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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZBUCKLEY, LORD(b Richard Myrle Buckley, 5 April '06, Tuolumne CA; d 12 Nov. '60, NYC) Comedian, though the word is inadequate for what he did. Of Anglo descent, he began busking in the streets with his sister as a child, worked as a lumberjack, joined a troupe of travelling musicians, became a successful vaudevillian and later the Charlie Parker of the mouth, compared to Walt Whitman and Jackson Pollock. Al Capone set him up in a club in Chicago during Prohibition; during the Depression he emceed walkathons with Red Skelton (similar to dance marathons); in the late '40s he set up a Royal Court wherever he was, dubbing his sixth wife Lady and himself Lord Buckley and perfecting his mature style: he used the patois of the black jazz world in monologues, interpreting organized religion, big business, racism etc, anticipating Lenny Bruce in many ways. Delivery was important and the humour will be flat on the page, but there was a deep humanity in it: '...all cats and kitties, red white or blue, are created level in front'. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus becomes 'the Nazz' and prefaces his miracles with 'What's de matter wid you, baby?' Shakespeare became 'Willie the Shake', and the soliloquy from Julius Caesar transformed: 'Hipsters, flipsters and finger- poppin' daddies, knock me your lobes!' In '50 he went west, played a bit part in film We're Not Married '52 and a walk-on in Spartacus '60; he appeared on the Ed Sullivan show several times. Back in New York in October '60 he was dragged off the stage by the police for a cabaret card violation (an arrest for drunkenness in Reno 19 years earlier), then died of a heart attack. Bob Dylan used Buckley's 'Black Cross' in early shows, and the infl. is heard in 'Highway 61 Revisited': 'God said to Abraham, Kill me a son' etc. His spirit can be heard in the work of Tom Waits, Jerry Garcia, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, George Harrison ('Crackerbox Palace') and others such as comic/actor Robin Williams. C. P. Lee, former member of Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, did one-man show M'Lords And Ladies '82 in Buckley's style; Frank Spelser another show in '95; fans gathered every year in Santa Barbara with the Royal Family (Lady Elizabeth Buckley d 18 Jan. '96). World Pacific LPs incl. Lord Buckley: Blowing His Mind (And Yours Too), Bad Rapping Of The Marquis de Sade and In Concert, all once reissued on Demon LPs; Euphoria was on Vaya, Hipsters, Flipsters and Finger Poppin' Daddies on RCA, others on Hip and Elektra; cassette Lord Buckley Live on Shambhala Lion Editions; CDs incl. A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat on Straight. (Thanks to Oliver Trager.) |