eden ahbez: Mystical Man of Mystery

Walt Kelly, the artist/writer of the fantastic comic strip Pogo, once drew a panel that featured Pogo the possum and his sidekick, Porkypine, surveying a pasture overflowing with man-made litter. They declare, “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us.”  In 1948, George McGrew (a.k.a. eden ahbez) must have felt the same about America and its  9-5 rat race.  It was a race that he sat out as he took refuge in caves, on beaches or lawns. He ate only vegetables, fruits, and nuts, read about Eastern mysticism, wrote poetry, followed a Hindu spiritual guru, grew his hair to his shoulders, and wore beads, sandals, and flowing white robes.

This wasn’t exactly the go-to look or lifestyle in the 1940s but in the late ’60s, a swath of Americans (translation: hippies) had the same mindset and wardrobe. eden ahbez purposely spelled his name in lowercase letters because he felt only “God” and “Infinity” should be capitalized.  Indeed, a photograph of him looking like a Woodstock attendee standing beside the impeccably dressed Nat King Cole is evidence that eden may have been a time traveler as well as the “first hippie.”

He was born Alexander Aberle to Brooklyn-based parents who were so poor that they put him in an orphanage where he learned to play piano.  He was adopted by the McGrew family who raised him in Chanute, Kansas. But Alexander longed not to be in Kansas anymore and in his teens, left to be a rambling man. He temporarily set up camp under one of the “L”’s of the “HOLLYWOOD” sign in LA. He played piano at the Eutropheon, a vegetarian cafe.  Eden and the Eutropheon’s owners, John and Vera Richter, were adherents of Lebensreform (English translation: “life reform”), which pushed the then-unheard concepts of organic farming and vegetarianism.  Cowboy Jack Patton, a Eutropheon patron, and radio D.J., loved one of eden’s songs called “Nature Boy” and urged him to get the sheet music into Nat King Cole’s hands.

Eden took Cowboy’s advice and galloped to the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles where Nat was playing with his trio.  The theater’s employees refused to let the scruffy stranger see Nat but Cole’s valet, Otis Pollard, took the sheet music. As Otis handed the music to his boss, he said, “The guy I talked to is a genius or a nut.” Cole loved the tune and successfully tested it out in nightclubs.

The song wound up selling 8 million records and has been covered by Sinatra, Miles Davis, Alex Chilton, Grace Slick, David Bowie, and the inimitable Leonard Nimoy.  It also enchanted a boy in England. Paul McCartney stated in Barry Miles’ book, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now:

“I seem to remember writing ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ at my dad’s house in Liverpool. Visiting my family, I’d feel in a good mood, so it was often a good occasion to write songs. I’ve always loved the song called ‘Nature Boy.’ ‘There was a boy, A very strange, enchanted boy.’ He loves nature and ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ was inspired by that song.”

Even though eden professed that he had “not much use for money” and could live on three dollars a week, he collected writing residuals for “Hey Jacques” (recorded by Eartha Kitt in 1955) and “Lonely Island;” sung by Sam Cooke in 1957 and the last ahbez song to crack the Top 40.

By 1960, eden was a father to his twelve-year-old son, named Tatha Om Ahbez (though he went by Zoma), and had released his album Eden’s Island (The Music of an Enchanted Isle).  Unfortunately, the Island only sold a hundred copies, perhaps because the songs were part of a musical genre called “Exotica” or “Tiki” music. Some Exotica songs sound as if they were recorded in the middle of a jungle, as a menagerie of animals cawed, croaked, and roared over a piano or vibraphone playing mellow jazz and “exotic” instruments like bamboo flutes and Burmese gongs.

But although the record-buying public wasn’t impressed with eden’s solo effort, two rock stars were impressed with eden.  Donovan had a meeting with his fellow seeker of the cosmic truth in 1967; that same year, eden visited Brian Wilson at the Beach Boys’ Smile recording session.

Eden never recorded a second album. He also never recovered from his wife passing away at 44 from bone cancer and his son’s death from a drug overdose at 21.  Eden died in a car accident when he was 86.  Fortunately, he drove safely when he picked up a 19-year-old hitchhiker and fledgling musician. On Iggy Pop’s podcast, The Confidential Show, eden’s hitchhiker friend said: “When I first started, I was a folk singer and I remember hitchhiking in the rain with a guitar and I got picked up by a guy in an old Volkswagen bus — long hair, beads over the rear-view mirror swinging back and forth — and eden picked me up and dropped me off about a quarter of a mile up the road. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t really know anybody in show business, but after meeting eden ahbez, I now know somebody literally who is in show business.’ It was a big thrill for me.  And he dropped me off somewhere that was worse than the one where he picked me up but I didn’t mind.”

Once in L.A., Tom Waits’ career slowly took off and is still running.

-Mark Daponte

Fair use image of “Eden’s Island”