Wednesday, June 19, 2013

On Slim Whitman, 192x? - 2013

I saw several concerts during my years in Portland, Oregon, including concerts by Devo, Jan & Dean, Willie & Kris, and Gregor Samsa. But my favorite concert (sorry, Josh Rosen) was probably the Slim Whitman concert that I saw.

This was during Whitman's infomercial-fueled (and Johnny Carson-fueled) resurgence in popularity, when his name became known to those of us who weren't around during his first bit of popularity in the 1950s. When he appeared in Portland, Slim appeared along with his son Byron, and there was a bit of comedy regarding Byron's attractiveness to the ladies. (Well, Byron was younger than Slim.)

Afterwards, Slim stayed and signed autographs, because that's what you're supposed to do.

A class act in every way.

Slim passed away - for real this time - earlier today. He will be missed, but he will be remembered.

And yes, I still think that Brian Eno is his son, but that theory is for another time.

And no, he never did cover Pink Floyd.

And no, he never formed a supergroup with Martin Gore and Ralph Tomaselli.
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