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The ‘Uncle Duke’ action figure that made Hunter S. Thompson want to ‘rip out’ Garry Trudeau’s lungs


 
It was 1974 when Gary Trudeau debuted the newest member of his Doonesbury comic crew, “Uncle Duke,” to the world. And the man whom the character was based on, gun-toting Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson was not pleased. In an interview with High Times, Thompson recalled the moment he became aware of Uncle Duke.

It was a hot, nearly blazing day in Washington, and I was coming down the steps of the Supreme Court looking for somebody, Carl Wagner or somebody like that. I’d been inside the press section, and then all of a sudden I saw a crowd of people and I heard them saying, “Uncle Duke,” I heard the words Duke, Uncle; it didn’t seem to make any sense. I looked around, and I recognized people who were total strangers pointing at me and laughing. I had no idea what the fuck they were talking about. I had gotten out of the habit of reading funnies when I started reading the Times. I had no idea what this outburst meant…It was a weird experience, and as it happened I was sort of by myself up there on the stairs, and I thought: “What in the fuck madness is going on? Why am I being mocked by a gang of strangers and friends on the steps of the Supreme Court? Then I must have asked someone, and they told me that Uncle Duke had appeared in the Post that morning.

Thompson went on to say that “no one grows up wanting to be a cartoon character” and that if he ever caught up with Garry Trudeau, he would “rip his lungs out.” While that never happened, in 1992 Trudeau published book called Action Figure!; The Life and Times of Doonesbury’s Uncle Duke that chronicled the misadventures of Uncle Duke that came with a five-inch action figure of dear Uncle Duke along with a martini glass, an Uzi, cigarette holder, a bottle of booze, and a chainsaw. While Trudeau has never been one to shy away from controversy, this bold move seemed rather suicidal or at the very least a very direct threat to the current location of Trudeau’s lungs. You can actually still find the book and its sneering Uncle Duke action figure on auction sites like eBay and on Amazon like I did.
 

 
More images follow, after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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06.10.2016
10:20 am
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Who Are You: Did Keith Moon play drums on a 1976 ‘Doonesbury’ novelty record?


 
Doonesbury fans will already be familiar with the character of “Jimmy Thudpucker,” Garry Trudeau’s device for commenting on the then-new archetype of the big-time 70s rock and roll star. As Wikipedia has it, “He is generally seen as a combination of Bob Dylan and John Denver (and to some extent, Loudon Wainwright III), and became a rock star in the seventies, when he was only 19. Others have compared Thudpucker to a young Jackson Browne.” To my way of thinking, Jackson Browne is generic enough to serve as an ideal model for Thudpucker; that seems about right.

Dangerous Minds readers will remember the recent post we did about the 1977 Doonesbury TV special. It turns out that there was a similar cross-pop culture injection around the same time—I refer to the Jimmy Thudpucker LP release: Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits, released on John Denver’s Windsong label in 1977.
 
Jimmy Thudpucker's Greatest Hits
 
“Jimmy” was accompanied by “the Walden West Rhythm Section”—in the Doonesbury universe, “Walden” is Trudeau’s stand-in for Yale University.

The Walden West Rhythm Section featured some of the best session musicians available—and crazily enough, the ad-hoc outfit may have included Keith Moon for at least a little bit. Let’s look at the evidence. What’s crystal clear is that the core of Thudpucker’s backup band was made up of some very familiar names such as the album’s producer, Steve Cropper, who also played guitar; bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn; guitarist Jay Graydon; legendary session drummer Jeff Porcaro. Of course, Cropper and Dunn are both legendary figures from Booker T and the MGs; and Porcaro was a member of Toto, which formed around the same time; whereas Jay Graydon awesomely nailed the guitar solo on Steely Dan’s 1977 song “Peg.” (In fact, a number of 1977 Doonesbury strips centered on a character called Jay “Wah-Wah” Graydon.)

So far, so good, right? Still no evidence of Keith Moon. But wait. The ninth track on the album is “Ginny’s Song”—it was released as a single and (I think) came out a year or so before the album—on Warner Bros., not Windsong; that is, it may have been an entirely different session. (“Ginny” was a reference to “Virginia Slade,” an important African-American character from the early years of the strip.) Here’s a screenshot from the video linked below, of a YouTube user playing the “Ginny’s Song” single and also showing the sleeve artwork.
 
Keith Moon
 
Well, well! Another clue is that Steve Cropper was listed as one of the producers of Keith Moon’s 1975 solo album Two Sides of the Moon.

True to Thudpucker’s essence as a cobbled-together stand-in to represent any number of actual musicians, the tracks on Greatest Hits are all over the map. Sometimes, as on “You Can’t Fight It,” the music has a sultry, funky edge; “I Do Believe” is a pure Dylan parody; “Ginny’s Song” is white soul/pop hybrid.

The voice of Jimmy Thudpucker was actually James “Jimmy” Brewer, who, due to the in-joke nature of pretending that Thudpucker’s album was a real thing, à la Spinal Tap, was denied his due credit for his singing performance for, well, several decades. Here’s Brewer’s account, from a message board in May 2008:
 

I’m James “Jimmy” Brewer, the singer/songwriter who co-wrote the tunes and provided the voice for “Ginny’s Song,” the single for Warner Bros.; the film, “A Doonesbury Special,” and the LP, “Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits,” released on Windsong Records.

For reasons still unknown to me, when all three projects were unveiled, Mr. Trudeau had completely removed my name from everything and had given the credit for my work to “Jimmy Thudpucker.” There was a “rumour,” circulated via many newspapers that regularly ran Doonesbury, that Trudeau was indeed secretly Jimmy Thudpucker. A number of the songs, including the two that were used in the film, were written before I ever met Mr. Trudeau.

I was the sole participant in all three projects whose work went totally uncredited. Twenty-five years later, after countless inquiries, he acknowledged me on his website.

 
“Ginny’s Song”

 
After the jump, all 10 tracks of Jimmy Thudpucker’s Greatest Hits…...

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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02.28.2014
03:37 pm
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Brilliant ‘Doonesbury’ TV special from 1977 questions the high-minded ideals of the 1960s
01.29.2014
07:06 pm
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In 1977 NBC aired A Doonesbury Special, a short film produced by John and Faith Hubley—a couple of married animators probably best known for their work on The Electric Company—based on Garry Trudeau’s popular “Doonesbury” comic strip.

The Academy Award-nominated animation (it won a Special Jury Award at Cannes for best short film in 1978) was written by Trudeau together with the Hubleys and revolves around a question proto-Yuppie baby boomers were asking themselves a lot at that time: “Have I sold out the counterculture ideals of my younger days?”

It’s depressing to keep in perspective that when the long-running strip began in 1970, the main characters (Mike, Zonker, Mark, etc) were commune-dwelling college students. Today they’re senior citizens!

It’s difficult to imagine a primetime animated TV special in 2014 that name-checks Simone de Beauvoir or George McGovern getting commissioned by even the most recklessly adventurous network exec, but this thing is a treat. I wonder if this was the first time someone was shown smoking pot in an American television show? Even if that someone was a cartoon character, this was still something that you didn’t see so much back then…
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.29.2014
07:06 pm
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