Evel Knievel
Evel Knievel has died. He proved you can make a living at anything.
Here's a guy you would have guessed would go out with a bang, not a whimper, but he survived all his crashes and broken bones. Whenever I look at Caesar's Palace, I think here's where he almost died jumping the fountain. (The fountain is gone--I wonder if there's a marker.)
When I was a kid, it seemed every year he was in the news with some spectacular jump. He never meant that much to me, yet I remember the first song I ever wrote was a tribute to Evel. I just one day had the urge and out it came.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:54 AM
3 Comments:
Interesting, LAGuy -- can you give us the lyrics?
It was very mystical--you couldn't actually tell it was about Evel Knievel unless you had inside knowledge. However, if you took the first letter of each word in the bridge, you'd see it spelled out "The Snake River Canyon Jump."
Evel Knievel did some notable stunts but I have to think most of his fame (and his opportunity) came from the great nickname.
My little brother had the action figure and the wind-up cycle-- great fun. There was an SBIG TV movie about his life in the early 70s which was a big hit with the dirt bike urchins in the neighborhood- If Awful Knaufel (the small time hood wose nicknmae inspired the Evel monkier) had ever gone pro he prabably would have made some bucks as he was who the kids with their bike stunts pretended to be once someone else got dibs on Evel Knieval.
(Can anyone easily name any other motrcycle stuntman?)
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