Kinky Music

Who else could have written a country song about the Holocaust ("Ride 'Em Jewboy"), or about a human being kept in a cage as part of a circus ("Wild Man from Borneo")? Outrageous and irreverent but nearly always thought-provoking, Kinky Friedman wrote and performed satirical country songs during the 1970s and has been hailed the Frank Zappa of country music. The son of a University of Texas professor who raised his children on the family ranch, Rio Duckworth, he was born Richard F. Friedman. He studied psychology at Texas and founded his first band while there. However, King Arthur & the Carrots – a group that poked fun at surf music – recorded only one single in 1966. After graduation, Friedman served three years in the Peace Corps; he was stationed in Borneo, where he was an agricultural extension worker.

Spanning 55 years and 45 songs, a 2CD collection to ratify Manchester’s claim to be Britain’s second – if not at times, first – musical city. From primal beat through promiscuous punk, high 80s disco/soul and pure baggy to proud and proper rock, the evidence is all here.