June 11, 2002

11:02 AM

Hipsters, flipsters, and finger-poppin' daddies,
Knock me your lobes,
I came to lay Ceasar out,
Not to hip you to him.
So says Lord Richard Buckley, a hipster among hipsters , who fused swing jive and beat-era hepcat slang to create some hip and dazzling monologues. The self-proclaimed "Lord" Buckley was "a comic philosopher, a bop monologuist whose vocalese fused the rhythms and patois of the street with the arch sophistication of the British upper-crust to create verbal symphonies unparalleled in their intricacy and dexterity"
posted by vacapinta (11 comments total)

Where have I heard that before (Knock me your lobes...)? It's been sampled somewhere.
posted by Pinwheel at 11:16 AM on June 11, 2002

Great post. My vinyl copy of The Bad Rapping of The Marquis de Sade is most prized. An absolute original.
posted by anathema at 11:46 AM on June 11, 2002

I once read Hamet's Yorick speech rendered into Ebonics once:

From

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times; and now..."

to

"My man Yorick. That dude be crazy, but he save my ass many times."
posted by alumshubby at 12:34 PM on June 11, 2002

Horatio: a fellow

say that fast a few times...
posted by bittennails at 12:39 PM on June 11, 2002

Great link. Now I'm thinking bloggus caesari should go all-beatnik.
posted by D at 1:57 PM on June 11, 2002

a friend turned me on to Lord Buckley a bunch of years ago and I've been a fan ever since.
How can you not like something like:

Wham-bam, Wham-bam.
Roopety, boopety, boop!
Bam-bam, a roop, bam-bam,
a roop,
bam-bam.
A roopety, boopety, boop. POW!

from "Governor Slugwell"
posted by John at 3:50 PM on June 11, 2002

These links are a treasure! The City Lights booklet, Hiparama of the Classics, is hard to find these days. I see there's a Lord Buckley biography also.
posted by sheauga at 4:44 PM on June 11, 2002

Yay!
posted by Optamystic at 5:34 PM on June 11, 2002

Any way to find the actual recordings, as opposed to just the transcriptions?
posted by Rebis at 7:37 PM on June 11, 2002

Rummage sales.
posted by y2karl at 9:38 PM on June 11, 2002

you can find a couple albums over at amazon.
posted by John at 7:56 AM on June 12, 2002