I formally Nominate Tiny Tim as BadAss Ukelele God of Life

[DivinBreuvage]

If you doubt me, check out "Santa Claus Has Got the Aids this Year". Rock On, Tiny!!!! We miss you.

[teach1st]

1. OK, I don't have that song...

I do have Tiny Tim in the Beatles studios, doing "Nowhere Man." It's mercifully incomplete:

http://www.tuff-teach.com/pics/tinytim-nowhere.mp3

[DS1]

2. I nominate Zamfir as the BadAss Pan-Pipe God of Life

[DivinBreuvage]

5. Yes, he has sold more records than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined!

Or so I've heard

[southpaw]

24. Yes... it's true!

Before picking up the pan flute, Mr. Zamfir worked in a record store for over 20 years, winning numerous commendations for top sales performance...

so, indeed, he HAS sold more records than Elvis and the Beatles...

[Jack Rabbit]

3. I was in my mid-teens when he appeared on Rowan and Martin's Laugh In

And I can still remember my reaction . . .

What on earth is this?



Photo from TinyTim.org

[DivinBreuvage]

7. Must have been a joyous epiphany. I wish I had been able to witness it!!!

So many Duers have such great experiences! And I sit here with NOTHING. I saw Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Claud Pepper once each, but that is all. :(

[RC]

10. You have to be old to have had the time for all those

great experiences! Your time will come. :P

[DivinBreuvage]

14. Thanks, RC, I hope so

My mother saw George Chakiris in a gas station once, but didn't have the nerve to say anything to him.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. I met him once in a music store.

He was buying the sheet music to 'Like a Virgin'

[DivinBreuvage]

6. Oh, give us details!!!!

Did you talk with him? How was he that day?

I would have loved to hear his version of that song.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. Well that's about it.

I was buying mandolin strings, I heard him request the sheet music from the clerk - to be honest I can't remember clearly whether I interacted with him or not. If so it obviously was a forgettable cliche exchange. He looked just like Tiny Tim in the pics above but 20 years older (this was sometime in the 80's) with, well, quite a bit more heft.

[DivinBreuvage]

9. Oh, too bad. Thanks for answering, though.

He did put on a few pounds later in life, from the pictures I've seen.

[rog]

23. Photo for you

.rog.

:hi:

[BrotherBuzz]

11. I nominate Herbert Khaury

[DivinBreuvage]

13. Well done!

Clever boy.

[BrotherBuzz]

16. Not clever

I just linked some of my crazy neighbor's work. He is the originator of Mickey Rat and I've always been partial to this uke.




Check out the wacky painting section on his site, too.
www.geocities.com/artandnoveltyhut/index.html

[Kat45]

12. I saw Tiny Tim in a club when my friends' band backed him up.

This was in the nineties. While touring, he would hire local musicians to be his backup band (rather than having his own band). There was no soundcheck. No set list. When he began each song, he would shout out the key to the band and they would be expected to follow along, pick up the song. The band did pretty well. (Of course, most of his songs were old-fashioned, somewhat familiar songs; but there were one or two songs where the band didn't have a clue what they were doing--but it still went ok.)

The biggest surprise for me was that he had a really good voice! "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" was the ONLY song on which he used falsetto. The rest, he sang in a normal voice, and it was a good voice. Go figure.

[DivinBreuvage]

15. Great story, notmyprez, thank you!

I can't believe how many people here have actually seen him perform (there have been other Tiny threads here in the past). You're right, he DID have a nice voice when he was singing seriously. Also, he was apparently quite a music scholar and often did versions of songs that had originally been hits by now-forgotten singers of the 1920s in an effort to keep those singers "alive".

[rog]

17. And he could build a set ...

... to a fever pitch, too.

Did you hear him do his "Heartbreak Hotel" finale ... tribute to "Mr. Presley?" How about his version of "I Got You, Babe," where he sang BOTH Sonny AND Cher's part (Cher in falsetto), including the part where the two voices go back and forth real fast at the end (each voice on either side of the mic)? Jaw-dropping! :-)

This was at a one week festival engagement, and he drew standing room crowds for every show at a stage that was located at the far reaches of the grounds. Came out to sign autographs and talk to folks, too. He didn't quit until everyone had left.

He was a genuinely gentle and humble guy. I think about him often.

.rog.

[sadiesworld]

18. I met Tiny Tim about 12-15 years ago.

He was performing at an annual day-after-the-Derby BBQ in Bardstown, KY. Actually he invited me to go to a party in Lexington, but I declined.

He gave me an autographed copy of a "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" 45. I put it on the dash of the car for the ride home and it melted.
:(

[skooooo]

22. oh no!!

Bet Tiny didn't have trouble getting people to go to parties with him in 1969.

Too bad about the record!!!

[sadiesworld]

25. Well, he was a bit past his prime at that point...

Sorry, I was young and hot and he was...talented. I WAS extremely unhappy about the 45 though.

[Fenris]

19. No, that would be Burl Ives

[Brother Buzz]

27. Well, then I nominate Arthur Godfrey as a runner-up!

[CanuckAmok]

20. The best song ever recorded:

Is "Just What do You Mean by 'Antichrist'?", by Current 93 and Nurse with Wound featuring Tiny Tim.

Nobody needs to record music anymore, now that that song has been released. If you download, check it out. It's music, defined.

[Ellen Forradalom]

21. I second that nomination.

I have a live performance by Tiny Tim in Chicago on my iTunes. He was awesome.

[Burma Jones]

26. Tiny Tim has the Distinction of having his talents displayed

on both Laugh In AND Spongebob Squarepants.