Poptones.co.uk Cult Hero Department!

Only in Hollywood could a man like Eden Ahbez be the man who he was.  Born in NYC and grew up in an orphanage, he left the orphanage and criss-crossed the USA four times before settling in California where he lived on the streets, looking like Jesus Christ, in beard and long hair, Ahbez, was an early proto-hippie and bohemian, living under the L part of the Hollywood sign, giving impromptu lectures on oriental mysticism and living with nothing to his name.

Sounds relatively normal doesn’t it?  What town doesn’t have at least a small army of freaks roaming the streets looking like Jesus Christ? 

Except in 1948, Eden Ahbez tracked down Nat King Cole and offered him a song that he had written called ‘Nature’s Boy’.  Cole accepted the song with thanks and went onto his daily routine.  It was sometime later that Cole decided to record the song and add it too his act that he had to track down Ahbez and a record deal was struck under the L sign of Hollywood for use of that song.  Capital were unsure of what to do with such a song and left it up in the air until they put it on a b-side of a forthcoming Cole single.  The song ‘Nature boy’ with the refrain of ‘life’s greatest gift is too be loved’ was an immediate hit and it took many weeks to track down the homeless Ahbez who had made in excess of thirty grand from the recordings. 

However, after Nature Boy, Ahbez continued his nomadic lifestyle, living under the stars with his wife and small son.  Easily forgotten as the ultimate one-hit wonder except when Del-Fi records came into the picture.  Ahbez visisted Del-Fi Records who had an open door A and R policy at the time ... signed Ahbez to a recording contract which resulted in the strange and bizarre ‘Eden’s Island’, an album that combined the exoticism of Martin Denny with the beatnik poetry of Jack Keroauc.  After that resulting album, Eden returned to the hermetic life under the stars only appearing and recording with Brian Wilson shortly before Pet Sounds and Smile.  Eden is said to be responsible for Brian Wilson’s forays into exotic music and influencing the sound of both of these classic albums.

Click below for some cool archive movie footage of this cult-like genius…

http://shadowboxstudio.com/edenahbez.htm

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