I keep living this day like the next will never come

Oh help me but don't tell me to deny it
I've got to cleanse myself of all these lies 'till I'm good enough for him
I've got a lot to lose and I'm bettin' high so I'm begging you
Before it ends just tell me where to begin

What I need is a good defense
'Cause I'm feeling like a criminal
And I need to be redeemed
To the one I've sinned against
Because he's all I ever knew of love

Let me know the way
Before there's hell to pay
Give me room to lay the law and let me go
I've got to make a play
To make my lover stay
So what would an angel say the devil wants to know

What I need is a good defense
'Cause I'm feeling like a criminal
And I need to be redeemed
To the one I've sinned against
Because he's all I ever knew of love

What I need is a good defense
'Cause I'm feeling like a criminal
And I need to be redeemed
To the one I've sinned against
Because he's all I ever knew of love

Fiona Apple

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors. Another Monday, folks, and I hope it will be a good one for all you people out there in radio land.

Well, Rex, that is an interesting song that you played by Fiona Apple. Wonder if she is akin to Steve Jobs?

I have always been interested in legends, and I took a quick tour of the archives and found an intriguing one about the Bell witch. Since we are approaching halloween, here is a song concerning that spooky tale:

(Based on a true story)
(Music by Hank Shermann Lyrics by
King Diamond)
Back in Tennessee, I saw a
family haunted by an entity
It was a tragedy in another
century
Oh...They never would know the
Evil One that came
Little Betsy, the age of 12
Living in a dream
The first one to scream
Invisible hands leaving their
mark in the dark
Solo: Denner
Night after night
The Bell Witch attacked and
attacked
Torturing Betsy, until a circle
was held in candle light
Tell us who you are
Please tell us who you are
I am the air you breathe
I am the Bell Witch
I am a million years
I am the Bell Witch
Solo: Shermann
The Bell Witch decided
It was the time for the father to
scream
Soon taken ill, never again to
leave his bed alive
Tell us who you are
Please tell us who you are
I am the air you breathe
I am the Bell Witch
I am a million years
I am the Bell Witch
Goodnight John, see you in Hell...
Say bye bye to Daddy, Betsy
Call the doctor!!! ...I made sure
Call the doctor!!! ...There ain't no
cure
Solo: Shermann
That night John he died
And the Bell Witch never came
again
Soon they realized, the witch had
given John bad medicine




Mercyful Fate The Bell Witch lyrics

Good morning radio fans. He was not scary, he was just a…

Boy From New York City
Manhattan Transfer Lyrics

Ooo wah, ooo wah cool, cool kitty
Tell us about the boy from New York City
Ooo wah, ooo wah cmon kitty
Tell us about the boy from New York City

Hes kind of tall
He's really fine
Some day I hope to make him mine, all mine
And he's neat
And oh so sweet
And just the way he looked at me
He swept me off my feet
Ooo whee, you ought to come and see
How he walks
And how he talks

Ooo wah, ooo wah cool, cool kitty
Tell us about the boy from New York City

He's really down
And he's no clown
He has the finest penthouse I've ever seen in town
And he's cute
In his mohair suit
And he keeps his pockets full of spending loot
Ooo whee, say you ought to come and see
His dueling scar
And brand new car

Every time he says he loves me
Chills run down my spine
Every time he wants to kiss me
He makes me feel so fine
Ooo wah, ooo wah cool, cool kitty
Tell us about the boy from New York City

Well he can dance
(he can dance, take a chance with a little ro-)
And make romance
(mance baby, cause he's a looker)
Thats when I feel in love
With just one glance
(hes sweet talking and cool)

He was shy
And so was I
And now I know Ill never, ever say goodbye
Ooo whee, say you ought to come and see
He's the most
From coast to coast

Ooo wah, ooo wah cool, cool kitty
Tell us about the boy from New York City
Ooo wah, ooo wah cmon kitty
Tell us about the boy from New York City

Hey, Try. Love Manhattan Transfer. I was beginning to think we would have to operate on a skeleton crew, folks.



Give that to each trick or treater, and tell them to EAT!

Skeleton Man Dance Lyrics

necessary food for the little ones

can't create when I'm under these guns

feed me lies I'll throw up all over you

ties come true don't like what I do

skeleton man sit in the corner

skeleton man dance that's an order

lies come true

thin just like you

substantial meat to stick to my ribs

where's my top hat and bag of tricks

I'll perform every stunt that I know

familiar ground begins to show

skeleton man sit in the corner

skeleton man dance that's an order

lies come true

thin just like you

should I dance?

Weird, just like them sisters.

Johnny Carson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth Name John William Carson
Born October 23, 1925
in Corning, Iowa, USA
Died January 23, 2005
in Los Angeles, California, USA

Statistics

Occupation TV presenter, actor, comedian, writer





Spouse

Joan Wolcott (1949-1963)
Joanne Copeland (1963-1972)
Joanna Holland(1972-1983)
Alexis Maas (1987- 2005, his death)
Children Christopher (1950)
Richard (1952-1991)
Cory (1953)



Salary $5 million USD (1980)

Notable Credit(s)

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Host of the Academy Awards (5 times)




John William "Johnny" Carson (October 23, 1925 - January 23, 2005) was an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his iconic status as the host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Before The Tonight Show

Carson was born in Corning, Iowa, to parents Homer "Kit" Lloyd Carson, a power company manager, and Ruth Hook Carson. Johnny Carson grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska, where he learned to perform magic tricks, debuting as "The Great Carsoni" at age 14. He attended Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where he received V-12 officer training, and then served in the Navy from 1943 to 1946. Carson then attended the University of Nebraska where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1949. The next year, Carson took a job at WOW radio and television in Omaha, where he hosted an early morning TV show called The Squirrel's Nest; Carson then took a job at CBS-owned Los Angeles television station KNXT, which would be his entry to the big time.

In 1953, well-known comic Red Skelton - a fan of Carson's sketch comedy show, Carson's Cellar, which ran from 1951 to 1953 on KNXT - tabbed Carson to join his show as a writer. In 1954, Skelton knocked himself unconscious just one hour before his live show went on the air; Carson filled in for him.

He hosted several TV shows before his run on The Tonight Show, including the game show Earn Your Vacation (1954), the variety show The Johnny Carson Show (1955 - 1956), and a five-year stint on the game show Who Do You Trust? (1957-1962), during which Carson met long-time sidekick Ed McMahon.

Carson was a regular panelist on the first version of To Tell the Truth.


The Tonight Show

During a Monologue on TonightCarson became the host of NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in October 1962. His announcer and sidekick was Ed McMahon throughout his entire tenure with the program.

For millions of people, watching The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson at the end of the evening became a ritual, and Carson, with his quick wit and natural charm, became a well-known entertainer loved by many. Most of the later shows began with music and the announcement by Ed McMahon "Heeeeeere's Johnny!", followed by a brief comedic monologue by Carson. This was often followed by comedy sketches, interviews, and music. Carson's trademark was a phantom golf swing at the end of his Tonight Show monologues, aimed at stage left where the band was. Guest hosts would sometimes parody that gesture. Bob Newhart, for example, would finish by simulating rolling a bowling ball toward the audience.

The show was originally produced in New York City, with occasional stints in California. It was not live in its early years, however during the 1970s, NBC fed the live taping from Burbank to New York via satellite for editing (see below). The program had been done "live on tape" (uninterrupted unless a serious problem occurred) since the Jack Paar days. In May 1972 the show permanently moved from New York to Burbank, California.

After the move, Carson stopped doing shows five days a week. Instead, on Monday nights there was a "guest host" (leaving Carson to do the other four each week). Joan Rivers became the "permanent" guest host from September 1983 until 1986, when she was fired for accepting a competing show on the startup Fox network without consulting Carson first. Thereafter, The Tonight Show returned to using various guest hosts, with Jay Leno the most frequent. Leno then became the exclusive guest host in the fall of 1987. Eventually, the pattern became relatively set. Monday night was for Jay Leno. Tuesday night was for the Best of Carson, which were rebroadcasts of earlier episodes (usually of a year previous but occasionally back into the 1970s with edited episodes).

Carson had a talent for coming up with quick quips to deal with unexpected problems. If the opening monologue fared poorly, the band would start playing the song "Tea for Two" and Carson would start to dance, which invariably earned laughs from the studio audience. Alternately, Carson might pull down the boom mike close to his face and announce "Attention K-Mart shoppers!"

Carson's show was the launching pad for many talented performers, notably comedians. Many got their "big break" by appearing on the show, and it was considered the crowning achievement to not only get Johnny to laugh out loud, but also to be called over to the guest chair. In many ways, Carson was the successor to The Ed Sullivan Show as a showcase for all kinds of talent, as well as continuing the Vaudeville variety-show tradition.

In 1973, Carson had a legendary run-in with popular psychic Uri Geller when he invited Geller to appear on his show. Carson, an experienced stage magician, wanted a neutral demonstration of Geller's alleged abilities, so, at the advice of his friend and fellow magician James Randi, he gave Geller several spoons out of his desk drawer and asked him to bend them with his psychic powers. Geller proved unable, and his appearance on The Tonight Show has since been regarded as the beginning of Geller's fall from glory.

An oft-repeated story?-since dismissed as an "urban legend"?-involved a guest appearance by Zsa Zsa Gabor carrying a white Persian cat. Gabor is said to have asked Johnny if he would like to "pet my pussy?" During a 1989 appearance, Jane Fonda noted that her son had repeated the claim, and "my son said that you said, uh, 'I'd love to, if you'd remove that damned cat!' Is it true?" Carson denied the episode on-air ("No, I think I would recall that...")[1] and both he[2] and Gabor[3] responded to researchers by stating the event "never happened." Despite widespread insistence by people who claimed to see the episode, no audio or video recording has ever been produced.

However, a bit of risqué humor was not beyond Carson. During an interview with Dolly Parton, in reference to her large bust, she said, "People are always asking if they're real and .... I'll tell you what, these are mine." Carson replied, "I have certain guidelines on this show. But I would give about a year's pay to peek under there."


Carson Live and Uncensored

Even though Carson's program was based in Burbank, NBC maintained editing and production services for the program in New York until the early 1980s, which resulted in the requirement that Carson's program be transmitted from Burbank to New York. Beginning in 1976, NBC utilized the Satcom 2 satellite to do just this, by feeding the live taping, which usually took place in the early evening, straight to New York where it could be edited and polished prior to going on air. This live feed lasted usually from two to two and a half hours a night, and was uncensored and commercial-free. During the commercial breaks, the audio and the picture would be left on, resulting in language and other risque language that would never have made it to air otherwise, going out over the feed.

At the same time, however, satellite earth stations owned by private individuals were going into use, and managed to find the live feed, and even went as far as to document the sightings in technical journals, thus giving the public knowledge of something they were not meant to see on television.

Carson and his production staff grew concerned about what was happening, and eventually pressured NBC into ceasing the satellite transmissions of the live taping by the early 1980s, instead opting to use microwave landline transmission to send the program back to New York, and eventually moving the show's editing facilities to Burbank all together, no longer necessitating the need for a live feed. .[4]


Critical acclaim

Carson was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. His other awards include six Emmy Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1993.


Marriages

Joan Wolcott

Carson married his college sweetheart Joan Wolcott on October 1, 1949. Laurence Leamer's biography on Carson King of The Night refers to several incidents of Carson beating his wife in private and in front of others. The marriage was volatile, with infidelities by both parties, finally ending in divorce. They had 3 sons. Their son Richard died in a car accident on June 21, 1991.


Joanne Copeland

In 1963, Carson got a "quickie" Mexican divorce from Joan and married Joanne Copeland on August 17, 1963. After a protracted divorce in 1972, Copeland received nearly half a million dollars in cash and art and $100,000 a year in alimony for life.


Joanna Holland

At The Tonight Show's 10th anniversary party on September 30, 1972, Carson announced that he and former model Joanna Holland had been secretly married that afternoon, shocking his friends and associates. Carson kidded that he had married three similarly named women to avoid "having to change the monogram on the towels." On March 8, 1983, Holland filed for divorce. Under California's community property laws, she was entitled to 50 percent of all the assets accumulated during the marriage even though Carson earned virtually 100 percent of the couple's income. During this period, he joked on The Tonight Show, "My producer, Freddy de Cordova, really gave me something I needed for Christmas. He gave me a gift certificate to the Law Offices of Jacoby & Meyers." The divorce case finally ended in 1985 with an 80-page settlement, Holland receiving $20 million in cash and property.


Alexis Maas

Carson married Alexis Maas on June 20, 1987. That broke the "Joan"-"Joanne"-"Joanna" cycle, and his marriage with Alexis was happy by all accounts.


Personal

Carson was a major investor in the ultimately failed De Lorean Motor Company, and was cited in a 1982 drunk driving incident while driving a De Lorean DMC-12 sportscar in Beverly Hills. Represented by Robert Shapiro, he pleaded no contest to the charges, and played off the incident by having a uniformed police officer escort him on to the Tonight Show stage.

Carson was close friends with astronomer Carl Sagan, who often appeared on The Tonight Show to give presentations on astronomy. (Carson himself was an amateur astronomer). The unique way Sagan had of saying certain words, like "billions" of galaxies, would lead to Carson ribbing his friend, imitating his voice and saying "BILL-ions and BILL-ions", a phrase soon erroneously attributed to Sagan himself. According to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson, Carson was the first person to contact Sagan's wife with condolences when the scientist died in 1996. Also a talented amateur drummer, Carson was shown on a segment of 60 Minutes practicing at home on a drum set given to him by jazz legend Buddy Rich.

Carson's son from his first marriage: Richard, was killed on June 21, 1991, when his car plunged down a steep embankment along a paved service road off Highway 1 near Cayucos, a small town north of San Luis Obispo. Apparently, Richard had been taking photographs when the accident occurred. On his first show after his son's death, Carson gave a stirring tribute to Ricky Carson in the final minutes of his show as samples of his son's photographic work (and images of Ricky, himself) were displayed with the music accompaniment of "Riviera Paradise" by blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan (himself the victim of an accidental death less than one year earlier). In addition, the final image of Carson's last show in May 1992 featured a photo Richard had taken.


Retirement

The Final Show

Carson bids farewell.Carson retired from show business on May 22, 1992 when he stepped down as host of The Tonight Show. NBC gave the role of host to the show's then-current permanent guest host, Jay Leno. Leno and David Letterman were soon competing on separate networks.

At the end of his final Tonight Show appearance, Carson indicated that he would return with a new project, but instead chose to go into full retirement, rarely giving interviews and declining to participate in NBC's 75th Anniversary celebrations. He made the occasional cameo appearance, most notably voicing himself on an episode of The Simpsons ("Krusty Gets Kancelled").


Carson's most famous post-retirement appearance came on Letterman's late-night CBS talk show, The Late Show with David Letterman, on May 13, 1994. During a week of shows from Los Angeles, Letterman was having Larry "Bud" Melman (Calvert DeForest) deliver his "Top Ten Lists" under the impression that a famous personality would be delivering the list instead. On the last show of the week, Letterman indicated that Carson would be delivering the list. Instead, Melman delivered the list, insulted the audience (in keeping with the gag), and walked off to polite applause. Letterman then indicated that the card he was given did not have the proper list on it, and asked Carson to bring out the "real" list. On that cue, the real Johnny Carson emerged from behind the stage curtain; an appearance which prompted a standing ovation from the audience. Carson then requested to sit behind Letterman's desk; Letterman obliged. A clearly overcome Carson mouthed "I'm back home" to the stage director, ran his hands over the desk, and after a moment walked back off stage without delivering his planned joke. (It was later explained that Carson had laryngitis).

Just days before Carson's death, it was revealed that the retired "King of Late Night" still kept up with current events and late-night TV, and that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman. [1] Letterman would then use these jokes in the monologue of his show, which Carson got "a big kick out of" according to Worldwide Pants, Inc. Senior Vice-President Peter Lassally, who formerly produced both men's programs. Reportedly, sometimes Letterman would do the golf swing after one of those jokes, as a silent tribute to Carson. Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor." [2] Letterman frequently employs some of Carson's trademark bits on his show, including "Carnac" (with band leader Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band," and the "Week in Review."

In November 2004, Carson announced a $5.3 million gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to support the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts' Department of Theatre Arts, which created the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. Another $5 million donation was announced by the estate of Carson to the University of Nebraska following his death.


Carson's final television appearance on the Late Show with David LettermanCarson also donated to causes in his hometown of Norfolk, including the Carson Cancer Center at Faith Regional Health Services, The Elkhorn Valley Museum, and the Johnny Carson Theater at Norfolk Senior High School.


Death and aftermath

At 6:50 AM PST on January 23, 2005, Carson died at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, of respiratory arrest arising from emphysema. He was 79 years old. Tributes published after his passing confirmed that he had been a chain-smoker. While The Tonight Show was broadcast live, he would frequently smoke cigarettes on the air; it was reported that Carson had said "these things are killing me" as far back as the 1970s.

Following Carson's death his body was cremated, and the ashes were given to his wife. In accordance with his family's wishes, no public memorial service was held.

On January 24, 2005, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno paid tribute to Carson with guests Ed McMahon, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Drew Carey and k.d. lang. Letterman followed suit on January 31 with former Tonight Show executive producer Peter Lassally and bandleader Doc Severinsen. During the beginning of this show, Letterman said that for 30 years no matter what was going on in the world, no matter whether people had a good or bad day, they wanted to end the day by being "tucked in by Johnny." Letterman also told his viewers that the monologue he had just given had consisted entirely of jokes sent to him by Carson in the last few months of his life. Doc Severinsen ended the Letterman show that night by playing one of Carson's two favorite songs, "Here's that Rainy Day" (the other was "I'll Be Seeing You").

Many other talk show hosts came and went during Carson's 30 years. A week or so after the tributes, Dennis Miller was on the Tonight Show and told Jay Leno about the first time he tried to do a talk show, and how miserably it went. He said that he got a call right after the first show, from Carson, telling him, "It's not as easy as it looks, is it, kid?"

The 2005 film The Aristocrats was dedicated to Johnny, who apparently was a huge fan of the joke (and also a huge fan of Aristocrats co-director Penn Jillette's TV show Bullshit!)

I loved you, Johnny. We all did.
Yes, I'm rambling because I just don't know what else to say. I will miss Johnny Carson like no other person in my life. He was such a good man, one of my minor gods, and a good friend that I regret to say I did not meet again in person after he left TV so long ago. Just one small example, if I may, of how generous he was. When I called and asked him if he might place a telephone call to Martin Gardner on that gentleman's 90th birthday, John had no hesitation agreeing to do so. "I've got most of his books", he told me, "and it'll be fun to speak with him." They did speak, on the afternoon of Martin's birthday, for some 20 minutes. That's the kind of gentleman that Johnny Carson was.

John, I will miss you, as will so many millions here and around the world, but your legacy lives on. I've just run out of words.[3]

?- "professional debunker" James Randi
And so it has come to this: I, uh... am one of the lucky people in the world; I found something I always wanted to do, and I have enjoyed every single minute of it. I want to thank the gentlemen who've shared this stage with me for thirty years, Mr. Ed McMahon... Mr. Doc Severinsen... and... you people watching, I can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you?-and I hope when I find something that I want to do, and I think you would like, and come back, that you'll be as gracious in inviting me into your home as you have been. I bid you a very heartfelt good night.
?- Johnny Carson's closing words on his final show, May 22, 1992

Michael Crichton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Michael Crichton Pseudonym(s): John Lange, Jeffrey Hudson
Born: October 23, 1942

Occupation(s): novelist
Nationality: USA


John Michael Crichton (born October 23, 1942, [1]) is an American author, film producer, film director, and television producer. His best-known works are techno-thriller novels, films and television programs.

This genre is usually based on the action genre, but with technology heavily featured. Many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background.


Biography

Crichton was born in Chicago,[2] Illinois to John Henderson Crichton and Zula Miller Crichton, and raised in Roslyn, Long Island, New York.[1] Crichton has two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a younger brother, Douglas, a co-author on the pseudonymously published "Dealing or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues."

He was educated at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, A.B. (summa cum laude) 1964 (Phi Beta Kappa). He went on to become the Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellow, 1964-65 and Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University, England, 1965. He graduated at Harvard Medical School, gaining an M.D. in 1969 and did post-doctoral fellowship study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, in 1969-1970. In 1988, he was Visiting Writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While in medical school, he wrote novels under the pen names John Lange and Jeffery Hudson. A Case of Need, written under the latter pseudonym, won the 1969 Edgar Award for Best Novel. He also co-authored Dealing with his younger brother Douglas under the shared pen name Michael Douglas. The back cover of that book contains a picture of Michael and Douglas at a very young age taken by their mother.

His two pen names were both created to reflect his above-average height. According to his own words, he was about 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall in 1997 [2]. Lange means "tall one" in German, Danish and Dutch, and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous seventeenth century dwarf in the court of Queen Henrietta Maria of France.

Crichton has admitted to once, during his undergraduate study, plagiarizing a work by George Orwell and submitting it as his own. The paper was received by his professor with a mark of "B−". Crichton has stated that the plagiarism was not intended to defraud the school, but rather as an experiment. Crichton believed that the professor in question had been intentionally giving him abnormally low marks, and so as an experiment Crichton informed another professor of his idea and submitted Orwell's paper as his own. Crichton admitted to plagiarizing when he was on the stand in the course of a lawsuit trying to defend the authenticity of Twister, a movie which one individual claimed was based on his story entitled "Catch the Wind".

He is married to Sherri Alexander and has a daughter, Taylor, with ex-wife, Anne-Marie Martin.





Scientific concepts

In several of his books, Crichton popularised scientific and technological concepts which had not previously received widespread attention by non-scientists. Many of the ideas he used were novel to the average person, despite previous attention to them being given by some in the scientific community.

For example, before Jurassic Park, Robert T. Bakker's theory of warm-blooded and fast-moving dinosaurs had not received a great deal of attention in the popular media. Laypeople were accustomed to seeing stop motion clay dinosaurs crawling sluggishly over the volcanic prehistorical terrains.


Literary techniques

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Crichton's works are consistently cautionary in that his plots invariably portray scientific advancements going awry, often with worst-case scenarios. Seldom if ever does Crichton portray scientific achievement as going according to plan.

The use of author surrogate has been a feature of Crichton's writings since the beginning of his career. In A Case of Need, one of his pseudonymous whodunit stories, Crichton used first-person narrative to portray the hero, a Bostonian pathologist, who is running against the clock to clear a friend's name from medical malpractice in a girl's death from a hack job abortion.

That book was written in 1968, long before the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide in the US, Roe v. Wade (1973). It took the hero about 160 pages to find the chief suspect, an underground abortionist, who was created to be the author surrogate. Then, Crichton gave that character three pages to justify his illegal practice.

Some of Crichton's fiction uses a literary technique called false document. For example, Eaters of the Dead is a fabricated recreation of the Old English epic Beowulf in the form of a scholastic translation of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's tenth century manuscript. Other novels, such as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, incorporate fictionalized scientific documents in the form of diagrams, computer output, DNA sequences, footnotes and bibliography.

Non-fiction

Apart from fiction, Crichton has written several other books based on scientific themes, amongst which is Travels, which also contains autobiographical episodes.

As a personal friend to the Neo-Dadaist artist Jasper Johns, Crichton compiled many of his works in a coffee table book also named Jasper Johns. That book has been updated once.

Crichton is also the author of Electronic Life, a book that introduces BASIC programming to its readers. In his words, being able to program a computer is liberation:

In my experience, you assert control over a computer?-show it who's the boss?-by making it do something unique. That means programming it....f you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterward.[3]
To prove his point, Crichton included many self-written demonstrative Applesoft (for Apple II) and BASICA (for IBM PC compatibles) programs in that book. Crichton once considered updating it, but the project seemed to be canceled.

His non-fiction works are:

Year Title
1970 Five Patients
1977 Jasper Johns
1983 Electronic Life
1988 Travels

He has written the screenplay for the movies Extreme Close Up (1973) and Twister (1996) (the latter co-written with Anne-Marie Martin, his wife at the time).

Crichton is also the creator and executive producer of the television drama ER. In December 1994, he achieved the unique distinction of having the #1 movie (Disclosure), the #1 TV show (ER), and the #1 book (Disclosure, atop the paperback list). Crichton has written only three episodes of ER:

Episode 1-1: "24 Hours"
Episode 1-2: "Day One"
Episode 1-3: "Going Home"

Computer games

Amazon is a graphical text adventure game created by Michael Crichton and produced by John Wells under Trillium Corp. Amazon was released in the United States in 1984 and it runs on Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and the DOS systems. Amazon was considered by some to be a breakthrough in the way it updated text adventure games by adding color graphics and music. It sold more than 100,000 copies, making it a significant commercial success at the time.

In 1999, Crichton founded Timeline Computer Entertainment with David Smith. Despite signing a multi-title publishing deal with Eidos Interactive, only one game was ever published, Timeline. Released on 8 December 2000 for the PC, the game received poor reviews and sold poorly.


Awards

Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel, 1969 (A Case of Need; written as Jeffrey Hudson)
Association of American Medical Writers Award, 1970 (Five Patients)
Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, 1980 (The Great Train Robbery)
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Journalism Award, 2006 (State of Fear)
A dinosaur, Crichtonsaurus bohlini, was named after him in honor of Jurassic Park[4].
Crichton was named to the list of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People" by People magazine, 1992

Speeches

"Aliens Cause Global Warming"

In 2003 he gave a controversial lecture at Caltech entitled "Aliens Cause Global Warming" [5] in which he expressed his views of the danger of "consensus science" ?- especially with regard to what he regards as popular but disputed theories such as nuclear winter, the dangers of second-hand smoke, and the global warming controversy. Crichton has been critical of widespread belief of ETs and UFOs, citing the fact that there is no conclusive proof of their existence. Crichton has commented that belief in purported scientific theories without a factual basis is more akin to faith than science.


Environmentalism as a religion

In a related speech given to the Commonwealth Club of California, called "Environmentalism as a religion" [6] (see Radical environmentalism), Crichton described what he sees as similarities between the structure of various religious views (particularly Judeo-Christian dogma) and the beliefs of many modern urban atheists who he asserts have romantic ideas about Nature and our past, who he thinks believe in the initial "paradise", the human "sins", and the "judgement day". He also articulates his belief that it is the tendency of modern environmentalists to cling stubbornly to elements of their faith in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary. Crichton cites what he contends are misconceptions about DDT, second-hand smoke, and global warming as examples.

Widespread speculation in the media

In a speech entitled "Why Speculate?", [7] delivered in 2002 to the International Leadership Forum, Crichton criticized the media for engaging in what he saw as pointless speculation rather than the delivery of facts. As an example, he pointed to a front-page article of the March 6 New York Times that speculated about the possible effects of U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to impose tariffs on imported steel. Crichton also singled out Susan Faludi's book Backlash for criticism, saying that it "presented hundreds of pages of quasi-statistical assertions based on a premise that was never demonstrated and that was almost certainly false". He referred to what he calls the "Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect" to describe the public's tendency to discount one story in a newspaper they may know to be false because of their knowledge of the subject, but believe the same paper on subjects with which they are unfamiliar. Crichton used the Latin expression falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which he translated as "untruthful in one part, untruthful in all", to describe what he thought should be a more appropriate reaction. The speech also made several references to Crichton's skepticism of environmentalists' assertions about the possible future ramifications of human activity on the Earth's environment.


Role of science in environmental policy-making

In September 2005 Crichton testified at a Congressional hearing on climate change[8], having been called by Senator James Inhofe.


Criticism

Many of Crichton's publicly expressed views, particularly on subjects like the global warming controversy, have caused heated debate. An example is meteorologist Jeffrey Masters' review of State of Fear:

"[F]lawed or misleading presentations of Global Warming science exist in the book, including those on Arctic sea ice thinning, correction of land-based temperature measurements for the urban heat island effect, and satellite vs. ground-based measurements of Earth's warming. I will spare the reader additional details. On the positive side, Crichton does emphasize the little-appreciated fact that while most of the world has been warming the past few decades, most of Antarctica has seen a cooling trend. The Antarctic ice sheet is actually expected to increase in mass over the next 100 years due to increased precipitation, according to the IPCC. Additionally, Crichton points out that there has been no rise in hurricane activity in the Atlantic over the past few decades (a point unchanged by the record four hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004)." [9]
However, 28 hurricanes and tropical storms took place in the 2005 season, which was 7 more than the meteorologists had names for because historically, 21 names seemed far above what was needed for a season. In addition, Peter Doran, author of the paper in the January 2002 issue of Nature which reported the finding referred to above, that some areas of Antarctica had cooled between 1986 and 2000, wrote an opinion piece in the July 27, 2006 New York Times in which he stated "Our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel State of Fear".[10]

Crichton has also been criticized for having the protagonist of State of Fear assert,

"Since the ban [of DDT ], two million people a year have died unnecessarily from malaria, mostly children. The ban has caused more than fifty million needless deaths. Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler."
Even though the DDT ban specifically exempts any and all use for disease prevention from any regulation, and even though the total number of deaths from malaria worldwide in the period described is actually less than fifty million.[11] Although Crichton moderates his statement somewhat elsewhere in the book with:

"DDT was never banned."
"You're right. Countries were just told that if they used it, they wouldn't get foreign aid."
Even this version conflicts with statements by USAID, the World Bank, and WHO, all of which do fund DDT for malaria prevention.

Trivia

In the episode "Emily" (5x05) of The X-Files, a judge describes Fox Mulder's paranormal investigations by saying "...I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around this...Michael Crichton bit" meaning that Mulder's investigations are very science fiction-like.

Dwight Yoakam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Background information

Birth name Dwight David Yoakam
Born October 23, 1956
Origin Pikeville, Kentucky United States

Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American musician, songwriter, and actor.


Biography

Yoakam was born in Pikeville, Kentucky, and raised in Columbus, Ohio, growing up with his mother and step-father, who had a white-collar job in the automotive industry. He graduated from Columbus's Northland High School on June 9, 1974. During his high school years, he excelled in both music and drama, regularly securing the lead role in school plays, such as Charlie in the stage version of Flowers for Algernon, honing his skills under the guidance of teacher-mentors Jerry McAfee (music) and Charles Lewis (drama). Outside of school, Yoakam sang and played guitar with local garage bands, and frequently entertained his friends and classmates as an amateur comedian, impersonating politicians and other celebrities, such as Richard Nixon, who, at that time, was heavily embroiled in the Watergate controversy.

Yoakam briefly attended The Ohio State University, but dropped out and moved to Nashville in the late '70s with the intent of becoming a recording artist. When he began his career, Nashville was oriented towards pop Urban Cowboy music, and Yoakam's brand of Bakersfield honky tonk was not considered marketable. He began playing live in the Los Angeles area, performing with punk bands like Dead Kennedys, Butthole Surfers and X; and roots-rock bands The Blasters and Los Lobos.

Yoakam's recording debut was on the independent album A Town South of Bakersfield, planned and produced by Pete Anderson, in 1984 (1984 in music). His debut LP was 1986's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. and it instantly launched his career (1986 in music). "Honky Tonk Man" (Johnny Horton) and "Guitars, Cadillacs" were hit singles. The follow-up LP, Hillbilly Deluxe, was just as successful. His third LP, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, included his first #1, a duet with Buck Owens, "Streets of Bakersfield". 1990's (1990 in music) If There Was a Way was another best-seller.

Yoakam's song Readin', Rightin', Route 23 pays tribute to his childhood move from Kentucky, and is titled after a local expression describing the route that rural Kentuckians needed to take to find a job. (U.S. Highway 23 runs north from Kentucky through Columbus and Toledo, and through the automotive centers of Michigan.)

Yoakam has also taken some acting roles, most notably as the abusive alcoholic Doyle in Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade (1996) and as a sociopathic killer in 2002's Panic Room. He has also appeared in Southern California live theater, combining his acting talents with the talents of director Peter Fonda. More recently, he appeared in a cameo role as the doctor for Chev Chilios in "Crank".

Having diverged from pop-icon status in country-western fare, Yoakam is today more likely to be identified as having an older, more traditional style. But along with his bluegrass and honky-tonk roots, Yoakam has written or covered many Elvis Presley-style rockabilly songs, including his popular covers of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in 1999 and Presley's "Suspicious Minds" in 1992. He even recorded a cover of the Clash's "Train In Vain" in 1997.

Yoakam is currently touring in support of his new album Blame The Vain.

When asked by Larry King, Johnny Cash cited Yoakam as his favorite country singer.

Yoakam currently resides in Southern California, but still maintains close ties with his family in the Columbus area.

"Weird Al" Yankovic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Background information
Birth name Alfred Matthew Yankovic
Also known as "Weird Al" Yankovic
Born October 23, 1959
Origin Lynwood, California

Alfred Matthew Yankovic (born on October 23, 1959), better known as "Weird Al" Yankovic, is a Grammy Award-winning musician, satirist, parodist, accordionist, and television producer. He is known in particular for his humorous songs which make light of popular culture, parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, or both. His works have earned him three gold and five platinum records in the U.S. His career longevity is notable among contemporary performers, and he had his first Billboard top ten album and single in 2006, nearly three decades into his career.



Biography

After hearing Dr.Demento's radio show (a comedy radio program featuring humorous music), Yankovic sent the Doctor a tape of a song entitled "Belvedere Cruisin'", a song about his family's current vehicle, in 1976. Another song included on the tape which never received airtime was entitled "Dr. D Superstar", a parody of "Jesus Christ Superstar"[1]. He was a senior at Lynwood High School at the time, but that tape was the start of his eventual career.

Three years later, Yankovic was an architecture student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a disc jockey at the university's radio station (KCPR). According to Yankovic he has been called "Weird Al" since High School and used the nickname on air. Since "My Sharona" by The Knack was on the charts and The Knack was scheduled to play at Cal Poly, Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station (to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics) and recorded a parody entitled "My Bologna", with a B-side called "School Cafeteria". The Knack met Yankovic after a show at his college, thought the song was funny, and arranged for it to be released on their label, Capitol Records, which gave Yankovic a six-month contract. Dr. Demento's listeners frequently put this track atop his "Funny Five" list.

In 1980, Yankovic was working in the mail room at Westwood One, Dr. Demento's radio network at the time, when he developed another parody called "Another One Rides the Bus", a parody of Queen's hit, "Another One Bites the Dust". While practicing the song outside the sound booth, he ran into Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic's accordion case to keep a good steady beat to the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before going live on The Doctor Demento Show. "Another One Rides the Bus" became so popular that it got Yankovic his first television appearance, The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. On the show, Yankovic played his accordion, and again, Schwartz banged on the accordion case in addition to providing comical sound effects. The rare 1981 Placebo EP release of this song has the track "Happy Birthday" as a B-side. "Happy Birthday" is a dark song about the world's problems and imminent destruction, with the sarcastic suggestion that denial is the natural solution. The Placebo EP recording of the song was remixed into stereo by Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz in 2005 for inclusion on a Hurricane Katrina charity compilation featuring various other comedy musicians.[2]

1981 brought Yankovic on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento's act. His stage act caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who loved it and became Yankovic's manager. Levey insisted that the act would sound better if he had a full band, so he held auditions. Steve Jay became Yankovic's bass player, and Jim West played guitar. With Schwartz on drums, the band was complete. Yankovic's first show with this band was not successful at all. Yankovic and his band were the opening act for Missing Persons. The unimpressed audience threw items at the group, and they were booed off the stage.

In 1985, Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al that intertwined fact and fiction of his life up to that point. The movie was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF (see below) four years later.

In 1991, Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards, allowing Yankovic to concentrate more on singing during concerts. Rick Derringer produced all of Yankovic's albums until the 1992 release Off the Deep End. After Derringer's departure, Yankovic began to produce his own albums.


In January 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery and shaved off his mustache, radically changing his trademark look. Yankovic commented that "Millions of girls actually found me hot for the first time!" Although his "official" look does not feature facial hair, he is often seen with a goatee; most notably, on the album art for the 2006 release, Straight Outta Lynwood.

Yankovic is of no relation to the famous accordionist Frankie Yankovic, but Weird Al did play accordion and sing backing vocals for one of Frankie's final records. Frankie Yankovic also made a cameo appearance in a special by Weird Al for the 1986 Grammys. Weird Al jokes that his parents made him take up accordion because, "apparently, my parents felt the world needed two accordion-playing Yankovics." When the elder accordionist died in 1998, a woman Weird Al knew on the east coast called him and errantly told him, "I'm sorry your dad died," which gave him "a good jolt" at the time.[3]

Yankovic married Suzanne Krajewski on February 10, 2001. Their daughter, Nina, was born February 11, 2003. They also have a pet poodle, Bela (pictured atop Yankovic's head on the cover of his album, Poodle Hat), and a pet cockatiel named Bo Veaner.

On April 9, 2004, Yankovic's parents, Nick, 86, and Mary, 81, were found dead in their Fallbrook, California home, apparently the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning from their fireplace that had been recently lit. The flue was closed, which trapped the carbon monoxide gas inside the house, suffocating them. An hour after his wife notified him of his parents' death, Yankovic went on with his concert in Mankato, Minnesota, saying that "since my music had helped many of my fans through tough times, maybe it would work for me as well" and that it would "at least ... give me a break from sobbing all the time."[4]

It is often noted[5][6] that Yankovic's career in novelty and comedy music has outlasted many of his "mainstream" parody targets, such as Toni Basil, MC Hammer, Men Without Hats and Crash Test Dummies. Furthermore, most novelty artists are often one hit wonders, but Yankovic's continued success (including a top 10 single and album in 2006) has enabled him to escape the "one hit wonder" stigma often associated with novelty music.

A biographical booklet was released with the 1994 box set compilation Permanent Record: Al In The Box.[7]


Yankovic's songs

Main article: List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Yankovic is best known for his song parodies ("Eat It"), though he has actually recorded a greater number of original humorous songs ("You Don't Love Me Anymore" and "One More Minute"). His work depends largely on the satirizing of popular culture, including television (see The TV Album), movies ("The Saga Begins"), food (see The Food Album), popular music (the polkas), and sometimes issues in contemporary news ("Headline News"). Although many of his songs are parodies of contemporary radio hits, it is rare that the song's primary topic of lampooning is that artist. Yankovic's humour lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content, or in pointing out trends or works which have become pop culture clichés.

Unlike other parody artists such as Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman, Weird Al strives to keep the backing music in his parodies the same as the original. While Lehrer reproduced the songs on piano and Sherman reproduced them on guitar, Yankovic and his band essentially play the original song with new lyrics. One example is 2006's Canadian Idiot. The song starts almost identically to American Idiot, and the difference between the songs can go unnoticed until the lyrics begin.

In addition to his parodies, Yankovic also includes a medley of various songs on most albums, each one reinterpreted as a polka, with the choruses or memorable lines of various songs juxtaposed for humorous effect. Yankovic has been known to say that converting these songs to polka was "...the way God intended".

Some of his original songs are pastiches or "style parodies", where he chooses a band's entire body of work to honour/parody rather than any single hit by that band (for example, Devo with "Dare to Be Stupid", or Talking Heads with "Dog Eat Dog"). Sometimes, it is obvious as to which band's style Yankovic is parodying, but often it is subjective. One person may hear influences from one band, while another may hear influences from a different band. Some style parodies are in the style of a genre of music, rather than a specific band.

The Dr. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes, often includes among these unreleased tracks from Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me", or the live version of "School Cafeteria".

Yankovic has put two backmasking messages into his songs: the first, in "Nature Trail to Hell", said "Satan Eats Cheez Whiz"; the second, in "I Remember Larry", said "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."[8]

His latest three album releases feature the longest songs Yankovic has ever released. The "Albuquerque" track from Running with Scissors is 11 minutes and 23 seconds; "Genius in France" from Poodle Hat runs for 8 minutes and 56 seconds; "Trapped in the Drive Thru" from Straight Outta Lynwood is 10 minutes and 53 seconds long. These are often referred to as "epics" by his fans.

Yankovic has contributed original songs to several films ("This Is the Life", from Johnny Dangerously; "Polkamon" from the movie Pokémon: The Movie 2000, and a parody of the James Bond title sequence in Spy Hard), in addition to his own film, UHF. Other songs of his have appeared in films or television series as well, such as "Dare to Be Stupid" in Transformers: The Movie.


Reactions from original artists

Under the "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law - affirmed by the United States Supreme Court ?- one does not need permission to record a parody.[9] However, as a personal rule, Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies, as a means of maintaining good relationships within the music community. While artists are generally pleased with Yankovic's parodies, there have been a few notable exceptions.


Positive

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana said that the band felt they had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana", a parody of the grunge band's smash hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit".[10] Kurt Cobain called Yankovic an American "rock genius" in his private journals. On his Behind the Music special, Yankovic stated that when he called Kurt to ask if he could parody the song Cobain asked, "Will it be about food?" Yankovic responded with "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics." Cobain is then said to have responded with, "O.K. then."

Michael Jackson is also a big fan of Yankovic. Jackson has twice allowed him to parody his songs. When he granted Yankovic permission to do a parody of "Bad" ("Fat"), Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own "Bad" video from the Moonwalker video.[11] Though Jackson was a good sport about "Eat It" and "Fat", he requested that Yankovic not record a parody of "Black or White", because he felt the message was too important. However, Yankovic has performed a concert-only parody "Snack All Night" in his live shows. "Weird Al" also has a cameo appearance, along with many other celebrities, on Jackson's music video for Liberian Girl.

The song "The Saga Begins" (a parody of Don McLean's "American Pie") accurately states the entire plot of The Phantom Menace, despite being written before the film's release. Yankovic got the plot details from rumour websites. He was slightly unsure about Anakin proposing to Amidala, so he attended a $500 screening to confirm. McLean was pleased with the parody (though the rumors that he performs in the video were false); additionally, George Lucas loved the song and a LucasFilm representative told Yankovic "You should have seen the smile on his face."[12]

Chamillionaire also put Weird Al's parody "White & Nerdy" on his official Myspace page saying "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy [...] I didn't know he could rap like that". He also said "It's really an honor when he does that. [...] Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you're not doing it big." [13]

Negative

One of Yankovic's most controversial parodies was 1996's "Amish Paradise", based on "Gangsta's Paradise" by hip-hop artist Coolio. Reportedly, Coolio's label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. Complicating the issue further, "Gangsta's Paradise" already samples heavily from a Stevie Wonder song, "Pastime Paradise". While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialised, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. At the XM Satellite Radio booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Yankovic and Coolio made peace. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, "I don't remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly… I doubt I'll be invited to Coolio's next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall."[14]

In 2003, Yankovic was denied permission to make a video for "Couch Potato", his parody of Eminem's "Lose Yourself":

"Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career...".[15]

Refused parodies

On numerous occasions, Prince has refused Yankovic permission to record parodies of his songs. However, Yankovic has stated in interviews that he has "approached him every few years [to] see if he's lightened up".[16]

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a self-proclaimed Yankovic fan, but when Yankovic wished to create a polka medley of Led Zeppelin songs, Page refused. Yankovic, however, was allowed to re-record a sample of "Black Dog" for a segment of "Trapped in the Drive Thru".

Paul McCartney, also a Yankovic fan, refused Yankovic permission to record a parody of Wings' "Live and Let Die", entitled "Chicken Pot Pie", because McCartney is a vegetarian. It has been performed numerous times in concert, however. This is not unusual for Yankovic, as his concerts often feature parodies for which the artist did not give permission or could not otherwise be released. However, all these "concert only" songs remain unreleased by Yankovic.

In 2006, Yankovic gained James Blunt's permission to record a parody of "You're Beautiful". However, after Yankovic had recorded "You're Pitiful", Blunt's label, Atlantic Records, recanted this permission. The parody was pulled from Yankovic's Straight Outta Lynwood due to his label's unwillingness to "go to war" with Atlantic. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody.[17] In the "White & Nerdy" video, Yankovic's character is seen vandalising the record label's Wikipedia entry with the exclamation "YOU SUCK!" After the video was released online, Wikipedia's Atlantic Records article mirrored the video with numerous "vandals" editing it. Yankovic has said that he does not approve of the vandalism, though he admits being amused by it. The page has since been locked by Wikipedia.[18]

Misattribution and imitators

Because Yankovic is arguably the most successful parody artist, songs posted to file sharing networks are often misattributed to Yankovic due to their humorous subject matter. Much to the disdain of Yankovic (known for his clean lyrics), this includes songs that are racist, sexually explicit, or otherwise offensive. A young listener who had heard several of these offensive tracks by way of a file sharing service confronted Yankovic online, threatening a boycott due to his supposedly explicit lyrics.[19] Quite a few of the songs, such as "Star Wars Cantina," "Star Wars Gangsta Rap," "Yoda Smokes Weed," "Chewbacca, What a Wookie", "The Devil Went Down to Jamaica" and several more, have a Star Wars motif.[20] The large number of Star Wars related songs attributed to him is somewhat surprising, as to date Yankovic has only sung two Star Wars related songs: a parody of The Kinks hit "Lola", called "Yoda", and of Don McLean's "American Pie" about The Phantom Menace called "The Saga Begins". There are also others such as "Windows 95 Sucks", and "I Ran Over the Taco Bell Dog". In addition, some of these parodies are only a minute long.

Yankovic cites these misattributions as "his real beef with P2P sites":

"If you do a search for my name on any one of those sites, I guarantee you that about half of the songs that come up will be songs I had absolutely nothing to do with. That particularly bothers me, because I really try to do quality work, and I also try to maintain a more-or-less family-friendly image - and some of these songs that are supposedly by me are just … well, vulgar and awful. I truly think my reputation has suffered in a lot of people's minds because of all those fake Weird Al songs floating around the Internet.[21]"

A list of songs not by Yankovic can be found at The Not Al List. Alternatively, a list of all commercially released songs recorded by Yankovic can be found on his website's Recording Dates Page.


Weird Al Star Fund

The Weird Al Star Fund is a campaign started by Yankovic's fans to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Their mission is to "solicit, collect, and raise the necessary money, and to compile the information needed for the application to nominate 'Weird Al' Yankovic for a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame." Fans worldwide have sent donations to raise the $15,000 needed for a nomination. In addition to the preferred method of cash donations, many methods were used to raise money for the cause, such as a live benefit show held April 11, 2006, and selling merchandise on the official website and eBay, including t-shirts, calendars, and cookbooks. On May 26, 2006, the campaign hit the $15,000 target -- just 5 days before the May 31, 2006 deadline to submit the necessary paperwork. However, Yankovic was not included on the list of inductees for 2007.[22] His application will automatically be reconsidered in 2007 for the possibility of receiving his star in 2008