Hasil Adkins dead at 68

As the New York Times reports ("Hasil Adkins, Wild Man of Rockabilly, Dies at 68"), one heck of an underappreciated figure in the development of rock n' roll died today: Hasil Adkins. Here's a brief snippet of the NYT's obituary. I'll record a short podcast tribute to Hasil later where I'll give you a tiny taste of him... :

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Hasil Adkins, a rockabilly singer who became a cult figure among record collectors and musicians for his raw, idiosyncratic music and outsize personality, was found dead on Tuesday at his home near Madison, W.Va. He was 68. [...]

His songs often straddled a line between the raucously funny and the disturbingly horrific. "She Said," his most famous tune, is a tall tale about the morning after a particularly regrettable one-night stand. "We Got a Date," sung in a gravelly sneer, tells a macabre story that features one of Mr. Adkins's favorite themes: beheading.

Mr. Adkins's few records began to circulate among collectors in the 70's, and his legend grew when the Cramps recorded a version of "She Said." [...]

After the release of "Out to Hunch," Mr. Adkins toured widely, often playing in clubs filled with fans who knew all the words to his songs. He was known to shock even his longtime fans and associates with his decidedly unbourgeois behavior.

"He was playing in a club one night," Mr. Miller said in an interview contained in the book "Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 1." "The ceiling fan was whirling around, making a creaky sound, and without missing a lick he reached down, pulled out a gun and shot it down - it was interfering with the song."

As feral as Mr. Adkins's music sounded to many listeners, he himself believed that it was nothing other than simple rock 'n' roll.

"I didn't try to be primitive," he once said. "I just had bad microphones."