BUCKEY'S BEST LINER NOTES

"Milords and Miladies of the Royal Court" his Lordship would address his audience, and in those words could be found the keys to the philosophy (way of life) to which his grace did most totally ascribe... that nobility be shared through the enlightenment of his fellow man... that all the buddy cats be hipped to the sweet cool groove of liberty and their titles be seen in the clear glow of man's nobility.

His Lordship's first command performance in this Royal Court was given on April 5,1908, in a small mining town called Tuolumme, near San Francisco, Weighing in at 14 lbs., he was often accused of causing the big "Frisco Quake." Although no evidence supported this theory, it is a fact in history that his Lordship did continue to shake up whatever part of the world in which he happened to be. For as he lived, charged with a dynamic vitality, linked to an incessant drive against hypocrisy in any form, he left only two kinds of people behind. Those who loved him and those who didn't even like him. There was just no room in the middle.

He seldom walked, but rather stomped like some mad crusader bent on turning on everyone near with his presence. He seldom spoke, but rather bellowed to the rafters with such power as to make one doubt his own existence, and yet even as he whispered, all those fortunate to be present would be held totally spellbound. Henry Miller, celebrated author, once spoke of his Highness thusly: "It's all so very alive and jumpin' and in the pauses one can hear the atoms exploding out there in the milky way where the grass comes up one in ten billion years and there are no moth balls or Frigidaires, no box office receipts, no railroads, no crucifixions, rosy or otherwise. ''it is very far out, your Lordship." It seems to me that Sir Henry of Miller has most groovily put forth a love sound which aptly captured the essence of his Lordship.

In a world where language is sometimes more a barrier than a means to communicate, it may seem ironic to some why Lord Buckley chose to invent his own. But just as sure as there are now hippies on Sunset Boulevard, there were those in nightclubs and concert halls who would most reverently wig out to the stories of Jesus, Ghandi, Lincoln and many more, told in the updated, uptempo language of (as his Lordship so aptly put it) "The American Beauty Negro combined with the manner of the hip English Nobleman. Presented with humor, the truth became brighter and when lubricated by the wondrous magic of laughter was infinitely more digestible. As if trying to prove Shakespeare's line, "The world is a stage and the people are but the players," his Lordship took every opportunity to perform wherever he happened to be. In a private home or in a supermarket, in a concert hall or standing on the desert at sunrise, his Lordship was prepared to and most often did perform for whoever was present.

In my opinion, the climax of his career was reached in Hollywood at a series of concerts at the Ivar Theater. It was in these concerts that years of work, combined with enraptured audiences brought the most exciting moments in theater that I have ever witnessed. As you listen to this recording, taken from the Ivar Concerts, you magically share the experience of the audience present as the laughter weaves an inseparable pattern with the performance.

We live in a world which is unfortunately hard on its heros...and so in New York City in November, 1960, Lord Buckley suffered a fatal stroke. He left behind a Volkswagen bus, a few numbers played in his honor by Monk and Gillespie, a wife, two flower children and me.

On his behalf, I'd like to quote one of my father's favorite thoughts:

"...PEOPLE ARE THE TRUE FLOWERS OF
LIFE, AND IT HAS BEEN A MOST PRECIOUS
PLEASURE TO HAVE TEMPORARILY
STROLLED IN YOUR GARDEN."
Lord Buckley

Sincerely,
Fred Buckley