Happy 80th Birthday Dave Cousins of Strawbs. Born January 7 1945.

A January Walk.

The news has been full of reports about the weather today. In some areas heavy snow, and flooding in other places. We have had a lot of wind and rain where I live, but not too bad. Finally, today on January 6^th I got out for a walk around Fairwood Lakes. I enjoyed it after being inside for days on end. It was wonderful to feel the wind on my face and breathe some fresh air.

“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand … Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be whatever you are with whatever you have, and realize that that is enough to be happy. There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” – Charlotte Eriksson

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.

Great News: Neil Young To Play Glastonbury 2025!