Talk:Eden ahbez

Irony
From the article: There is nothing in the article to explain why his being hit by a car is ironic. func (talk) 15:50, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * "Ironically, he died in 1995 after being hit by a car."


 * those Irony-impaired souls can but meditate on this ineffable koan of an urban mystic hermit meeting his maker by being hit by a car.


 * I'm sorry, but you are going to have to explain the irony to me and others who are irony-impared. Might I suggest you begin by looking at an actual dictionary definition of irony: irony. Secondly, you stated that the article is plagiarized, could you provide us with a link or the name of the work where you believe the content was stolen from? Thank you. Func( t, c, @,) 04:56, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

This user:



has added the word "ironically", (Ironically, he died in 1995 after being hit by a car.), to the article on 3 occations:, ,.

On the first of those occations, he mentioned something in his edit summary about the article being "plagiarized", but has thus far refused to elaborate.

Forgive my being an irony-impaired pedant, but there is simply not enough context in the article to maintain the "irony" statement without qualification. He is not described as a luddite, as being opposed to technology in general or cars in particular. Indeed, he recorded in modern sound studios, and he and Brian Wilson had their picture taken with one of them new-fangled camera things.

It may in fact be appropriate to describe his death as ironic, but more verbiage is needed to explain the irony, and possibly citations of others who agree with our hit-and-run anon editor. This is an encyclopedia article, we aren't here to encourge irony-impaired souls to meditate on ineffable koans. Func( t, c, @,) 15:09, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

"freegan"?
Really? Seems like this is a very new label to be putting on Gypsy Boots; it might be correct, but it's kinda like calling Mozart a hipster; it might or might not be correct, but it is quite certainly incongruous. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 01:16, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Not Hit By a Car...
Eden Ahbez was not physically hit by a car. That rumour would seem to some people to be funny or ironic or whatever, as in... 'This freewheelin' nature man walks along streets in sandals and robes, and one day, BAM!, he gets hit by a car and dies!' Not true.

Eden Ahbez was driving in his van (which he had a bed in the back that he slept in), and because of problems with his eyes, he did not see a car coming on ahead and made a left turn. His van was hit, and Eden was taken to the hospital where he lay unconscious for several days before he passed away.

--Brian Chidester

Several other key points...
It was written above:

QUOTE: "He is not described as a luddite, as being opposed to technology in general or cars in particular."

CORRECTION: Eden owned several cars, going back to the 1940s. He first bought a jeep with the royalities from "Nature Boy." Later in life, as I explained above, he owned a van and drove it around. He had a bed in the back where he slept and did a lot of his writing.

QUOTE: "Indeed, he recorded in modern sound studios, and he and Brian Wilson had their picture taken with one of them new-fangled camera things."

CORRECTION: The photo was taken by Jasper Dailey, who shot a host of pics throughout Brian Wilson's 1966-67 Smile sessions. The shot of Wilson and Ahbez was taken at Western Studios on January 5, 1967... a session held by Wilson for the song "Heroes & Villains." Brian Wilson later said of the meeting, "He was a REAL beatnik!"

--Brian Chidester

The Encyclopedia Entry Is Riddled with Errors
Here is a short biographical sketch of the life of Eden Ahbez that I wrote a while back, and recently submitted to Wikipedia to replace the present encyclopedia article.

"A VERY STRANGE ENCHANTED BOY"

By Brian Chidester

Lest the obvious need restating -- everybody loves a character. It's likely that few fit that description in Hollywood's record biz history better than Eden Ahbez, the man who penned one of pop-song’s most enduring pieces, "Nature Boy." If not for the plethora of evidence confirming his life story, one wouldn’t be out of line thinking it a made up fairy tale, but it goes like this.

In 1947, Capitol recording artist Nat King Cole's manager handed him a piece of sheet music received from a stranger backstage during a spring gig at Downtown L.A.'s Lincoln Theater. Cole began playing the song for live audiences, who immediately took to its haunting melody, somber harmonics and mystical lyrics about a boy who wandered across the earth communicating man’s greatest natural desire -- to love and be loved in return. One problem: When Cole sought to record the song (titled "Nature Boy"), he could not track down its composer to firm up contractual obligations. Thus a sort of "Hollywood-insider" APB was put out in search of the stranger who dropped "Nature Boy" off that fated night at the Lincoln.

When Cole's management finally found its composer, Eden Ahbez, legend has it that he was living with wife under the "L" of the HOLLYWOOD sign. No hard evidence has been found to verify this notion, though his friends from that period claim that he did, indeed, camp out on Mount Lee (where the sign resides). He was also said to have slept in the backyard orchard of John and Vera Richter, a husband/wife team of raw foods enthusiasts who lived on Avenel Street in Silver Lake, and who owned several heath food restaurants in Los Angeles. Quite unique looking for his time, Ahbez wore long unkempt hair, a bronze beard and a flowing white toga with leather sandals.

Even more improbable for a first-time composer was that "Nature Boy" shot to #1 on the Billboard charts on May 15, 1948, and remained there for seven consecutive weeks during that summer. When the press caught wind of Ahbez's off-kilter lifestyle, a media frenzy ensued. Ahbez was covered simultaneously in Life, Time and Newsweek magazines during the summer of 1948. Dick Haymes, Herb Jeffries, John Laurenz, Mantovani, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughn all released versions of "Nature Boy" around the same time, and in fact, while Cole's version rode the top of the Billboard charts throughout May and June of '48, the Sinatra and Haymes versions also ran steadily in the Top 10. The public seemed hungry for more from whence came this "liturgical road song," as one writer called it.

Eden Ahbez was born George Alexander Aberle on April 15, 1908 in Brooklyn, NY. He was adopted by a Chanute, Kansas family and raised under the name George McGrew. During the '30s, McGrew/Ahbez moved to Kansas City to partake in the burgeoning jazz dance-craze known as "Swing." In between his move to Kansas City and his appearance in Hollywood around 1941, Ahbez's whereabouts are shrouded in mystery.

He claimed at one time to have lived in New York City during the late 1930s. Some have speculated that it was during this time that Ahbez came in contact with the Yiddish theatre popular in New York City during the '30s, based around plays by composer Herman Yablokoff. Papirosn was one of Yablokoff's more popular stage projects from that period and featured a song titled "Sveig Mein Hartz" ("Be Still My Heart"), which in 1948, when Ahbez's "Nature Boy" was a smash hit, lawyer's representing Yablokoff sued Ahbez for stealing the melody and lyrics from. Yablokoff wrote about the lawsuit with a full chapter in his 1981 autobiography, Der Payatz (Bartleby Press). Apparently, Yablokoff settled out of court for $25,000, but not before having a phone conversation with Ahbez where Yablokoff claimed that Eden pleaded his case for not having ripped off the melody from "Sveig Mein Hartz." Ahbez told the press that he heard the melody in the solitude of a cave.

What is certain is that Ahbez arrived in Los Angeles in 1941, and began playing piano in the Eutropheon, the Richter's health food store on Laurel Canyon Boulevard (which counted movie star Gloria Swanson among its regulars). John Richter gave lectures throughout the Greater Los Angeles area during the 1940s, and some of the employees of the Eutropheon were Americans who had adopted the Richter's Lebensreform philosophy, wearing long hair and beards, eating only raw fruits and vegetables. These were soon dubbed "The California Nature Boys." Some of the familiar names included Bob Wallace, Gypsy Jean, Emile Zimmerman, Gypsy Boots, Tati, Buddy Rose and Eden Ahbez. In On the Road, Jack Kerouac wrote that he saw "an occasional Nature Boy saint in beard and sandals" while he was passing through L.A. in 1947.

Ahbez would sleep outdoors in Topanga Canyon and often went off with his Nature Boy pals to the desert caves of Tahquitz Canyon, near Palm Springs. It was in Tahquitz Canyon that Ahbez would encounter his mentor, Bill Pester, a German immigrent who taught radical philosophies of the day, including nudism and natural medicine. It is likely that Ahbez also discovered Eastern philosophy and mysticism during this period, adopting the name "eden ahbez" (and choosing to spell his name with lower-case letters, claiming that only God was worthy of capitalization). For more information on the pre-hippie movement in Germany and Southern California, Gordon Kennedy's Children of the Sun is a primary text.

During this time, Ahbez met Anna Jacobson, who was to become his wife and the mother of his only child, Zoma. Little is known about the lives of Anna and/or Zoma Ahbez. Some pictures remain, showing Anna as a kindred earthy spirit to Eden, as well as photos of Zoma from childhood through his teenage years. Later photos have Zoma sitting in the mountains meditating with his father, their likeness uncanny. Anna Ahbez died in 1964 at the age of 32, from cancer. Footage from her funeral shows family members and friends looking on as Eden sits crossed-legged by Anna's gravestone, playing a gong and reciting some unknown words (the footage being silent). This clip was posted in 2006 to the shadowboxstudio.com website. Anna's brother, Al Jacobson, started the Garden of Eatin' health food manufacturing company in 1971.

Zoma Ahbez died of a drug overdose in 1969, having been found seated in a lotus position. Some have claimed foul play was involved. The child of Eden and Anna Ahbez had not yet been born when "Nature Boy" hit the charts in 1948, but Anna was said to be pregnant in Eden's interviews with Life, Time and Newsweek, as well as a first-time meeting with Nat King Cole during the television show We the People, from 1948.

Sometime during Ahbez's working days at the Eutropheon restaurant, he met Cowboy Jack Patton, a songwriter and radio personality in the Western genre. Patton would later become a spa and health guru to the stars, but during the mid-'40s, he was a mentor of sorts to Ahbez, providing financial support and record biz advice. It is believed that Patton was the one who helped Ahbez first plug "Nature Boy."

Soon after "Nature Boy" hit the top of the charts, R.K.O. Pictures optioned the rights to turn the song into a feature-length movie script, which may or may not have melded into the late 1948 film, Boy with the Green Hair (directed by Joseph Losey, starring Dean Stockwell); the picture featured "Nature Boy" throughout and Eden Ahbez's name was amongst the first in the opening credit roll.

In 1949, Ahbez followed-up "Nature Boy" with a Nat King Cole exclusive titled "Land of Love (Come My Love and Live with Me)." While the arrangement for "Land of Love" was just as sophisticated as "Nature Boy," perhaps the lyrics rambled a bit and the overall tune lacked the intrigue of its predecessor. Cole had actually recorded "Land of Love" much earlier, but by the summer of 1949, pop-jazz singer Doris Day had gotten a hold of it and was ready to release her version with Columbia Records when Capitol Records was granted an injunction to stop the single from hitting the market. The parties settled with Cole's version of "Land of Love" given a few week's lead time. It didn't matter; the song flopped. The Ink Spots tried the song again in 1950 for Decca but fared no better. Neo-jazz singer Eve Zanni also covered "Land of Love" for her 2002 album Songs for Modern Mermaids.

According to a brief bio on Cowboy Jack Patton from Hillbilly-Music.com: "Jack and Eden got written up in Life magazine and elsewhere and other songwriters began to contact him [Jack] for advice or help in promoting their songs. One was Stan Jones. Stan had been reciting a poem on the radio called 'Rangers in the Sky' on Jack's radio show. This poem was said to be written by an old Texas ranger way back when, who was no longer living. Jack advised Stan Jones to turn it into a song, using public domain music. He played around with and a few years later, came back with the song 'Riders in the Sky.' Jack then had another idea for Stan -- add the word 'ghost' to the song title. The three of them -- Stan, Jack and Eden -- agreed to handshake agreement of a three way split on the song. Jack and Eden pitched the song to a singer by the name of Burl Ives. His recording of it reached #14 on the musical charts. Not to be deterred, the boys pitched it again, after getting it signed to B.H. Morris Publishing Co. and in 1949, a recording by Vaughn Monroe was released. This one rocketed to the top of the charts and stayed at the top for eleven weeks."

During the 1950s, Eden Ahbez would compose a series of songs recorded by some of the biggest jazz and pop artists of the day, distributed on the biggest record labels in America (RCA Victor, Capitol Records, Warner/Reprise, Columbia Records and Mercury). In 1950, Ahbez's own Nature Boy Orchestra (Mercury Records) released "End of Desire" b/w "California" (the latter was also recorded by Hoagy Carmichael, re-titled "Sacramento," about a vagabond traveling the California coast by freight train). "End of Desire" was also recorded by Jack Powers (Lotus Records), backed with another Ahbez original, "Guitar Totin' Cowboy." April Stevens recorded a version of "End of Desire" (Society Records), as well. Later that year, Ahbez would pen several other quality cuts released on 78 RPM -- "Wine, Women and Gold" by the Carsons (a bold philosophical jump number about man’s excesses) and "The Shepherd" (Columbia Records) by Herb Jeffries.

Herb Jeffries was known as "The Black Singing Cowboy" featured in several Western films of the 1930s and '40s, and was male-vocalist in the Duke Ellington Orchestra during the Billy Strayhorn years. Jeffries sang lead on the Ellington hit "Flamingo" and was the leading role in Ellington's controversial Los Angeles play, Jump for Joy (1944). Eden Ahbez and Herb Jeffries would often spend time together at Lake Shrine, the Southern California ashram of Paramahansa Yogananda, and in 1948, Ahbez wrote a four-page article on mysticism for Yogananda's Self-Realization magazine. In 1954 Herb Jeffries and Ahbez collaborated on an album titled The Singing Prophet (which included the only recording of Eden's four-part "Nature Boy Suite").

Next up for Ahbez was "Hey Jacque," a song written with new collaborator Wayne Shanklin, whom Ahbez would compose over a dozen songs with during the 1950s (only "Hey Jacque" would ever hit vinyl). Released in 1954 by Eartha Kitt, "Hey Jacque" was obscured somewhat due to it being the B-side to Kitt’s holiday smash, "Santa Baby" (RCA Victor). Millions of homes unknowingly had another Ahbez masterpiece on their hands (if only they had turned the record over). And though "Hey Jacque" itself was not a hit, its dense orchestration (by Henri Rene) was the perfect foil for Eartha Kitt's somber vocal, reminiscent of Parisian chanteuse Edith Piaf.

Following "Hey Jacque," Ahbez penned tunes for various white jazz/standard performers, such as Giselle McKenzie ("They're Playing Our Song," RCA Victor), Vicki Young ("Let Me Hear You Say I Love You," Capitol Records), Kay Brown ("Run-away Boy" b/w "Teen-Age Love") and television personality Frankie Laine ("The Jalopy Song," Mercury Records and "Rockin' Mother," Columbia Records). "The Jalopy Song" began life as an independent single (on Gold-Tone Records) first recorded by Ahbez's friend Cowboy Jack Patton -- a novelty song featuring early vegetarian lyrics with a background of party sounds (simulated in the studio). Ahbez also wrote two rock 'n' roll novelty singles during the mid-'50s -- "Elvis Presley Blues" by Anita Ray & the Nature Boys and "Song of the Fool" by the Crew-Cuts (of "Sh'Boom" fame).

Ahbez would continue to record with prominent black artists throughout the '50s, including Sam Cooke, whose 1957 "Lonely Island" (Keen Records) would be the second (and final) Ahbez composition to hit the Top 40. Gene Chandler (of "Duke of Earl" fame) also recorded a near-identical version of "Lonely Island" that same year. In 1958 Ahbez produced a doo-wop version of "Nature Boy" by R&B vocal group the Shields (featuring Jesse Belvin).

His first foray into the instrumental genre now know as exotica came in 1956, with three cuts that Ahbez wrote for Bob Romeo & his Jungle Sextet's, Aphro-Desia -- "Lisbon Street Dance," "Zen" and "Sahara." The album jacket was graced by Anita Ekberg (replete with gypsy costume), and featured West Coast cool jazz giant Laurindo Almeida on guitar. Bob Romeo (who played flute on a 1954 James Dean session) met Ahbez's Middle Eastern chord structures with proto-exotica percussion and abstract flute tones. (The cover also warned that the primitive rhythms therein could arouse uncommon emotions for the unaccustomed listener). In 1958, Ahbez wrote the Anglo-Mambo single "Ahbe Casabe" for Howdy Doody Show actress Marti Barris. That same year, the Ahbez-written "Teen-Age Love" by Richard Day & his Music (Kem Records) was a very good Percy Faith knock-off, while 1959's "Palm Springs" (recorded by the Ray Anthony Orchestra) would combine Ahbez's signature somber tones with an exotic arrangement indicative of the oncoming swarm of '50s bohemia.

In 1960, Ahbez would get his first crack at recording a solo long-player, Eden’s Island (Del-Fi Records). He had spoken of a "spiritual song cycle" as far back as 1958 (in an interview he did with the Washington Post), and often performed bongo, flute and poetry gigs at L.A. beatnik coffeehouses such as the Insomniac Café (Hermosa Beach) and the Gas House (Venice Beach). Eden's Island seemed to be the grandiose summation of Ahbez’s philosophic idealism, couched in a beachcomber context of Martin Denny-esque arrangements, with Ahbez himself reciting poems about his own mystical hideaway. The album flopped.

After that time, Eden Ahbez’s appearance on vinyl (and in the public) was scant. During the '60s, he released only four singles: "John John" b/w "Surfer John," an optimistic double-shot of surf-exotica by Nature Boy & Friends (Bertram International Records), "Yes, Master" b/w "Jungle Bungalow," a strong pair of pagan burlesque numbers by Don Carson & the Casuals (also on Bertram), the unbelievable siren vocals of "Nature Boy" b/w "Lonely King of Rock and Roll" by Don Reed & Lorelei (A&R Records) and a "Tequila"-inspired novelty tune titled, "Mr. K" by John Bean (Reprise Records). Ahbez was also photographed on January 5, 1967 with Brian Wilson during a "Heroes & Villains" session for the latter’s Smile album. That same year, UK folk singer Donovan tracked Ahbez down in Palm Springs for what was, reportedly, a near-telepathic conversation between the two "wanderers." Perhaps public consciousness was catching up with Ahbez, just as the youth counter-culture was reaching its '60s zenith. Recognizing the pacifism of Ahbez's message, groups such as Great Society (Grace Slick's pre-Jefferson Airplane band) and Gandalf recorded versions of "Nature Boy" during the psychedelic era.

Ahbez would only release one more song during the remainder of his lifetime -- a home-made 45 on Elefunt Records, "Divine Melody" b/w "Richard Milhaus" (a double-shot of bloated hippy intrigue from 1971). Ahbez released the A-side of this single again in 1980 (with a song titled "Blessed Be the One" on the B-side) and again in 1981 as a square-shaped picture disc. Thereafter Ahbez faded into obscurity.

He passed away on March 4, 1995 due to injuries incurred from an auto accident. At the time of his death, Ahbez had been working on a book and album titled The Scriptures of the Golden Age. Only a small sampling of various prose and poetry have been found from the book, while his last collaborator Joe Romersa retains an archive of over 100 songs (in various states of completion) recorded for the Scriptures of the Golden Age project. Unfortunately Ahbez’s estate has blocked Romersa from releasing this material to the public. Perhaps with more light shed on the talent and legacy of Eden Ahbez, public demand can one day force its release. Until then, "The Secret of Love," "Nature Girl," "Anna Was Mine" and "The Path" -- from the Scriptures of the Golden Age sessions -- have been released; these on a posthumous CD put out by the Ahbez estate titled Echoes from Nature Boy, featuring an additonal six Ahbez cover songs by Lawrence Welk guitarist Buddy Merrill, plus one demo tape of Ahbez singing "No Bums Allowed."

Also, just prior to Ahbez's death, a resurgence of interest came about for his 1960 Del-Fi solo album Eden's Island. By 1994, a heady swirl of exotica, lounge, surf music, swing and burlesque hit the post-rock environment like a storm. While Eden's Island was far from the focus of this pop culture trend, it was viewed as a true oddity worth seeking out according to Andrea Juno and V.Vale's seminal book Incredibly Strange Music. Soon after that, author Domenic Priore made an attempt to find Eden and interview him for the Del-Fi CD reissue of Eden's Island. Priore's liner notes for the CD booklet turned out to be the first shot at telling Eden's life story, culled from a variety of sources, including four Nat King Cole biographies. No interview with Ahbez ensued, and he soon-thereafter passed away. However, Priore was able to get an unreleased 1960 Ahbez song titled "Surf Rider" onto the disc as a bonus track.

In 1998, the Australia Broadcasting Company ran a radio program devoted to Eden Ahbez broadcast on the show Imaginary Island, hosted by lounge DJ Brent Clough. Around this time, psych-pop band the Wondermints recorded Ahbez's "Full Moon (Tropical Blend)" for the Del-Fi compilation Delphonic Sounds Today, while Victoria Williams covered "Mongoose" on her Sing Some Ol' Songs album. Both of these cuts were culled from Ahbez's Eden's Island LP. Meanwhile, Eden's last collaborator Joe Romersa launched shadowboxstudio.com, a website that offered the first real insight into what Eden Ahbez was like in his private life. The site hosted video clips and pictures from Ahbez's life, as well as stories and quotes, plus several MP3 clips of Ahbez calling Romersa on the phone and leaving messages on his answering machine.

In 2001, director Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge featured "Nature Boy" as its theme in the Paris-based film about a bohemian quest for universal love. "Nature Boy" was utilized throughout the movie, in various tempos, to convey the plot, and was played under the closing credits in a version by David Bowie. Further Ahbez excursion into film came from the BBC-Scotland's documentary The Secret Map of Hollywood (2004), which featured a nine-minute segment on the life of Ahbez (filmed by yours truly, Brian Chidester, with Domenic Priore). Priore had previously followed his Eden's Island liner notes with a biographical article on Ahbez in issue #3 of Cool and Strange Music magazine, while Chidester penned an expanded portrait of the man in an issue of Record Collector News from 2006. He also hosted a pair of two-hour episodes on the radio show Beatnik Beach (LuxuriaMusic.com) devoted to Eden Ahbez, which featured over seventy Ahbez tunes.

For Crescent magazine's winter '05/'06 issue, an Ahbez-centric article was written by a yoga instructor named M.L. Youngbear Roth. Rather than focusing on Ahbez's music, Youngbear told his story of meeting Ahbez in 1971, after the former had spent several years running from the law. Ahbez not only taught Youngbear about how to clean up his act, but also gave him important lessons in mental and physical health.

In the spring of 2007, a YouTube.com account registered as "ultimessence" posted a five minute hand-held video clip of Eden Ahbez from 1992 (age 84) in the California desert town of Indio. Ahbez is reluctantly filmed standing by his white van, where he has a bed stashed in the back, as he talks about various philosophies in a somewhat paranoid tone. The owner of this video hypothesized that Ahbez was the basis for R. Crumb's ZAP Comix character "Mr. Natural."

In the fall of 2010, BBC-4 radio released a half-hour program titled A Strange Enchanted Boy chronicling the life of Eden Ahbez. Actor Clark Peters narrated the piece, which featured interviews with Donovan Lietch, Bas Luhrman, Gordon Kennedy, Herb Jeffries, Brian Chidester and others.


 * Interesting, but it's written very much as a piece of journalism, not as an encyclopedic entry. I'm not sure what you mean by "submitted to Wikipedia" - it's not like submitting copy to a news editor! We prefer to evolve articles over time - so I'd suggest adding some of these interesting details to the wiki article, making sure you can cite sources. Gymnophoria (talk) 11:31, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Whoa...! The essay above was added here some time ago - three or four years or so? - and the article has been much revised since then, taking on board many of Brian Chidester's comments (where referenced).  Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:34, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

I've been bold ...
I know (or rather, knew) very little about this guy, but as an independent outsider I've tried to remodel the article so that it makes some sense, doesn't go into undue detail or make too many POV statements, and presents a rounded picture. Hope not too many people are too irritated by what I've done. I need to go back to it and put some more references in there. Ghmyrtle 16:14, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

the updates
I'm glad you did update it, however, I'm not sure why it was entered in the first place if you, as you say, knew very little about the subject. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.145.54.7 (talk) 20:19, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Melody of "Nature Boy"
I have moved the following text from the main page to here :- "NOTE: Actually, one need go further back to Antonin Dvorak's Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, Opus 81 (1887). The melody of Nature Boy sits there loud and clear in multiple passages. This Dvorak piece is considered by some to be the greatest piece of chamber music ever composed. There were most probably Yiddish theaters in Prague during that period in history ... or perhaps Mr. Yablakoff was influenced by the classics. Regardless, it is a shame that he profited from this ethno-musical amnesia." Text revision 179042908 by Jmen2007, 19 December 2007. Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:37, 20 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Just had to wade in here. Having listened this evening to Dvorak quintet No 2 and Yablakoff's "Hush My Heart" it was plain to me that Yablakoff's has nothing significant in common with "Nature Boy" and wrt Dvorak I agree with the unsigned article below that states that the reference is weak. I have put a rushed but musically accurate comparison of Ahbez and Yablakoff's songs on youtube page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1YBrH7dvpY (for a version of the Yablakoff song) and on the Yablakoff talk page if anyone's interested, and altered the main Yablakoff page accordingly.Jiver2 (talk) 23:43, 27 September 2017 (UTC)

updates
I apologize for not signing the updates to my article above on Ahbez. I struggle to figure out the whole Wikipedia operation.

Yours, Brian Chidester


 * There are messages for you on your talk page - here. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:17, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

ring true?
If this rings true should it be incorporated? "Part-time yogi and full-time mystic, this 1940s "hippie" always spelled his name with small letters because he believed that only God and Infinity should be capitalized" www.hippy.com/php/article-243.html 24.125.38.175 (talk) 04:41, 6 November 2009 (UTC)R.E.D.
 * It's already there - second para of Biography section. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:31, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

BBC radio 4 documentary
On eden ahbez here available for listen again for about a week, and including contributions by Brian Chidester (see above talk sections for his contributions). 86.159.193.193 (talk) 12:44, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Capitalization in text of article
This article has long established that he used the lower case version of his name - ahbez - but has, until today, used the capitalized version - Ahbez - to refer to him in the main text. That has now been changed to use the lower case version (almost) throughout. In my view, the closest parallel is e. e. cummings, whose name is capitalized as Cummings throughout his article. It certainly makes the article easier to read if Ahbez is used with a capital A. Do others agree? Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:14, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
 * For consistency with other articles and basic writing style, I've capitalised the letter "a" in ahbez where it occurs as the first word of a sentence. See k.d. lang for another parallel.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:36, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Jewish American?
I noticed he's categorised as a "Jewish American" - yet there's no mention of his religious orientation, it says he had a "Scottish-English" mother (ie a British mother, not sure why it doesn't simply say British), and was raised "by a family in Chanute, Kansas" who were presumably Christian and took him to church, considering the era. Is there any evidence for him being, or considering himself, Jewish? Judging by his proto-hippy beliefs in "Orientalism mysticism", this seems unlikely. I'm not partisan either way, I just considered this curious to label him Jewish, under the circumstances. Gymnophoria (talk) 11:25, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmm. It was added without explanation back in 2006 - here.  I'll remove it and see if there is any response.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:28, 26 November 2010 (UTC)


 * To address the Jewishness of eden ahbez, I would point out that ahbez himself declared himself of Jewish descent in several magazine interviews from the late 1940s. Before he was sent to Chunute, KS with his three siblings (as part of the Orphan Trains), ahbez (then George A. Aberle) was living in a Brooklyn Hebrew orphanage. How long between his birth parents dropping him off at the orphanage in Brooklyn and him being sent off to Kansas? I don't know that yet. As for federal census records, his father was listed as American born with a father from Germany, while the mother was listed as being English. It was in interviews from 1948 (when "Nature Boy" was a hit song) that ahbez said his mother was "Scotch-English" and that he was part Jewish. I suppose it's possible that his mother was a Jew from England, but I guess I always assumed he meant his father's side of the family. As to his adopted parents in Kansas (William and Sadie McGrew), I have found no evidence of their religious affiliation, if any. I know their home address; I know that William owned a pharmacy; that his wife ran an ajoining tea room; and (from an older gentleman who knew ahbez in Chunute), that William was very abusive towards ahbez and his twin sister. I hope that clears some things up.**********************--Brian Chidester — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.147.236.194 (talk • contribs) 14:49, 1 March 2011


 * Thanks Brian. I don't doubt your research in any way, but Wikipedia is based on verifiability rather than truth, so it would be useful to have published references for your statements.  And I'm still not sure what "Scotch-English" means - does it mean half Scottish, half English?  "Scotch" means whisky.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:05, 1 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I know not whether she was an English woman inclined towards whisky, just as I remain in the dark about her religion. The her in mention being Margaret A. Aberle, the wife of George P. Aberle, parents of eden ahbez. As to my references, some of them are from published (perhaps trascribed online?) articles, census records and/or interviews conducted by me. If I am able to find a link for any of the published material, I will post that here. Otherwise, at some point I'll drag my sorry butt into the basement and trudge up the exact reference of where these matters first hit print. The census records can be found easily at Ancestry.com and the documentation for my own interviews, well, now they'll just have to wait until my book on ahbez is published, I suppose.*************--Brian Chidester —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.147.236.194 (talk) 16:59, 1 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Here is a link to a story about the orphanage in Brooklyn that ahbez was sent to. --Brian Chidester.: http://brooklynology.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/post/2010/07/22/Little-Known-Brooklyn-Residents-eden-ahbez.aspx


 * I think it is also important to remember just how much ahbez's music reflects a serious knowledge of Jewish folk, kletzmer and Yiddish theater music. There are a million examples, but one sorta humorous one was the 1960 single "Mr. K" (written by ahbez) on Reprise Records. It's a take on the Champs' "Tequila," with ahbez having belching sounds and a chorus of "Vodka!" Obviously lampooning Kruschev, whilst attempting to cash in on the booze-rock trend. Yet despite these serious lapses in good taste, the song is almost defiantly Jewish and ethnic in its cadence and melodic structure. As ahbez recorded more serious music during the 1980s and '90s, it was all written in a somber Hebrew style. He told his last collaborator, Joe Romersa, that he would play these types of Hebrew songs at the piano in his home or in small gathering places as a little kid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.14.191.216 (talk) 17:10, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Dvorak
Folks, I am a composer and can tell you that the reference to Dvorak is weak at best. Yes, both have a descending minor triad, but so do 50 other tunes. I recommend canning the entire Dvorak thing.209.6.52.106 (talk) 18:57, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * It was added in to the article, without explanation, in 2012 - here. It's unsourced, and on that basis (I'm not a musician so have no opinion on its accuracy) I agree that it could be removed.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:02, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

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George Alexander Aberle and George McGrew
George Alexander Aberle. Glad someone put the full name in the article since that is what I searched for on Wikipedia. George McGrew is mentioned in the article Nature Boy. Just commenting so that the redirect links survive longterm. --Timeshifter (talk) 14:24, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

Joe Moondad
There is a viral Facebook post.

It has the line: "Joe Moondad has the strange story of eden ahbez:"

After the Joe Moondad story is the Wikipedia article.

Is that Joe Moondad story on the web anywhere reliable? Maybe under a different name. Any new reliable info in it? --Timeshifter (talk) 14:46, 10 September 2023 (UTC)