Burl Ives (1909-1995) was a man of the people. Not just a singer, entertainer and minor film star he was a fellow with a political conscience and was even blacklisted as a potential communist in the nineteen fifties. He supported many causes connected with the pursuit of liberty and justice. And he sang many memorable folk songs. In the picture above he was playing Big Mac McCreedy in "Alias Smith and Jones".
It is sometimes said that we all have doubles somewhere in the world and I think that I have spotted Burl Ives's double. A fine keyboard player, grandfather and resident of America's Peach State he is the mastermind behind the infamous "Rhymes With Plague" blog!
Because that blogger is a fairly bashful man who does not like to blow his own trumpet, I decided not to post his picture for comparison with Burl Ives's image. But if you wish to see what I mean about the doppelganger just head over to Rhymes With Plague and check him out. Spooky or what?
I just checked that site out Yorkie and indeed you are right.
ReplyDeleteHey Leishy - silly me! I thought you were the author of "Her Indoors, Him Outdoors" - an Australian immigrant living in rural Somerset! The real aurhor Sooze was puzzled by one of my recent comments!
DeleteNo Yorkie I live in beautiful Queensland .
DeleteOkay got it now. Sorry.
DeleteOh, how I loved Burl Ives when I was a child. And later still when he played "Big Daddy" in "The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof".
ReplyDeleteI loved his singing ("Lavender Blue" was a favourite of mine when I was a little girl); and I loved him as an actor. I remember seeing him, when I was a young in the movie, "Wind Across the Everglades" - that movie has always remained in my mind/memory.
I reckon he would've been a lovely person to have met and gotten to know. Ives was special. :)
As far as I can tell Burl didn't write too many songs but he re-interpreted plenty of folk songs and performed some memorable original songs. "A Little Bitty Tear" sticks in my head.
DeleteYou think so? I think he looks a bit like Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Chicken fame !
ReplyDeleteYou mean Bob Brague of course?
DeleteYes, sorry about that ! Of course I mean Bob !
DeleteThere is indeed a strong resemblance.
ReplyDeleteIf Burt Ives live is turned into a film, Bob could play him.
"The Burl Ives Story" with R.W.Brague as Burl Ives and Meike Riley as his long-suffering wife. Directed by Yorkshire Pudding - "Cut! Cut! Take forty seven!"
DeleteI'm pretty sure that I've still got some Burl Ives on vinyl. I really must do something about all that vinyl this winter. You're right about the similarities although I suspect that they may stop with the looks. When I followed Bob's blog (I'm not sure why I fell by the wayside) he didn't strike me as a potential or closet communist.
ReplyDeleteWell that's where you are wrong Graham. He led a strike at IBM and then fled to Sweden following a wild night in Soho, London.
DeleteHmmmm.
DeleteAre you warming up for a Burl Ives song?
DeleteHarvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?
ReplyDeleteThere ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity... You can smell it. It smells like death.
DeleteWow, a post about li'l ok' me! Who woulda thunk? You may not believe this, but back in the day before nature began playing her tricks people thought I looked like Engelbert Humperdinck, and some people thought I looked like the bass singer in the Statler Brothers quartet, Harold Reid. Burl Ives? No. Colonel Sanders? No.
ReplyDeleteBurl Ives? Yes! Come on git yer banjo out Burl jus like them does in Alabam.
Deleteli'l ol' -- not li'l ok'
ReplyDeleteBlog alert to Graham Edwards: Take everything Yorkshire Pudding says with a grain, er, mound, er, several tons of salt. Please. The only true words in YP's reply to your comment are IBM, Sweden, and London. However, I do know every word of Burl Ives's song, "I Know An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly"....
ReplyDeleteThat is because you are the reincarnation of Burl Ives! Do you smoke a pipe perchance?
DeleteDon't worry Bob I've known YP for a while. Salt pinch take with a of. Rearrange into a well known phrase or saying.
Delete