Nat king cole, Nature Boy
#iladri
Now, dear @[G], @turkish, and @Tam, I know you have enough material for ten broadcasts, but this is a story too beautiful not to be (re)told. In fact, I'm (re)posting an old listening...
Eden Ahbez - Nature Boy
Do you know the gigantic Hollywood sign that towers over Los Angeles? That’s where George Aberle lived, camping out, even before he became eden ahbez (strictly all lowercase because capital letters are only for God and Infinity). Record executives realized this when they sought him out for the rights to his hits! A vegetarian and Buddhist, philosopher and musician, he lived off what grew on that hill and claimed to need no more than three dollars a week. And not because he was poor: the mere "Nature Boy" guaranteed him millionaire royalties. Nat "King" Cole brought it to success, but after him, everyone sang it (and they still do): from Sinatra to Marvin Gaye, from Grace Slick to Cher, from Alex Chilton to Bowie and Miles Davis and Coltrane... It’s easier to say who hasn’t sung it.
And he wasn’t even doing it because it was trendy; it wasn’t the '60s yet. It was before, long before the Hippies and the flower children. His son and wife also lived under the "L" of Hollywood.
But it wasn’t just a stroke of luck; the guy also wrote for Sam Cooke and Frankie Laine and quite a few others.
He recorded two LPs ("eden's Island" and the posthumous "Echoes from Nature Boy") and a few singles (I think three), with which he invented that "exotica" which would then become psychedelia.
Really quite a character.
He died at 87 due to a car accident.
Damn modernity!

Now, this doesn’t fit all the parameters just because good old eden wasn’t poor: he chose to be poor!
But it’s still fantastic (in my opinion), and the piece is too beautiful as well as famous.