Biff Rose - Buzz The Fuzz

An odd and goofy singer/songwriter who didn't fit in any comfortable niche when he emerged in the late 1960s, New Orleans pianist Biff Rose was like a vaudeville entertainer reincarnated as a spacy hippie. It isn't quite accurate to call him a rock artist, but he fits in rock about as well as anywhere else. If he's remembered by rock audiences, it's because David Bowie covered a Rose song -- "Fill Your Heart" (co-written by Rose and Paul Williams), from Rose's 1968 debut album The Thorn in Mrs. Rose's Side on Hunky Dory. Bowie also covered another song from that album, "Buzz the Fuzz," in live performances (it can be heard on a 1970 bootleg), and there can be no doubt that Rose influenced Bowie's early-'70s work, particularly Hunky Dory, which owed something to Rose's early albums in both the quasi-musical piano styles and thorny-rose lyrics.

http://www.biffrose.com/

Category:

Music

Tags:

• 1968
• outsider
• music
• david
• bowie
• hunky
• dory

[nemo227]

Biff was just what the people needed at the time. Clever lyrics in most of his songs and Biff had a unique delivery. Yeah, I bought the album. Still have it (decades later). I had been wondering what happened to him and then found him on youtube (everything is on youtube). Still a gentle person, apparently.

[YY4Me133]

"Shoved his gun in Alice's chest and said, 'Dis is a bust!'"

It's still my favorite line, and it still makes me chuckle.

[Kingscrib]

Like Nemo227, I am constantly amazed at what's found its way onto youtube. This tune and Tom Lehrer's material from That Was The Year That Was have found there way onto the internet, which is incredible considering how controversial they were in the mid-60s! Saw Biff at the Atlantic City Pop Festival, where he became the pro-tem emcee when Joni Mitchell had a meltdown after being razzed onstage by the audience. Truth, I didn't think anyone remembered these guys and how much fun it was back then!

[MAGNANOMUS]

Biff visited me in Detroit back in 2005 (i think). I promptly put him in a vocal booth and he did my overdubs (backing accent tracks) to a Hip-Hop song i did called "The Story Goes.."! -Beautiful..

[TheAli426]

Great tune.