Paul “Biff” Rose in L.A. 1968 (left) and in New Orleans forty years later
“I never made it big enough to make a comeback.
I had to get down to bumming for a second coming.”
-- Biff Rose
The Biff Rose Talkin’ Flower-Power Blues:
No Strangers on This Jabberwocky Road
By Jamie Jobb
On “The Tonight Show” in 1970, Johnny Carson introduced an upbeat young man with these well-worn words for those post-surrealistic times: “He’s a composer, a performer, a philosopher, an electric carrot … a charming guy. Would you welcome, Biff Rose!”
Paul “Biff” Rose was a voltaic-green yet unpredictably-talented Hollywood sketch-writer/comedian who worked with George Carlin and Mort Sahl before launching his own solo songwriting career behind a piano in the late 1960s. Before his “electric carrot” introduction, Biff appeared on Carson’s network tv show a dozen times in twenty-four months -- quite an accomplishment for a seriously jabberwocky folk singer!
He also appeared on “American Bandstand,” “The Merv Griffin Show,” “The David Frost Show,” and “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”, so his friendly face found quick fame on American mainstream media at that shell-shocked moment of history. But his celebrity was fickle and fleeting.
Rose called himself “the acceptable middle-class hippie,” but on The Tube he appeared a lovable candy-striped guy. Like, ya know: if Maynard G. Krebbs had made The Scene AFTER the beatniks but BEFORE The Fonz. Certainly, Biff established early on that he does possess a one-of-a-kind man-on-the-road mind-of-his-own. And he’s never been afraid to speak it -- no matter where his road leads.
After a half-year absence from Johnny’s popular show, Biff Rose in 1970 was a last-minute addition who did himself and Carson no favors that night when he sang this sacrilegiously silly song accompanied by his funky ragtime piano:
“Nineteen hundred years ago, there lived a man that we all know
he traveled around singin’ and dancin’ and puttin’ on quite a show
He made people happy with a gift that he brought,
the word that came from above
He preached peace, good will toward men
but most of all make love, Yeah!
I’m talking about Jesus and Mary Magdalene
I’m sure they had a good time
singin’ in their secret exchange
making love in each other’s eyes
The people around got so uptight
they screamed and fussed and raged
thinkin’ of all the happiness he brought
and all the people he’d saved
Wasn’t very long ‘til the King got word and hung him oh so high
but three days later he got the word that Jesus is still alive.
You know me and you and Jesus
have something in common
we’re all the Son Of Man
la-la-la-la
They tell me judgment day starts right about now.
I hope God’s as good as I am.”
What a strange “Come-to-Jesus” moment for network tv, particularly in those tumultuously-constricted Mad-Men days before cable but shortly after Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, The Chicago Seven, Kent State! That was the last time Biff and his “unusual style” ever appeared on “The Tonight Show”. Hear Carson’s introduction along with the entire tune before Biff starts into a poem and Doc Severinsen’s studio band eventually muffles him out: http://www.wascals.com/biff/carson.mp3 (7:15)
* * *
We easily can see why Carson, Carlin and Sahl -- not to mention musical folks as diverse as David Bowie, Cat Stevens, John Denver, Tiny Tim, Pat Boone, The Smothers Brothers, Paul Williams and Vetiver -- would be attracted to the fertile mind of this very cool cat with charisma for days.
Take Biff’s beautiful ballad “Molly,” for example, a 1968 tune that endeared him to millions. Forty years later, a whole new set of listeners found the song after Flipper and New Black Magic Rainbow Quartet covered it. The lyrics:
“Molly”
When I was a young man
I ran away from home
I went to join the circus
I went to see the cotton candy world
And make me lots of money
On my own
For Molly, oh my pretty Molly
She's waitin' all alone
Someday soon I will return to her
Then I made the big time
Bright lights show biz
I'm really in the circus
There's only one thing wrong
I haven't saved a penny on my own
For Molly, ah my pretty Molly
But she's writing every day
|
Molly understands so it's okay
Ride a windy boxcar
See a thousand children young and old.
Oh that greasepaint smile can hide you so
Here comes the carousel
Guess which town it is
Feel the thrill
Greasepaint covers everything
But winter's chill
I'm reading Molly's letter
The ink is fading and
The page is turning yellow
Long ago
I promised Molly
Don't you know I
I will close my eyes
And go to her
|
On Biff’s flip side, find these words to his dated anti-war ode to consumption:
“American Waltz”
It's a Santa Claus world, if you will
of ice cream and candy bars; eat your fill
marshmallow fatness that's bound to kill
But we love it that way...
Yes, we love it that way... everyday
we hope that the fat times
are here to stay
Fa-la-la-la, La-fa-la-la-la...
It's a Santa Claus world
where everyone dines,
on gluttonous steaks and
champagnes and wine;
and all virgin waitresses
high in the sky on United Airlines!
Industrial Pancake and Neon Blot-
Mechanical Humans- Thanks a lot!
Fa-la-la-la, La-fa-la-la-la!
In a Santa Claus world
the decorations appear,
for Christmas in April;
|
The Savior is here!
With mass produced love,
and peace everywhere
Ten dollars a pair!
It's the spirit of giving
through selling and buying
It's the spirit of dying...
Fa-la-la-la, La-fa-la-la-LA!
It's a Santa Claus world
so let's go for a ride
In cars shaped like bullets
with people inside
On concrete that covers
our WHOLE countryside
...But we LOVE it that way!
For we all love to dance
our American Waltz!
It's our dream come false...
Fa-la-la-La! La-fa-la-la-la!
La-fa-la-la Fa-la-la-la la-la-la-la-la-la
|
Although his upbeat tunes could turn quickly quite serious, Biff Rose is one funny man -- a professional comedian -- evidenced by his furious one-liners and other “jokes” without punchlines:
“If they had bartenders in jail, would they be behind bars?”
“I’m on a fast train called Amrak … that’s karma, backwards.”
OR from his 2006 album: “It’s a Rocky Road, I scream.”
Biff Rose grew up in New Orleans, so he didn’t have to venture far to hear outrageously great music. He played banjo and piano, two instruments grounded in Congo Square and Storyville traditions. Jazz, boogie-woogie, blues, ragtime, vaudeville, tin-pan alley, honky-tonk flowed from his fingers because his ears grew up swimming in that fecund acoustic gumbo. Like many in the Crescent City, Biff took a road out of town to kick-start his career as an all-American troubadour.
He moved first to Greenwich Village and joined the coffeehouse scene there for a while until he caught the attention of Time magazine in 1965. That exposure led him to Hollywood, where he wrote gags as well as songs. After he tired of that lifestyle to which he was unaccustomed, Biff took to busking, odd jobs, traveling or not playing music for several months. “Bumming for a second coming.”
He returned to New Orleans in the mid 1980s to recharge himself, busking in the French Quarter and gigging again. He remained based in the Crescent City until Hurricane Katrina drove him back to California where now he splits his time between the mountains and the coast.
* * *
Biff’s uniquely-frivolous tunes and his fluidly-dynamic stutter-steppin’ keyboard riffs are a wonder to behold in person. We caught him live at Gatsby’s (now known as “Fast Food Francais”) in Sausalito in 1977 when his popularity had waned but he was still stoked for live shows.
At that point, he’d produced five live albums in ten years! We sat close to the stage to watch his fingers work, and I still remember it vividly. That night, he also ended up with another brash live record, “Thee Messiah Album”. Much of the night was a rambling sit-down stream-of-unconsciousness stand-up show with occasional songs dropped into the mix. First track here:
http://biffrose.bandcamp.com/album/thee-messiah-album (25:22, edited)
On that first cut, he introduces himself and gets into some fantastic regional American accents plus some surreal white-cat scat. As you listen to Biff’s nimble fingering and vocal virtuosity, recall that was performing in Marin County -- homeland of Robin Williams, another scary scat cat.
(ALSO NOTE: You’ll hear my distinct laugh at 14:02 into that clip when Biff riffs about “Aid to the Totally Dependent”. Rose also comments on my laugh at 20:10 … That laugh is involuntary, quite loud, and involves a lot of inhaled bits before a big exhale. It’s gotten me tons of nasty stares from fellow audience members over the years. Sorry! But I know it when I hear it. See You Tube link at bottom of this post.)
The 1970s were grand times for music in Marin County with top talent playing almost every night of the week at The No Name, The Trident, Zack’s, The Ark, Gatsby’s, Sweetwater, Old Mill Saloon, Uncle Charlie’s, Knightsbridge, Euphoria, George’s, The Lion’s Share, The Sleeping Lady Cafe, River City, Rancho Nicasio … more than a dozen bars and clubs all along a meandering twenty-four mile strip.
Behind his piano, Biff commanded Gatsby’s stage with more assurance than the more detached, sarcastic Randy Newman whom we also caught on that same stage, and/or the more polished Harry Nilsson, who also turned Biff’s tunes into hits.
His keyboard virtuosity is captivating, moment to moment. But his own voice is an uncaged critter that can handle neither his lilting melodies nor his honky-tonky boggies. Biff blows out the top of his high notes; so when you saw him you either endured it or you left the show. The fact that he tried so hard for those notes made him seem extraordinarily human.
The persistent vocal strain of his otherwise joyous arrangements endeares him to a fan base that remains loyal to this day, seeking him out on Facebook and Amtrak. He is, in fact, one of the few singer/songwriters who seems to have had no trouble making the transition from vinyl records to internet downloads, from PR agents to Facebook.
Rose produced only one album between 1979 and 2000 so essentially people heard him on tv, vinyl or on-line, but not much during the heyday of CDs … His lone album during that time, “Bone Again” (1996), was an apparent precursor and ode to George W. Bush. Rose, the eternal optimist, is nothing if not bone again, and again in his stare-down with celebrity.
After David Bowie covered his bouncy ballad “Fill Your Heart” (co-written with Paul Williams) into a hit, Biff began earning more in royalties than his take of the gate for his own shows.
The times they were a-changin’ in California: he divorced, tended bar in San Francisco, tried to grow okra in Albion, got kicked off “free speech radio” in Berkeley. He didn’t seem to care a lick about any “career”. Like Fred Neil, he’d seen enough of the Entertainment Industry after a decade digging it.
“I made records for PC (public consumption) from 1968, like a regular job, a habit, until 1979’s Thee Messiah Album,” Rose writes in an email.
In the early 1980s, he was a full-time apartment-rental agent “in the demilitarized zone between Chicago and Evanston.” After a year there, he returned to San Francisco to tend bar and hang at Lyle Tuttle’s Tattoo Rose Cafe. Then he went off to Germany for a couple years to teach American Slang at the University of Gottingen and perform at the Norgelbuff Kneipe (The Blue Note).
Music remained mostly an afterthought to the vagabond Yank who returned to the US in 1984 to find drastic changes in the music business. Biff writes he came back “chastened and upended by how my native country had changed. You can’t stay away from a place like America two years without noticing something’s different in the culture.”
A persistent poet, Rose returned to his hometown in 1986 and took up busking in the French Quarter, capturing a prized spot near St. Peter and Rue Royale. Had YouTube been in existence at the time, that might have been a fortuitous career move, as it has been for NOLA’s busking bands like Tuba Skinny and Aurora Nealand’s Royal Roses who’ve launched their self-managed internet careers from Rue Royale.
* * *
During his five decades performing, Rose has published these 22 albums -- evenly divided among 20th and 21st Century titles, with release dates:
“The Thorn in Mrs. Rose’s Side” (October 15, 1968) - piano/production
“Children of Light” (June 16, 1969) - piano/production
“The Third Album” (May 15, 1970) - piano/bass/production
“Half Live at the Bitter End” (Nov. 11, 1970) - solo live
“Uncle Jesus, Aunty Christ” (April 20, 1972) - solo live …
“Hamburger Blues” (December 22, 1973) - w. Wall Matthews
“Roast Beef” (January 12, 1977) solo/one take
“Earl of Old Town” (first show - May 13, 1977) - solo live
“Earl of Old Town” (second show - May 13, 1977) - solo live
“Thee Messiah Album” (August 7, 1979) - live at Gatsby’s - Sausalito
“Bone Again” (November 26, 1996) - band/big production
“The Elizabethan Period” (January 1, 2000) solo/piano
“The Knight Wigguh & The Nippie Higger” (March 23, 2004) - solo
“The Rocky Road” (January 31, 2006) - Live radio KMFB - Mendocino
“The Berlin Concert” (October 20, 2007) - solo live
“The Thorn 2” (July 11, 2011) - solo/band
“Raw & Unmixed Fun with Biff” (April 1, 2012) - solo session
“Second Coming Tapes (1977-1980)” (April 21, 2012) - solo
“Symphony in L” (April 24, 2013) - solo piano
“After Seven Come Eleven” (April 26, 2013) - w. Lawrence Kansas
“Aunt Romulus & Uncle Remus” (April 9, 2015) solo - home concert
“The Beatnik Cafe” (April 20, 2015) - live/production
Along the way, Biff developed his own colorful tropically-influenced style of vernacular artwork … which adorned many of his albums. He even applied watercolors to French Quarter tourist faces. In 1997, The New Orleans Times-Picayune’s brilliant columnist Chris Rose (“1 Dead in Attic”), made this observation:
“Biff Rose, a long-lost flower power poster-boy, has limited means these days. Traveling the country by Greyhound Bus and sleeping on back porch sofas and basement hide-a-beds of old friends, Rose survives primarily by painting faces at festivals and fairs and by the occasional royalty check - albeit paltry - that shows up in his name at a friend's place back in Olathe, Kansas. ‘The last check was big,’ he says. ‘$560. I can make that last forever.’ And no regrets, he says; not a single one.”
Biff now lives in California, dividing his time between Grass Valley in the Sierra Nevada and the Mendocino coast on the Pacific. And he continues to bask in everyday moments, as those who follow him on Facebook can attest. As we say Down South: ”Snowy egrets … no regrets.” (see link below)
Rose doesn’t miss the fame. His lyrics -- not to mention his life -- have become virtually unreproducible in mainstream media as he continues to push the borders of commonly-accepted “nonsense” and “sane” public presentation.
He’s such an innovative performer that mainstream America eventually found him “too hard to follow”. But he remains quite incisive, divisive, irreverent, incoherent, magnanimous, lascivious, provocative, evocative, racially raw … “controversial” is simply too tiny a word to contain this singularly unique American character -- Johnny Carson’s own “electric carrot”.
Biff Rose continues to find new ways to connect with people (see links below). He currently lives in -- and commutes from -- a Dodge Ram van called “Bubbles” often parked near Grass Valley’s historic Holbrooke Hotel in the Sierra Nevada’s gold country.
This week he emailed to say he’s got a new project in the works, so his spirit remains indomitable and he seems to have made a solid life-long transition from vinyl to digital … Biff says his new project is “Lays of Our Dives” -- a soap opera.
“I don’t feel famous,” Biff writes. “I don’t think I am famous myself, because I don’t have a SELF to BE famous.” Admittedly self-effacing and self-erasing -- maybe that’s the clue most people miss to a perfectly happy life on a road full of Jabberwocky … ?
* * *
Biff Rose Links
Communicate directly with Biff on Facebook:
You Tube computer-generated Biff Rose channel:
Biff Rose Bandcamp where you can find all his music:
Biff Rose Biz:
Paid link to January 29, 1965 Time magazine article: “The Fourth Rose”
“Man without a country” article from The Times-Picayune, 1997:
Review of Biff “Bone Again” from 2007:
Boston Phoenix article from 2009:
Boston Phoenix article from 2010:
Boston Globe article from 2010:
New Orleans Defender article from 2011:
Purchase “Bone Again” album:
“Gentle People” on The Smothers Brothers:
“Folk Music in Mendocino” - Coast Real Estate Magazine - 2011:
Nostalgia for the old Marin coffeehouse/night club scene …
Venice boardwalk busker Ted Hawkins:
A poem about “snowy egrets”:
EDITOR’S NOTE: To verify that Jamie Jobb’s laugh on Thee Messiah Album is indeed his, check out the same annoying laugh starting around 9:00 into this student film he made in a studio at the University of Florida in 1968:
https://youtu.be/cXp0b8-CSpc