Today, Thursday June 29, is the birthday of Louis Burton Lindley, Jr.,
but most people who remember him know him by his stage name Slim Pickens.
Happy birthday, Slim!
Pickens, who died in 1983, was born in Kingsburg, Arizona in 1919. His dad was
a dairy farm and young Louis took a quick interest in horses -- he allegedly
got his first horse at the age of four -- and eventually was drawn to the
rodeo.
According to his obituary in
The New York Times,
"Mr. Pickens came naturally by his ability to play saddle tramps and range
bums, for before he got his first Hollywood role he had spent 20 years as a
rodeo bronco buster, trick rider and clown."
According to that obit:
Mr. Pickens said that when he dropped out of school at the age of 16 to
join a rodeo: ''My father was against rodeoing and told me he didn't want
to see my name on the entry lists ever again. While I was fretting about
what to call myself, some old boy sittin' on a wagon said, 'Why don't you
call yourself Slim Pickens, 'cause that's shore what yore prize money'll
be.''
Indeed, his pickins were slim in the rodeo biz for 20 years or so. But in 1950
he lucked out when film director William Keighley saw him perform at a
rodeo and offered him a screen test. He was hired for Keighley's Rocky Mountain
starring Errol Flynn. He played a character named "Plank."
No, Slim didn't get his name on the poster
He became the ultimate cowboy character actor, appearing in countless westerns,
mostly as a comical sidekick. He also made a ton of t.v. appearances in shows
from Annie Oakley to Circus Boy to McMillan and Wife to
B.J. and The Bear.
But undoubtedly Pickens is best known for his role in Stanley Kubrick's 1964
dark political comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. There, as B-52 pilot Major T. J. "King" Kong, he made his greatest
rodeo ride of his career as , riding a nuclear bomb like a bucking bronco into
eternity.
But this is a music blog, and Slim Pickens also was a recording artist --
albeit a late-blooming one. And a friend of mine -- seriously -- had a lot to
do with that.
New Mexico singer/satirist and my longtime pal Jim Terr is responsible for
nearly all of Slim Pickens' slim discography.
Terr says he first met the actor in the 1970s at the Burbank Airport ("I
think," Terr adds). At the time, Terr says "I couldn't even think of his name.
I said, `Aren't you in the movies?' " To which Pickens responded And
"Why, I haven't been in the movies since, oh, about 9 o'clock this morning
over at Warner Brothers."
Terr continued: "I immediately had the idea of trying to get him to do a line
as `the Sheriff' on The Last Mile Ramblers''s song, `The Hurrier I Go.' I
talked to him on the plane (we were on the same flight), and he said heck
yeah."
But Terr recalled, "I had a hard time catching up with him when he was
here, hunting with his buddy [then Governor] Bruce King," who Terr notes had a
voice very similar to Pickens'. " I finally buttonholed him in the men's room
of the Albuquerque airport when he was departing."
He not only "buttonholed" Pickens, he recorded the old cowpoke's line right
there in the Sunport restroom!
After that the idea for a Pickens album was born, and in 1977 Slim Pickens was released on Terr's Blue Canyon label. As it turned out this would be
Slim's only album ever to be released, though Terr said Pickens also recorded
many unreleased tracks with Willie Nelson. Pickens also recorded a Christmas
song, which you'll see below.
Terr recalled Pickens cutting a bunch of local radio station IDs to promote
the album): "This is Slim Pickens and when I'm in Salt Lake I listen to
[whatever the station was]." Then he turned to Terr saying "God, I hope I'm
never in Salt Lake."
Here's Slim blowing harmonica with Festus in the Dodge City Jail -- perhaps
awaiting extradition to Salt Lake City -- on the beloved TV western
Gunsmoke:
Slim sings a Kinky Friedman song:
The writer of this song, Guy Clark, reportedly said Slim's take on his
masterpiece his favorite version:
The only other record Pickens released after his Blue Canyon album was this
maudlin Christmas song in 1980 -- which I'm surprised didn't become (an
ironic) smash hit on Dr. Demento's show:
Here's The Last Mile Ramblers, the band that, as I've often said, provided
much of the soundtrack for my drunken college years. Slim's restroom cameo is
at the end of the song:
The only other record Pickens released after his Blue Canyon album was this
maudlin Christmas song in 1980 -- which I'm surprised didn't become (an
ironic) smash hit on Dr. Demento's show:
Though Slim didn't appear on this song (he'd been dead for nearly 30 years), The
Offspring still paid tribute to the actor's greatest moment in
Dr. Strangelove:
Finally, while looking last week for Slim Pickens songs for this post, I
discovered that there was another Slim Pickens, a country bluesman whose real
name was Eddie Burns. Here's a song from this Slim Pickens:
Sunday, June 25, 2023 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Blowin' My Top by The Waco Brothers
Night Train From Chicago by The Jesters
Moonshine Runner by Churchwood
You're Humbuggin' Me by Ronnie Dawson
RNR Jungle Girl by Ana Threat
Black Metal by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
The Eggplant That Ate Chicago by Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band
Two Stepping and Tacos by Dave Del Monte & The Cross County Boys
A Friend Of Mine by Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives
Tomorrow, June 22, 2023, will be the 76th birthday of Howard Kaylan, though
everyone knew him as Eddie.
Kaylan, a native New Yorker, first rose to fame in the mid sixties band The
Turtles. First touted as a 'folk-rock group (their first hit was a
Bob Dylan song), The Turtles today are best known for their schlock-rock juggernaut "Happy
Together."
A book I haven't read
So it was surprising to me -- and I assume millions of Frank Zappa fans across
God's gray Earth -- when Kaylan and fellow Turtles singer Mark Volman turned
up in 1970 as the new frontmen for The Mothers of Invention.
And in their new band Kaylan & Volman were christened "The Phlorescent
Leech & Eddie," later shortened to "Flo & Eddie."
According to Wikipedia -- and I cringe when I write those words -- Kaylan originally was The
Phlorescent Leech.
But he and Volman "were appalled to learn that the printer
had mistakenly printed the duo's stage names in the wrong order above their
photograph. ... The label refused to reprint the cover, saying that it would
cost too much money. Thus, Kaylan and Volman decided to professionally swap
stage names."
(Wikipedia attributes this anecdote to Kaylan's 2013 autobiography
Shell Shocked. I haven't read it, so I can't verify it. It might be
true but it's
always good to be skeptical of Wikipedia
as a sole source.)
Besides their solo work and their efforts with Zappa and The Turtles, Kaylan
and Volman also contributed background vocals to an impressive array of
musical acts, a few examples being T. Rex (on "Get it On"); Bruce Springsteen
"Hungry Heart"); and a couple of songs on The Ramones' Mondo Bizarro.
But let's look at some tunes where Flo and Eddie -- whichever is which -- are out
front:
Here's a tune, from Zappa's 200 Motels, that I believe is one of the best
non-comedy tracks from Zappa's Flo-and-Eddie period.
"I'm coming over shortly because I am a portly...":
"WE ARE NOT GROUPIES!":
Here are Flo & Eddie riffing on an old classic. Ethel Merman would be
proud:
Finally, here are the boys singing a Beach Boys song with one of their idols they mentioned in the
above version of The Mothers' groupie routine:
Sunday, June 18, 2023 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Papa Was A Steel-Headed Man by Robbie Fulks
I Got Ants In My Pants by James Brown
Burnin' Hell by The Fleshtones
Hot Tamale Baby by Buckwheat Zydeco
Sunday You Need Love by Oblivians
Sixty Minute Man by Jerry Lee Lewis
Papa Won't Leave You, Henry by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
