Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I first heard The Nazz, and that's definitely where I'd start turning
people on to Buckley. It's a story practically everyone in our culture
knows and to hear it told sideways opens it up. 

Finished the book last night, and I didn't know a thing about how
Buckley's bust eventually toppled the cabaret card laws in New York.
Among other things, that law kept there from being much of a rock and
roll scene in the mid-60s in New York, which is why far more creative
work got done on the West Coast than in the place many people would
have expected. 

Excellent work! 
  

    
E-mail from Michael Monteleone:

re: first intro to Lord Buckley


I think a very good introduction for anyone to Lord Buckley would be 
to try to lay your hands on a copy of the Studs Terkel interview with 
Lord Buckley (excerpts of which appear in Oliver's Dig Infinity!) 
During that 30 minute interview His Lordship lays a number of 
routines on Studs (and Studs digs it deeply.) Buckley performs 
Hipsters, Flipsters (on the heels of Stud's offering of Marlon 
Brando's  "Friends, Romans, and Countrymen" speech from the film 
version of Julius Caesar). Buckley also riffs on Willie the Shake, he 
does Poe's The Raven, His Majesty the Pedestrian, His Majesty the 
Policemanm, and there is even a snippet of The Gettysburg Address. 
Between these performances Buckley offers a number of observations on 
the Hipesemantic language, on translating classic literature into 
hip, the theatre, vaudeville, the youth of the nation. The interview 
is magical. Studs and The Lord really seems to enjoy each other's 
company. For someone new to Lord Buckley it is great introduction to 
the routines and the Buckley persona. The downside is that I don't 
think the tape is presently available. Studs has donated his 
collection to, I believe, the Chicago Historical Society. The last 
time I checked with them they had yet to move the Buckley interview 
through the proper channels prior to their offering it to the public 
(but that was a least a year ago). A substitute, albeit a poor one, 
is to read a transcription of  the interview at lordbuckley.com in 
the Speak the Jive section.

Another possibility, in the interview vein, is the Pacifica Radio 
interview with Bill Butler. This radio ression is a lively romp in 
which Lord Buckley at first overwhelms the rather square host Bill 
Butler. Gradually though Butler gets a bit hipper and with it. 
Buckley talks about his early days in show business, talks about his 
newest album release Wayout Humor, and he jumps all over the joint 
with high energy routines. By the end of the interview Bill Butler is 
a convert. I think the interview might be available through Pacifica 
Radio. Try looking up "pacifica.org" on the web. I think they have a 
tape service that might offer the recording.
-- 
Michael Monteleone
  

    
I wonder if I could get that inteview from the Pacifica archive and broadcast
it on KPFA.

In a related vein, I am in New York (see topic 107 for more on why), and I
paid a visit to Oliver in his office today.  After years of corresponding,
and a previous KPFA phne interview (in 1998, when his Grateful Dead book came
out), we met face to face for the first time today!

We are planning a radio show.  Some time in September (and I will post here
when it's confirmed), I will interview oliver about "Dig Infinity!" and we
will hip whoever's listening to some of the magic of Lord Buckley.
  

    

Terrific!
  

    <scribbled by cdb Tue 23 Jul 02 15:07>
  

    
(oops, dreadful typo...)

Speaking of radio shows, I understand you're involved in a semi-annual radio
show that's dedicated to Lord Buckley, Oliver. Also, that perform in a
review (?) called "Dig and Thou Shall Be Dug."

Can you talk about the radio show, and your work with the group performance
of Buckley's material?
  

    
David: It was great to finally get a first person hit of that Gans
magic this afternoon. Through the "GD Hour" and your various projects
over the years, I felt as if I already knew you and I was glad that the
man I met and his work were, like Buckley's, pretty close to what I
always imagened. And yeah, as you broadcast on a Pacifica station, use
of the 1959 Buckley-Butler KPFA interview probably won't be too
difficult to swing.

And Cynthia, what David and I discussed will probably not be too
different (albeit perhaps somewhat more choreographed) from the
appearances I've made on WBAI (NYC's own Pacifica affiliate) or on WFMU
(our truly fab and famous free form music station braodcasting out of
Jersey City. On those shows (Bob Fass's "Radio Unnameable" on BAI and
my friend Doug Schulkind's "Give the Drummer Some" on FMU) I've
generally shown up with my stash of common and rare Lord B., spun some
wax and given some decent 101. I always like to try and balance the
presentation with the typical indocternation material (i.e. "The Nazz,"
"Jonah," "Hipsters, Flipsters") and the more arcane for the freaks
hungering for the rarities.

Semi-millennial would be a better way of describing the frequency with
which I've presented "Dig and Thou Shall Be Dug." Over the years, I've
met quite a few A-list Buckley interpretor/imiatator/channelers who
really nail his work. So I used to gather them in NYC, promote the gig
through word-of-mouth or whatever and give them all enough stage time
to do at least one and usually more bits. The last major presentation
transpired back in '96 and we had about seven including myself (I do a
pretty bad-ass version of "The Gasser" and an okay "Black Cross") and a
live band run through a gamut of Buckley's best. ABout two hundred
people came seemed to dig. Michael M. has some cool images taken from a
couple of videos shot that night posted on lordbuckley.com (check out
"filmstrip"). Tom Calagna emerged from that night with a one-man show
that he presented periodically over the next couple of years so I held
back from further productions as I felt his show was worthy and natural
outgrowth of my efforts. With the publication of "DI!", however, I am
considering reentering the performance fray with a similar production
perhaps next spring in time for Lord B's 97th birthday.
  

    <scribbled by tnf Tue 23 Jul 02 19:26>
  

    

Lemme try that again...

 > And yeah, as you broadcast on a Pacifica station, use of the 1959 Buckley-
 > Butler KPFA interview probably won't be too difficult to swing.

 I will certainly look into it!

Great to meet you, too, Oliver.
  

    

I just have to step out of my horrendously busy schedule to squeeze in a
plug for Oliver's fantastic "American Book of the Dead: The Definitive
Grateful Dead Encyclopedia," one of my favorite GD reference works, one I
refer to often when doing the radio show on KPFK. I have "Dig Infinity!" but
haven't cracked it open yet. But those of you into Grateful Deadiana should
not be without Mr. Trager's excellent encyclopedia.

So hello to Oliver--I have good memories of the interview we did a couple of
years ago.

And also a major shout out to our interviewer Michael Simmons, a dear friend
and man of many more talents than most of you reading this realize. One day
his total greatness will be revealed!


That's all. Now I've got to put my twice-broken nose back to the grindstone!

I'm loving this interview guys. Keep going!
  

    
     Thank you, Shmo.  
     Oliver, have there been any previous bios of Buckley?  Also, how
much unreleased performance tape is there?
  

    
Kosher: Nice to hear from you again and yes, I remember our interview
fondly. And thanks for the plug for my GD book. Wait'll ya see my Dylan
Encyclopedia...I think it's even better.

Michael: Nothing close to a biography was ever attempted. The first
lengthy sources of biographical info I cam across were Albert Goldman's
1969 article in "Life" mag, a fairly lengthy section in Phil Berger's
social history of standup, "The Last Laugh," and a very good article in
a 1983 edition of the "L.A. Reader."

Re: the amount of unreleased material. In pure number of hours, we've
probably collected upwards of about twenty hours of material. That's a
thumbnail.

Also back to that Nasby guy...godd work Michael M in tracking down
that quote. I love that stuff! I hear "Governor Slugwell" in Nasby's
rap: that double-talkin', flim-flammin' word-twistin'
snake-in-the-grass. I doubt Lord B ever came across this character but
who knows?
  

    
I'm sort of holding any comments down until I hear back about a review
of this and the new Bill Hicks bio I pitched to a magazine, but I'm
curious what happened to Buckley's three kids. 

Also, in the next edition of the book (which I'm sure there will be),
it'd be nice to have a page with the track-listing of the CD on it: I
converted someone to Buckley yesterday, but I had to keep opening the
CD player to figure out which track was which. Minor quibble, but... 
  

    
Yeah, I would like to have seen some more documentation on the CD's contents,
too.
  

    

Michael Monteleone writes:


Berliner,

re: Buckley kinder


There are three royal offspring: Fred, Laurie and Richard Jr. They all live
in Southern California.

Fred, at present, works as a leather restorer for very fine and fancy
automobiles. He is a sweet fellow, as tall as his dad and eerily similar in
appearance. He even has some of His Lordship's vocal capacity. Fred
accompanied Roger Mexico and I to our Jonathan Winters interview last year
where he immediately elevated Jonathan to the peerage (since 1958 Winters had
to be satisfied with Lord Buckley's declaration that he was Prince Jon). Fred
also accompanied us to visit Prince Lewis' (Lord Buckley's last aide de camp)
compound out in the desert near Las Vegas. He and Lewis had not seen each
other in 40 years. That was quite the meeting. Two old hipster warriors
sitting in the shade of a  ramshackle house, talking about this gig here and
that gig there and the radio and video and all that jazz.

Laurie recently moved to Southern California from Las Vegas to help support
her daughter's pregnancy and to be there for the birth. Laurie has two
children.  By Laurie's own report, she has pursued a number of different
tracks, among them work in prisons doing some kind of psychologically based
therapy. She has been a publicist and publicity consultant in Las Vegas. Over
the years she has developed some rather intricate and mind twisting theories
about life, the universe and everything. She has been working on a book about
her father for a great long while now.

I'm not sure what Richard Jr. does these days. He surfaces on occasion to
fire a shot off one port bow or the other. By reports, he is a pretty good
guitar player. He produced "Lord Buckley Live" a tape issued by Shamabala
Records.
--
Michael Monteleone
lordbuckley.com
  

    
     Oliver, you've written the consummate Lord Buckley biography and
artifact.  Any other Buckley projects in the future?  Can you discuss
your Dylan encyclopedia?  Any major scoops contained therein?  Any
comments on other upcoming Trager works?
  

    
I'd like to see the various other projects we've discussed (a feature
film, Michael M.'s docu, the release of the out-of-print/rare Buckley
material, an all-star tribute album) and anything else that may come up
move forward and I plan to lend my efforts to making them all happen
some day.

Like but better than my Grateful Dead encyclopedia, the Dylan
encyclopedia is a massive, song-by-song, album-by-album A-Z listing of
all things Dylan with more of a focus of the music, the lyrics, the
roots, etc. than yet another biographical rehash. Every Dylan song
every released, every album he has released or ever appeared on, every
song he has ever covered, etc. has an entry in the tome. So while the
interested reader might find a extensive critique of, say, "Tangled Up
In Blue," there is also a couple of pages on the roots of "Froggie Went
A-Courtin" or even the story of this Lord Buckley guy and his place in
the Dylan oevre. Each song entry also includes a short discrography of
what albums the song can be found on similar in format to "The
American Book of the Dead."

I've begun to focus some effort on screenplays. I wrote a wild one
earlier this entitled "The Book of Mojo," which is a recasting of "The
Saragossa Manuscript" (Jerry Garcia's favorite film) as an American
folk opera/Good Samaritan tale taking place in the last days of the war
of 1812. As you may have guessed, its pretty trippy. If anyone wants
to read it, I'd be happy to shar and it comes along with a tape (you
can keep it!) of all the songs (both ancient and not so) incorporated
into the play. Think "O Brother" meets "Star Wars." I'm also working on
a recasting of Kurosawa's "Ikuru" in post 9/11 NYC, a baseball
screenplay ("Babe Ruth Goes to Mars") and a story involving Ezra Pound.
So, as you can see, a series of totally biazzare and
nearly-impossible-to realize projects but what else is new?

BTW, I had the chance to see David Gans perform down at the Lion's Den
in the Village last night and just want to give a shout out for my
main and a truly wonderful show full of passion, conviction, humor,
heart, good times and good will...kind of like this band I used to go
and hear. A egalitarian mix of originals and covers (some predictible
others not) David really put it out there. I think he played for near
two hours. This is probably not the space to gush too much but if Gans
swings to a Shakedown Street near you, check him out. Also got to meet
some of my secret heroes Dan Levy who ran a great little press Citadel
Underground back in the late 1980s/early 1990s and Gary Lambert who
edits "The Grateful Dead Almanac." Inspiration moved me brightly!
  

    
Thank you for coming to my show, O.T., and thank you for such a kind summary!

Your "Book of Mojo" sounds intriguing as hell, and the rest of these projects
you mention are also quite interesting!

Is tehre a pub date form the Dylan book?
  

    
Whoa! <danlevy> is Dan Levy from Citadel Underground! Why didn't I
make that connection? Thanks for pointing that out, Oliver! 
  

    
That's the guy!
  

    
We knew him when!
  

    

None other!

It was great to meet Oliver last night, and hello Michael!  and, yes, Ed
it is I...

It's been a long time since Citadel Underground but of course will never
forget that Ed is a charter member of CUBA (Citadel Underground Board of
Advisors).
  

    
Did I ever offer any advice? Since you're still alive, I know you
probably didn't heed it... 
  

    

Your advice came in the form of accepting some free books!  But was 
always most appreciated, as I was a longtime reader of yours.
  

    
     Hey Dan, glad to know you're here with us.  While we have you,
what are you up to?  Any plans to collect rare McKenna in book form? 
Last time I saw you was at Esalen w/Pesce, Rushkoff, Davis, Dennis
McKenna and the rest of Terry's Kids.