He was the antithesis of East Coast cynical,” said [Bonnie] Raitt, who spent Sunday morning watching Buffalo videos on YouTube. “He was always in funny mode without being too gooey about it. He’s been that guy all this time. In one guy, you got all the hope and optimism of the ’70s.” Harmonica maestro Norton Buffalo dies at 58, Joel Selvin,SF Gate.
Finally catching up on the news of the week and sorry to learn of the death of Norton Buffalo. According to the obit there will be a benefit celebration of life on January 23rd at the Fox Theatre in Oakland.
When a zither starts to play
You’ll remember yesterday
In its haunting strain Vienna lives again
Free and bright and gay
In your mind a sudden gleam
Of a half forgotten dream
Seems to glimmer when you hear The Third Man Theme
Lyrics to The Third Man Theme by author Walter Lord, best known for the book A Night to Remember.
Anton Karas commemorative plaque, in Wien 20., Leystraße 46, in front of the house where Karas had spent the first 19 years of his life. The plaque was unveiled on July 4, 2006, due to Karas’ 100th birthday. (Photograph taken by Bunutzer Priwo and released into public domain.)
I happened to catch The Third Man Theme, also know as The Harry Lime Theme, on the radio today. If you have ever seen the movie, The Third Man, you’ll completely understand when I say that upon hearing the theme visions float in my mind of post-WWII Vienna, which the movie seemed to capture so well and so poignantly. It’s a picture of a Vienna that probably no longer exists. I was too young to see the movie when it debuted in the U.S. in 1950. I saw it as a TV rerun a number of times as a youngster, each time with better understanding. But right from the first, I fell in love with Anton Karas’ zither music. I wasn’t the only one. When the movie came out, the theme became a best-seller and the Karas’ career was forever made. He died in 1985, three years after the performance in the video posted above.
Find more interesting Karas’ trivia and music samples here.
