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Better than Jagger: The Only Sky Saxon Obituary You'll Ever Need
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You don’t have to tell me how bummed you are about the passing of Sky “Sunlight” Saxon (Did anyone actually call him “Sunlight”? Wow!). Even someone with a peripheral interest in punk knows one of rock’s greatest eccentrics has left the building and you can base that assessment on a hand full of Seeds records you’ve heard like “Pushin’ Too Hard,” (reportedly written because his girlfriend wanted to drag him shopping with her, which somehow makes this anthem even more universal), “Mr. Farmer” (about a hippie begging his local harvester to let him "water his crops”) and “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine” (the first truly elongated bout of whining ever to penetrate the Top 100).
And there’s the dozens more records you haven’t heard.a single note of, from offshoots like The Starry Seeds Band, Sky Saxon & Firewall and King Arthur's Court. Ditto for that 13-CD set of trippy tribal music from his commune he released in 1998. Thirteen CD set-that’s something even Prince never attempted—with or without the aid of Target!
Critics may have dismissed him as a third rate Jagger back in the day but that only meant Sky Saxon had three times the balls and the proof is in this double video viewing. Compare these two 1967 appearances and see who comes off cooler—Jagger mumbling “Let’s Spend some time Together” on The Ed Sullivan Show and rolling his eyes like Betty Boop to mask his embarrassment— or The everlovin' Seeds confronting the Generation Gap head-on in America's living rooms by appearing on The Mothers In-Law TV series. Even comedian puppeteer Jeff Dunham’s lips move less times than Sky Saxon’s does while miming to their “gassy” hit but it is pure menace even with a cape, which Jagger wouldn't don until 1969. Trivia note that the chickaroo frugging in the background is Deborah Walley, who swapped spit with the King in Elvis’ 1966 cinematic turd Spinout. There can be no doubt Sky Saxon was the King of rock in roll in his and many other people’s alternate universe.
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