A Brief Biography of
Lord Buckley
by Oliver Trager, author of Dig Infinity: The Art and Life
of Lord Buckley (reprinted with permissions)
Before
Cool (B.C.) there was Lord Buckley, the original viper, the Hall
of Fame Hipster, the baddest beatnik, the first flower child,
the premier rapper. Though he was best known for his "hipsemantic"
translations of Bible stories, Shakespeare soliloquies and historical
figures in the 1950s, Buckley's career as an entertainer stretched
back to his hardscrabble, turn-of-the-century roots in Tuolumne,
California, a tough outpost in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
where he sang on the street corners busking for small change
from passing roughnecks.
Warp speed to the 1930s, '40s and beyond in a scattershot career that carried him from the Walkathons, Capone's murkiest Sin City dives and tours with Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, and Ed Sullivan's U.S.O. troupe to performances on bebop's first stages and vaudeville's last. Somewhere along the way, Buckley became a Lord (as true to the tradition of American popular music royalty as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and King Oliver before him and Elvis "The King" Presley, Prince and Queen Latifah after) and created the Royal Court--a kingdom in miniature replete with his own peculiar sense of protocol and a lifestyle that might conservatively be described as libertine.
Buckley assumed the manner of an English nobleman, becoming a most immaculately hip aristocrat with a mischievous Holy Man/trickster twinkle in his eyes, twirling his Daliesque mustache and sleekly drawing on his de rigueur Lucky Strike--his massive, graceful frame cloaked in a tuxedo, a fresh carnation attached smartly to the lapel.
By 1950 he had fully spit-shined the style he had been honing for twenty years, taking the Svengali-like persona of "His Lordship" wherever he swung. The classic Lord Buckley raps recast history and mythology into a patois cross-pollinating scat, black jive, and the King's English. This odd alchemy yielded spectacular results such as "The Nazz" (as in Nazzarene), a cool Gospel of Christ and his disciples, which revealed Buckley's gifts and power in all their blazing glory.
In addition to "The Nazz," Buckley employed his distinctive and compelling brogue to salute Gandhi ("The Hip Gahn"), Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca ("The Gasser"), The Old Testament ("Jonah and the Whale"), ancient Rome ("Nero"), Edgar Allen Poe ("Po' Eddie and the Bugbird"), Albert Einstein ("The Hip Einie"), William "Willie The Shake" Shakespeare ("Hipsters, Flipsters and Finger-Poppin Daddies"), Charles Dickens ("Scrooge"), Abraham "Lanky Linc" Lincoln ("Gettysburg Address"), and the Marquis de Sade ("The Bad-Rapping of. . . ").
Alternately, Lord Buckley crafted other forms of expression which drew on Americana ("The Train"), pathology ("Murder"), psychology ("Subconscious Mind"), politics ("Governor Slugwell"), racial inequity ("Black Cross"), sexuality ("Chastity Belt"), and transcendence ("God's Own Drunk").
Capturing the post-World War II exuberance of bebop and the Beats, Buckley anticipated the civil rights struggles by a decade and hippies by two. The essence embedded in Buckley's best both satirically condemn social ills and identify enlightening solutions. Even today, if given the chance, Buckley could raise the hackles of both the Religious Right and the Politically Correct for all the wrong reasons.
In October 1960, Buckley was holding court at the Jazz Gallery in New York's East Village and was warmly received by the city's entertainment press. But, for reasons that to this day remain shrouded in mystery and controversy, things soured for the fifty-four-year-old entertainer. Buckley was dragged from the stage of the Jazz Gallery in late October by several of New York's Finest because of an alleged cabaret card violation, an antiquated statute that prevented not only performers but all restaurant and club employees from working if they had a police record.
Unemployed, tired and caught between at least two opposite but powerful camps, His Lordship's health failed. On November 12, 1960 he died of what was officially reported as a stroke, though there are many other theories and conflicting versions of Buckley's last days.
Since then, Buckley's name and
routines have been magically invoked by the modern hipnoscente
like a sorcerer's talisman. Like all underground heroes, Lord
Buckley's reputation and artistic contributions have gained power
through the decades. Lord Buckley boldly crossed the ill-defined
frontier from icon to myth, taking the language of his art and
investing it with new intensity, color and consequence.
For the new Princes and Princesses just arriving at the Castle doors, proceed with caution. Listen not for a traditional punchline (there are none) but for buoyant, earthy soul of the man and his sermons. For Royal Court dignitaries and jesters returning to the Church Of The Living Swing, welcome back. And for all "People Worshippers" everywhere: Dig Infinity!
Find out so much more about Lord Buckley's life and recordings at www.lordbuckley.com
To read about the Lord Buckley Reincarnation Ensemble, click here!
