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Who is Richard? - Printable Version

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Who is Richard? - Tiki - 07-08-2004

Can anyone tell me who Richard is from the Wherewithal lyrics? I've always wondered who he was (is?)....

- Stephen Dame - 07-08-2004

Whenever I hear that song, I think of two Cultural Icons: Mr. Dressup and Maurice "The Rocket" Richard. I promise you they're not what the song is about... but I've never been able to place anybody else in the lyrics... it's just another one of those "whatever you want it to be" songs I think.

Interested to know if anybody has the scoop though...

- Hairbird - 07-08-2004

Stephen Dame Wrote:Whenever I hear that song, I think of two Cultural Icons: Mr. Dressup and Maurice "The Rocket" Richard. I promise you they're not what the song is about... but I've never been able to place anybody else in the lyrics... it's just another one of those "whatever you want it to be" songs I think.

Interested to know if anybody has the scoop though...

I don't have the scoop, but I always think of Mr. Dressup too!

- Stephen Dame - 07-08-2004

Hairbird Wrote:
Stephen Dame Wrote:Whenever I hear that song, I think of two Cultural Icons: Mr. Dressup and Maurice "The Rocket" Richard. I promise you they're not what the song is about... but I've never been able to place anybody else in the lyrics... it's just another one of those "whatever you want it to be" songs I think.

Interested to know if anybody has the scoop though...

I don't have the scoop, but I always think of Mr. Dressup too!

Wow, that's weird. I wonder if it's because of the "No Costume Trunk" line in later works? Hmmmm... does Gord write self reflexive subliminal lyrics? My head hurts already.

- CanuckCourage - 07-08-2004

Seem to recall Richard Nixons name coming up in a previous thread.

- Stephen Dame - 07-08-2004

CanuckCourage Wrote:Seem to recall Richard Nixons name coming up in a previous thread.

Although Tricky Dick didn't die until a few years after the album came out. I think one of the lines deals with "Richard's" death...

- lord brazle - 07-08-2004

Richard Salant?

Knowing Gord's portfolio, it was probably physicist Richard Feynman
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- longseason - 07-09-2004

In 1985 Family Feud is cancelled after nine years with Richard Dawson as host. In 1992, the year of Fully Completely's release, CBS expands the show to an hour format, renaming it "The Family Feud Challenge", and changes it by including the introduction of the "Bullseye Round", and the construction of a new set.

Gord Downie laments the exclusion of Richard Dawson as host.

Richard talks too slow
he'd get interrupted long before
I always loved that guy
and he's not on T.V. anymore.

- longseason - 07-09-2004

For those of you who thought I was being facetious with my earlier reply -- here's more evidence that corroborates this theory.

Quote:RICHARD DAWSON was a game show giant in the 1970s, first as a panelist on the goofy Match Game and then as host of TV's Family Feud. His career ground to a halt in the mid-1980s, and by the 1990s rumors were circulating that Dawson was dead. Possibly the rumor-mongers were thinking of Dawson's successor as host of Family Feud, Ray Combs, who really did commit suicide in 1996.

http://www.who2.com/imnotdeadyet.html

There ya go -- more plausible than the Nixon theory anyways. Right around the time F.C. was released, rumours were circulating that he was dead.

Need more?

Richard Dawson was also invloved in a complex investigation surrounding the murder of celebrity Bob Crane in 1978. His son recounts the event:

Quote:"As far as I can remember," Mark Dawson tells New Times, "he was concerned with helping the cops find out who had killed his friend. He wasn't fleeing--just the opposite. My dad had no great love for Bob Crane, but he and John were shocked more than anything else. We really tried not to talk about it much."

Ya gotta coax him slow. That's the only way that he'll confess.

Richard Dawson I tells ya!

- longseason - 07-09-2004

Supposedly John Carpenter -- a video equipment sales clerk -- hid out at Richard Dawson's house for no apparent reason after killing Bob Crane.

The media implied that Dawson knew something.

He was questioned by the police but admitted nothing:

Tell him that the truth will
help him live with less

Okay I'll stop now. Too much time on my hands.

- longseason - 07-09-2004

On the "Glastonbury & Elsewhere" bootleg, Gord introduces the Werewithal as:

"Here's the price of assassination, 3800 pounds... Get you a nice one...someone you really hate".

Dawson, of course, was British. I would surmise that he's speaking here of Richard Dawson, John Carpenter and Bob Crane.

A little background info for you doubters:

Quote:Bob Crane's bludgeoned body was found on June 19, 1978 in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was in bed, curled in a fetal position with a cord tied around his neck. No physical signs of a struggle were apparent. The coroner said he was asleep. Crane was 49 years old.

Crane obsessed with sex, cameras, and videos and developed his own film and photographs. Porno. In fact, some of these pictures are evidently available by membership at his own son's website. Really.

Richard Dawson had introduced him to John Carpenter. This was a natural. Carpenter was an early expert on videotaping and shared Crane's love of scoring with women. He helped with the movies and got Crane's spillover women.

Carpenter was tried in 1992 for the murder but a jury didn't convict. The evidence was too flimsy. A small blood splatter in Carpenter's rental car was of Crane's rare blood type. This is all that could be confirmed. The supposed motive was rejection by Crane coupled with an unpaid $15,000 debt.

No one knows for sure.

Alright again, we've got 1992 the year of Fully Completely's release, Richard Dawson's refusal to implicate himself or John Carpenter in the death of Bob Crane by way of a confession, the swirling rumours of Dawson's death at the time, and Dawson being snubbed for the revised incarnation of "Family Feud".

I'd love to find out from Gord if this was his motivation -- at least in part -- for the lyrics presented in The Wherewithal.

Too many coincidences to not having something to do with it, methinks.

- thedarkestone - 07-09-2004

I also heard or read somewhere that is was about Richard Dawson.

- Hairbird - 07-09-2004

Thanks for the info longseason. Pretty interesting. Sounds like a good match for the song.

- mark - 07-09-2004

i gotta say, this has been a very informative thread. now i have to go listen to this song again.

- lord brazle - 07-09-2004

Props to longseason. :thumb: Excellent!