King Tut – Funky Tut!

So I’m driving into work this morning with my music cranked up, when on the radio comes Steve Martin’s King Tut. And in my mind I’m immediately transported back to Spring break 1979, when some friends of mine and I drove non-stop for approximately 23 hours in a 1976 Datson station wagon to Fort Lauderdale so we could share seven days of sun, sand, and nighttime wildness with 100,000 other crazed college students. (For some reason I have absolutely no desire ever to do that again – although I did have a pretty good time!)

Anyway, to pass the time as we drove, we listened over and over again to a cassette tape (Remember those?) of Steve Martin’s 1978 album, Wild and Crazy Guy, which featured some of his now classic comedy bits like Cat Handcuffs, You Naive Americans, and, of course, the title track, Wild and Crazy Guy.

I can’t even begin to count the number of times we listened to that tape (the whole album’s just 39 minutes long, so you do the math!), all of us in unison, voicing out loud lines like, “I've gotta get a pair of cat handcuffs, and I've gotta get 'em right away!” And (with a French accent, please!), “You Americans are so naive; you have so many naive ways. For instance, in my country, when you break up with a woman, you simply say, ‘I break with thee, I break with thee, I break with thee.' And then you throw dog poop on her shoes!"

Without question, one of the best cuts on the album was the novelty song, King Tut, which rose to #17 on the Billboard charts in 1978. Now, whenever the song comes on the radio (as it did this morning), I can’t help but sing along, belting out in full voice great lines like, “Now if I’d known they’d line up just to see him, I’d have taken all my money and bought me a museum!” An interesting side note: the backup band on the recording – identified as the Toot Uncommons – is actually the Nitty Gritty Dirt band, with whom Martin had previously appeared as an opening act.

Over the past 40 years Steve Martin has enjoyed success as a comedian, actor, musician and writer, and he is truly a multi-talented individual. Still, my best memories go back to his early albums, his wild and crazy routines, and the wonderful way he made me and my friends laugh.