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Where | KRCB-Windsor, 91.1 and 90.9 (Wait a minute! WINDSOR!!?) | ||
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Once there was a man named Buckley - Richard Myrle Buckley - born a few months before my own father, in 1906. His father was from England, his mother from California and his birthplace was Tuolumne, California. Growing up in the high Northern California redwoods, Richard became a lumber jack, what was called a "tree topper," whittling those great trees down to size before they were felled. But his ambitions lay elsewhere, and in the early 1920s, young Richard ran off to the American cities to become a nightclub entertainer.
Richard had a secret - he was hip. As a matter of fact, he was hipper than hip and, borrowing from history and from classic literature, he invented a hipster world, telling the stories of different versions of famous people, with different names and somewhat twisted personae, turning Jesus Christ into The Nazz, Mahatma Gandhi into The Hip Gahn, William Shakespeare into Willie the Shake, and the Spanish explorerer Cabeza de Vaca into Cabenza de Gasca, The Gasser.
Lord Buckley (that was his new name) flourished in the jazz clubs of the 40s and 50s. One evening in the late 50s, friends asked me to come with them to the Coffee Gallery in San Francisco's North Beach. Somehow, it seemed too much trouble, and I turned them down. I've cursed myself ever since, because that was my last chance to experience him in person, and I blew it. Shortly after, the Lord was busted for falsifyin information to get a cabaret card in New York. This marked the beginning of his downward plunge and, in November, 1960, he suffered a stroke and left this sphere.
Lord Buckley left this world leaving behind the material for four record albums. Fortunately, I've managed to acquire and retain all four, and on Friday, March 1, 8 to 10 PM, I'll be presenting selected jewels from these treasures to KRCB's listeners. Something Completely Richard Myrle ":Lord" Buckley. Please join me.