As much as I consider myself to be a fan of outsider art, I’m somewhat ashamed to say that I haven’t invested much time listening to the work of The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Tonight, though, I’m trying to make up for it in a big way. And I’ve got to say that the experience, at least thus far, has been kind of heartbreaking. Things were going reasonably well until I got to this clip from Laugh-In, and started my obsessive digging.
According to “The Ledge,” he didn’t know that the Laugh-In cast was going to come out and start cavorting around him, mocking him, during the second song, Who’s Knocking On My Door. “That wasn’t part of the act,” he said. “(I) got mad and ran off the set.” According to one source that I’ve found, he thought that he’d been booked as a serious act, and “walked off the stage and cried” when he’d heard the laughter.
I know it’s about five decades too late, but fuck Laugh-In.
31 Comments
I hate Laugh-in because a lot of its “humor” was based on the misguided notion that loud + hokey = funny. Horrible. But this is clearly the worst.
What other shows have used public humiliation? Joe Schmo, various talent shows like American Idol, Jay Leno (the on-the-street quizzes)–what else? How many involve people being misled?
Doesn’t this involve the same dynamic that empowers bullies? I wonder if such mocking/denigrating in the media conditions people to be bullies–or to go along with bullying. Once in a while, I see a kid acting horribly to others at my high school in such a way that it seems to be behavior learned from reality TV (like those housewives of ______ shows, or The Jersey Shore).
Well said, Dirtgrain. We are an insecure people, and we feel better about ourselves when we’re able to demonstrate that others are on less sure social footing than we are. It’s disgusting.
The fact that this guy thought his ‘act’ would be taken seriously is sad indeed. Legendary in his own mind maybe.
Hilarious. Not the performance, or the mocking thereof, those were only marginally amusing at best. But if he really expected that he was booked on Laugh-In as a serious act, that’s hilarious, even more so if he ran off and cried. Mark, if you found anything of merit in his performance, please explain, because it looked like stupid nonsense to me. I don’t mind stupid nonsense, but if that’s your act, don’t expect people to take you seriously.
I bought a LSC CD at the WFMU Record Fair one year, but I ended up trading it in somewhere because it was boring.
LCD is pretty tedious, but at least he wasn’t a smug asshat like Rowan and Martin. They’re insufferable. Mock the powerful, not the powerless.
Making it even sadder, the Ledge (Norman Carl Odam) thought that this was his big break, and that, afterward, he’d have a girlfriend and a career.
What is the point in comedy? It merely serves to distract Americans from work.
Amen, Doug.
You can argue (Matt), that the Legendary Stardust Cowboy doesn’t have a lot of talent. I’d argue, however, that it takes considerably less to make fun of him. Watching as the entire Laugh-In case piled on made me feel sick.
As for he’d done of note, I actually like Paralyzed. It makes me happy the same way the work of Hasil Adkins does.
People may also be interested to know that he was a label-mate of Bowie’s. They were both on Mercury. And Bowie, when it came time to name his unearthly musical creation, Ziggy Stardust, borrowed the “Stardust” from Ledge. If nothing else, he’ll be remembered for that, I suppose.
I watched the video.
Pointless.
They wouldn’t let the Holy Modal Rounders finish a song either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkjJs5gKtFs
Sorry, I can’t get too worked up over his treatment. You are correct that it doesn’t take any talent to make fun of him. The whole 4 minutes could have been put to better use to set up and deliver 10-15 corny old jokes. But it was kind of routine on Laugh-In to showcase a new weird (by mainstream TV conventions) act and mock it. Dick Martin did much the same schtick on stage when Tiny Tim made his first appearance, but TT took it in stride and boosted his own fame with it. The fact that it didn’t work the same way for LSC is not necessarily Laugh-In’s fault.
I’d give LSC a “B” for earnestness (the pointless trumpet bleating knocks it down from an “A”) and a “D” for entertainment value in the clip, whereas the Laugh-In cast would get a “F”.
“Paralyzed” is enjoyable as a novelty song, but it’s a novelty song. To be upset that LSC wasn’t treated seriously on Laugh-In is like being upset that they came to take Napoleon XIV away.
I don’t suspect they hang out all that often, but Bowie covered one of his songs about a decade ago. Here they are together.
http://www.stardustcowboy.com/bowieledge.jpg
Here’s Bowie performing his cover of “Took A Trip On A Gemini Spacecraft”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6aRXoFub-8
I never heard of him before this (I suck, I know) but I want to say that this is a beautiful post. You have a good heart, Mark.
And Dirtgrain and anonymous make good points about bullying/laughing at others. For one horrible season, I watched American Idol. Some of the folks who tried out were awful (many of them, actually). I think that some were bad on purpose just to get themselves on TV but I think that some legitimately thought that they were good. They probably grew up being told what great singers they were (either by people who didn’t know better or who just wanted to be nice). For some reason, one young woman has always stuck in my head…she dressed up like Dorothy, sang some song from Wizard of Oz (probably the rainbow one) and even made a posterboard sized picture of WoO featuring the judges as the lion, tinman and scarecrow with her as Dorothy. It was the saddest thing and after the judges promptly told her how much she sucked at singing, she looked genuinely crushed. She then asked if they wanted her poster and they started laughing and were like, “Uh, no….”
I have no idea why this stuck in my head all of these years but it was just so sad to watch this poor young lady have her dreams crushed while the judges (and surely folks at home) laughed at her.
This video makes me want to kill myself.
What is it that so upsets you, Pete?
And thank you all for commenting. I wasn’t expecting to have this much discussion.
It’s the hat. And that people are having a good time at its expense.
Sickening.
It made me kind of sick, too…I wanted to cry and also rip out the eyes of Joanne Worley.
I want to throw up.
Everyone upset by this, do not Google “The Gong Show”. You have been warned.
Does anyone believe that if he was allowed to perform uninterrupted, it wouldn’t have ended with the audience laughing at him, and he would have blamed that for his lack of fame and fortune rather than putting the blame on the limited appeal of his act?
Laugh In treated the entertainer terribly in this, because he was in not on the whole gag. They used him, when he was being serious.
Right. I think the folks on the Gong Show knew they were being punked (right? right? RIGHT? Please don’t ruin Gene Gene the Dancing Machine and that crazy ass high-on host for me)
If LSC went on Laugh In and expected to be treated seriously, that would be incredibly naive on his part.
For reference, they weren’t too much more respectful to Tiny Tim on his first appearance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_bljefIsBc
The thing I dislike about the treatment of LSC is that they made noise over his performance (Dick Martin’s clapping, Jo Anne Worley’s screeching). The fact that they danced to his performance means they were treating it like actual music as in “The Party” segments.
“At some point in his teens, Odam merged two great obsessions — the Wild West and Outer Space”
Any merger of these two obsessions is alright by me. I get excited just seeing them in the same sentence.
Judging from the lack of interest in the movie “Cowboys and Aliens,” I think you may be alone in your excitement, Brian.
The makers of Cowboys and Aliens should call their film outsider art and claim everyone’s being mean for not making it a success.
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Speaking of legends, legend has it that David Bowie named his character Ziggy Stardust after hearing the story of Ledge getting laughed at on laugh in, and going backstage and crying. Creative types who stay engaged long enough learn that their art makes it’s way into the world, and is often poorly understood, causes unanticipated reactions and continues to ripple outward long after.