A Case Of Lone Star.

It is a rainy dark Sunday evening. I haven’t ventured out much recently because I’ve been recovering from a nasty virus. So, I haven’t got a lot to tell you about. When there wasn’t anything worth watching on the telly, I passed the time reading. A few days ago, because I felt quite ill I didn’t want to read anything too taxing for my brain so I picked up this book called The Kinky Friedman Crime Club by Kinky Friedman. I had bought the book for £1 in a charity shop in Warminster several months ago and had forgotten about it. The reason I bought it was because it was signed ‘For Shirley, All Best Wishes, The Kinkster 6.22.92’ (See picture) I didn’t know anything about this writer, but something in the back of my mind thought there was a vague connection with Bob Dylan. I thought it might be worth a few quid, and when I looked on eBay was pleased to see that signed copies were on sale for £25. The book is a collection of three of his previous novels in one UK edition published by Faber & Faber in 1992. 

Before I started reading it, I looked up Kinky Friedman on Wikipedia to learn more about him. It told me that Richard Samet "Kinky" Friedman (November 1, 1944 – June 27, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, novelist, humourist, politician, and columnist for Texas Monthly, who styled himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. Friedman was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election. Receiving 12.6% of the vote, Friedman placed fourth in the six-person race. In early 1976, he joined Bob Dylan on the second leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. In 1973, Friedman had formed his second band, Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys, which many took to be a play on the name of the famous band Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. When I looked on youtube I was pleased to find a video of Kinky and Dylan playing together although I didn’t think the song was all that great. (See video below) Wiki also said that after his music career stalled in the 1980s Kinky shifted his creative focus to writing detective novels. His books have similarities to his song lyrics, featuring a fictionalized version of himself solving crimes in New York City and dispensing jokes, wisdom, recipes, charm, and Jameson's whiskey in equal measure. They are written in a straightforward style which owes a debt to Raymond Chandler. 

The Kinky character views himself as a latter-day Sherlock Holmes and he is aided in his investigations by his close friend Larry Sloman aka Ratso who assumes the role of Dr. Watson. The first book in the collection is called A Case Of Lone Star. It involves a series of killings in a New York Country Music club. The killer leaves clues to taunt the investigators by sending them lyrics from Hank Williams songs. I quite enjoyed it and it held my attention to the end because I was as keen as Kinky to find out who the killer was. Kinky certainly isn’t in the same class as Chandler or Dashiell Hammett in the genre of hard-boiled fiction, but he was quite amusing. There are two more stories in the collection which I haven’t read yet, and I don’t know if I ever will either, but you never know.

Kinky was quite a character. In 2004, he began an ostensibly serious, though colourful, campaign to become the Governor of Texas in 2006. One of his stated goals was the "dewussification" of Texas. Among his campaign slogans were "How Hard Could It Be?", "Why The Hell Not?", "My Governor is a Jewish Cowboy", and "He ain't Kinky, he's my Governor", a play on "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". His heart was in the right place though because he founded Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch located near Kerrville, Texas whose mission is to care for stray, abused and aging animals; to date, the ranch has saved more than 1,000 dogs from animal euthanasia. On June 27, 2024, it was announced that Friedman had died at his home at Echo Hill Ranch, Medina, Bandera County, Texas, from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 79.

Kinky & Bob.

 

Bob Dylan & Kinky Friedman, Sold Americans 1991

The Wild Children (Born In 1945)

Happy new year. My hope is that 2025 brings an end to the horrific wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and elsewhere in the world. Eighty years ago, in 1945 there was optimism because WW2 was coming to an end. My spirits were lifted today by the news that Neil Young will be headlining Glastonbury Festival again in 2025. It is a welcome return because his appearance in 2009 was one of the most memorable performances ever at Glastonbury. Also, A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Rod Stewart would be playing the Legends spot at Glasto on the Sunday afternoon. This got me thinking because both Rod and Neil were born in 1945. I was reminded that ten years ago I wrote a little piece on this blog page called The Wild Children (Born In 1945). I just re-read the story and found that a lot of it is out of date now, so decided to re-write it for today.

The original inspiration for the story was a song by Van Morrison called Wild Children from Van’s 1973 album Hard Nose The Highway because Van was also born in 1945. As Van sang, ‘We were the wild children born in 1945, When all the soldiers came marching home, Love looks in their eye. Tennessee, Tennessee Williams let your inspiration flow, Let it be around when we hear the sound, When the springtime rivers flow, when the rivers flow. Rod Steiger and Marlon Brando Standing with their heads bowed on the side, Crying like a baby thinking about the time James Dean took that fatal ride, took that ride’. Nobody who was lucky enough to be there will ever forget attending the concerts on Cyprus Avenue to celebrate Van’s 70^th birthday. I wonder what events will mark his 80^th birthday?

Another of my music heroes also turns 80 on May 7^th this year which is Christy Moore. Christy is still playing lots of sell-out concerts in Ireland, but sadly doesn’t seem to visit England anymore. I should make the effort to get over to Ireland and see him one of these days. Other notable musicians born in 1945 and still with us include Neil Young’s former bandmate Stephen Stills, Dave Cousins of The Strawbs, Ashley Hutchings of Fairport Convention, Steel Eye Span, & The Albion Band, blues singers Elkie Brooks and Maggie Bell, the last surviving Monkee Mickey Dolenz, Eric Clapton, Richie Blackmore and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, Stu Cook, Doug Clifford and John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, 

Bjorn & Anni-Frid of ABBA, Rita Coolidge, Bob Seger, Keith Jarrett, Pete Townshend of The Who, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Debbie Harry, Kim Carnes, Al Stewart, Jose Feliciano, Bryan Ferry, Don McLean, John McVie of Fleetwood Mac, Eric Stewart of 10CC, & Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine. I think 1945 must have been a vintage year for great musicians to be born. Please listen to Wild Children by Van Morrison below.

 

Wild Children by Van Morrison.

Happy Birthday Patti Smith!

Wishing a very happy birthday to Patricia Lee Smith born on December 30, 1946, and better known to her many admirers as Patti Smith. She is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Patti was described as the ‘High Priestess of Punk’ when her 1975 debut album Horses made her a leader of the punk rock movement with her fusion of rock music and poetry. In recent years Patti has become as renowned as a writer as she is as a musician with the publication of such memoirs as Just Kids and M-Train. It was because of her books that I decided to write a little birthday tribute today to Patti...... You may recall that back in November I wrote a little piece about a trip to Yorkshire when two friends and I visited Sylvia Plath’s grave in the village of Heptonstall. 

Well, only a couple of weeks ago I was researching for an article about Albertine Sarrazin in Patti’s Book of Days, and lo and behold, on Page 512 for October 26 I stumbled across a photo of Patti Smith in the exact same location as us at Sylvia’s graveside. (See photo at top) This is what Patti has also said elsewhere about Sylvia, ‘This is a picture taken at the grave of Sylvia Plath in Heptonstall, taken by Tony Shanahan. I found it in my old copy of Ariel, given to me by Robert, a long time ago. In rereading her poems I am remembering the great impact they had on me at twenty. Half a century later I am still struck by her mastery, her sharp yet silky tongue, the tragic loss of her. I have visited her resting place many times.  In snow, dark with solitude and in sun, shrouded in wildflowers'. ........The Robert referred to there is her late boyfriend, the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Patti seems to have a special affinity with Yorkshire because since finding that photo I have discovered some other interesting links. The town of Hebdon Bridge which is adjacent to Heptonstall has been devastated by floods in recent years. Out of the kindness of her heart Patti played a concert to 190 people in the towns Trades Club and donated all the proceeds to the flood relief fund. 

That isn’t all, because another reason for Patti’s frequent visits to this area is her love of the novels and poetry of the Bronte sisters. (See video below of Patti in Haworth) Some of the lyrics of her biggest hit Because The Night were inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Patti played another concert to a tiny audience in the Schoolhouse in Haworth (see photo) It was the very building where Charlotte Bronte's wedding reception was held in 1854.  Patti donated the money raised to the Bronte Society. 

I also discovered a couple of days ago that Patti isn’t the only great writer and music composer to be born on December 30 because it is also the birthday of Paul Bowles.  On Wikipedia it says, Paul Frederic Bowles, December 30, 1910 – November 18, 1999 was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his life. He studied music with Aaron Copland, and in New York wrote music for theatrical productions, as well as other compositions. He achieved critical and popular success with his first novel The Sheltering Sky (1949), set in French North Africa, which he had visited in 1931. In 1947, Bowles settled in Tangier, and his wife Jane Bowles followed in 1948. Tangier was Bowles's home for the remainder of his life. Bowles died in 1999 at the age of 88. I have never listened to any of Paul Bowles music compositions, but I have read The Sheltering Sky and many of his short stories. It was a friend of mine Fred who introduced me to his work when he gave me a collection of short stories. Coincidentally it was in Fred’s flat in 1976 that I first heard Horses by Patti Smith. I am mentioning all this because Patti also admired Bowles work, and she actually met him. It was quite sad because he was very old then and died only two years later. This is what Patti said about their meeting. (I found these words on a website called The Marginalian.)

I was first introduced to Bowles in a serendipitous way. In the summer of 1967, shortly after I left home and went to New York City, I passed a large box of overturned books spilling out into the street. Several were scattered across the sidewalk, and a dated copy of Who’s Who in America lay open before my feet. I bent down to look, as a photograph caught my eye above an entry for Paul Frederic Bowles. I had never heard of him but I noticed we shared the same birthday, the thirtieth of December. Believing it to be a sign, I tore out the page and later searched out his books, the first being The Sheltering Sky. I read everything he wrote as well as his translations, introducing me to the work of Mohammed Mrabet and Isabelle Eberhardt. Three decades later, in 1997, I was asked by German Vogue to interview him in Tangier. I had mixed feelings about my assignment, for they mentioned he was ill. But I was assured that he had readily agreed and that I would not be disturbing him. Bowles lived in a three-room apartment on a quiet street in a straightforward fifties-modern building in a residential section. A high stack of well-travelled trunks and suitcases formed a column in the entranceway. There were books lining the walls and halls, books that I knew and books I wished to know. He sat propped up in bed, wearing a soft plaid robe, and appeared to brighten when I entered the room. I crouched down trying to find a graceful position in the awkward air. We spoke of his late wife, Jane, whose spirit seemed to be everywhere. I sat there twisting my braids, speaking about love. I wondered if he was really listening.—Are you writing? I asked.—No, I am no longer writing.—How do you feel now? I asked.—Empty, he answered'. ......  

On Wiki I also found out that yet another great person was also born on December 30, but this time in 1879 which was the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi. I discovered him via Eckhart Tolle. I have been reading a book about Ramana Maharshi recently, so I might write about him in 2025. Anyway, happy birthday to the one and only Patti Smith, and don’t forget.... People Have The Power! (I have added a video below of Patti singing a Bob Dylan song from the last time we saw her which was 3 years ago in Bath)

Patti Smith: One Too Many Mornings, (Bob Dylan) Bath Forum, October 2021.

Patti Smith in Haworth, Yorkshire.