Friday, May 6, 2011

Murray the K - In Memoriam

If you remember "Submarine Race Watching", you remember the DJ Murray Kaufman, other wise known as "Murray the K". Murray ruled the airwaves of New York City and the surrounding areas from 1958 to 1967. I remember being a regular listener of his WINS radio show "Murray the K and His Swingin' Soiree"  http://www.1960sailors.net/05b_Murray_the_K.htm  (scroll down the page for audio clips!).

and hearing The Submarine Race Watcher mantra at regular intervals.


I also remember him as the self-proclaimed "Fifth Beatle". It was some time after this Beatle phase that I gradually lost touch with him and his show. I totally agree with those that felt he was sucking up to the Fab Four way too much. If one of them stopped, Murray needed vitamin K to stop his nose from bleeding.
Here are two videos covering this topic:
                                                                                  
                            

                            
                               [That's British Slang for "Jerkoff"; wanking means beatin off!]

Like the singer Shirley Ellis in her song, The Name Game, Murray invented his own language. This entailed taking the first letter of a word and inserting "eee-azz" between it and the rest of the word. Baby for example became b "eee-azz" aby. His own name Murray wound up to sound like M "eee-azz" urray. That was real cool for that time period. When all was said and done, he kept hipster talk and its protoype "scat" alive beyond the 1940's and '50's. He was sort of an Uber-beatnik in many ways.

"Ah bey, whoa.
Ah bey, whoa.
Koomazowazowa!
Whoa!"