KINKY
FRIEDMAN
The Jazz Café
Camden Town, London
June 3rd 2008
No
matter what happens to it (apparently someone recently
tried to burn it down), and no matter how gentrified
many of its streets have become, Camden Town remains
a wonderfully seedy part of North London. So, prior
to this gig I had a fifteen-minute wait, sheltering
from the warm summer rain under scaffolding outside
the iconic and always grubby Camden Town tube-station.
There were a few of us there, usurping (much to
their obvious annoyance) the pitches normally occupied
by drug dealers, hustlers and their hangers-on.
It was entertaining enough to watch them play out
a street-scene imitation of Lou Reed’s ‘Dirty
Boulevard’, but depressing to think that young
people find themselves drawn into hopeless dead-end
fantasies rather than fulfil the potential that
lies inside them somewhere. Anyway, I discovered
that with the wisdom that age and maturity brings,
Jozzer and Trizza were somewhere nearby fulfilling
themselves with the half-pints of wine that serve
as regular measures in London bars these days, so
with the Photographer in tow, headed off to the
Jazz Café to meet them.
They
have the dining thing worked out to perfection here
– short and simple menu, good food, sure fire
service and by and large, tables cleared before
the main artist hits the stage.
Just
as well on this occasion, as the hilarity generated
by former Texas gubernatorial candidate, and (according
to him) the State’s only Jewish cowboy, Kinky Friedman,
and his compadres, Lebanese blue-grass guitarist
Washington
Ratso (“together we’re the best
hope for peace the world has got”), and pianist
Little
Jewford (“he’s a Jew and he drives
a Ford”), would have been enough to give any
diner serious indigestion. Friedman is a polymath
of extraordinary proportions – his lineage
in country music goes back to his 1970’s band
Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, who provoked
admiration, angst and anger with provoking satirical
songs such as ‘They ain't makin' Jews like
Jesus any more’.
When
(as might perhaps have been predicted) fame and
fortune failed to come knocking on his door he reinvented
himself as a crime-writer, and has a shelf-load
of novels to his name. He fought the 2006 election
for Governor of Texas as an unaffiliated libertarian
candidate, coming fourth in the poll (out of five
candidates), and may run again in 2010, ‘though
he noted that “God probably couldn't have
won as an independent”. He runs a cigar
business, has his own range
of salsas for sale, saves homeless
animals, and still tours with his band. He is,
as our American cousins sometimes say, ‘a
piece of work’
It’s
a gentle show. We get songs from the Texas Jewboys
days, such as ‘We reserve the right to refuse
service to you’, ‘Homo Erectus’
(which even managed to feature former Kenyan President
Jomo Kenyatta), ‘Get your biscuits in the
oven and your buns in the bed’, ‘Waitret,
please waitret’ (a satire on Texan accents,
which includes the unrepeatable line, “Waitret,
please Waitret, come sit on my fate”) and
‘Asshole from El Paso’, all full-on
jaw-droppingly politically incorrect humour.
Kinky Friedman
But
it’s mixed with more tender songs such as
‘Rapid City South Dakota’, ‘Sold
American’, ‘Farewell first lady of the
air’ (a ballad about Amelia Earhart’s
last flight’), the Carter Family classic ‘Rambling
boy’, Woody Guthrie’s ‘Pretty
Boy Floyd”, and the song that Johnny Cash
made famous, ‘The ballad of Ira Hayes’.
Then there’s ‘Ride ‘em Jew boy’,
sung as a tribute to “the Hillbilly Dalai
Lama” Willie Nelson, who recorded the song
on Friedman’s 2007 album, ‘Why the hell
not?’, a collection of classic Friedman compositions
performed by artistes including, in addition to
the Dalai Lama, the likes of Lyle Lovett and Dwight
Yoakam.
Some
of the songs are funny enough, but of course it’s
Friedman’s shtick, the jokes, reminiscences
and stories, and particularly his interaction with
‘idiot savant’ Jewford that provoke
the laughter. Jewford has an exaggerated TV presenter’s
voice that he uses partly as an echo, and partly
as a one-man Greek chorus to Friedman’s comments
and observations (“You’re welcome Kinky”).
It’s anarchic and somewhat surreal, and as
the evening wears on, painfully funny. Added to
this, of course, are Friedman’s political
tales about his failed campaign. Holding a pint
of Guinness in one hand and a cigar in the other,
he tells us about ‘Guinnessgate’, the
incident during his campaign when he was spotted
with an open can (a violation of the criminal code)
of the black stuff in the back of a car during his
campaign – his plea "I was drinking it
... but I did not swallow." He even reads an
extract from his latest book, You Can Lead A Politician
To Water But You Can't Make Him Think; Ten Commandments
For Texas Politics, which like almost everything
else is for sale at the end of the show (“I’ll
sign anything but bad legislation”). And in
a truly libertarian gesture, he scandalously steps
to the back of the stage and lights his cigar, taking
a few illicit puffs before letting it burn out.
A committed man indeed.
Kinky
Friedman and Little Jewford
I’ve no doubt he and the boys go through the
same stuff each night, but if you haven’t
heard it before it’s vastly entertaining.
And even if you have it’s still a good show
– I reckon more than half of the people in
the very mixed audience have seen him before. The
show ends with ‘Asshole from El Paso’
(“We don’t wipe our asses on Old Glory,
God and Lone Star beer are things we trust. We keep
our women virgins till they’re married, so
hosin’ sheep is good enough for us”),
after which the ‘encore’ is performed
in one-on-one encounters with the very long queue
of fans who wait to meet the Kinkster and get one
of those promiscuous signatures. It simply goes
without saying, should you get a chance, go and
see this man perform. - Nick Morgan (concert
photographs by Kate)
Here's
an old video of 'They Ain't Makin Jews Like Jesus
Anymore'...
