The little-known songwriter behind one of the biggest hits of the 1940s was also a country-wandering nomad who once lived under the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.
Full Moon Filmseden ahbez was the originative judgment behind several hit song in the forties and 1950s .
In 1948 , bivouac out under the first “ L ” of the Hollywood foretoken was a gentleman with shoulder - length fuzz who often wore clean robe and sandals . He may have almost resembled the modern image of Jesus , if Jesus was a proto - hippie who slept outdoors and ate only fruits , vegetable , and junkie .
Anyone who came across this man would never have guess that he was the author of the then - number one striking song in the United States : Nat King Cole ’s “ Nature Boy . ” This occult floater ’s name was eden ahbez — and he prefer that his name was spelled in all small letter , as the only Word he felt worthy of capitalization were Nature , God , Happiness , and Life .
Full Moon Filmseden ahbez was the creative mind behind several hit songs in the 1940s and 1950s.
Though ahbez was widely deal to be an character for most of his life , he did n’t cerebrate his way of living was all that strange . As he once enunciate in an interview withLife Magazine : “ I await unhinged but I ’m not . And the funny matter is that other the great unwashed do n’t look screwball but they are . ”
Today , many consider ahbez was one of the first people to live a “ hipster ” life style in the United States — years before it was popular .
Eden Ahbez’s Early Life
Full Moon Filmseden ahbez is often considered a pioneer of the early hippie move in America .
eden ahbez was born George Alexander Aberle in Brooklyn in 1908 . His mother die when he was new , and he spend his former years in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum , where he learned how to play the piano . He was adopted by a family in Kansas when he was nine years old , and he was then subsequently raised under the name George McGrew .
Little is bang about his meter in Kansas , but after the Great Depression hit , the now-20 - something gentleman began stray aimlessly around the Midwest . It ’s believed that he spent some time playing the pianoforte at bars and club in Kansas City in the thirties . by and by in the decade , he reportedly found himself in Miami , Florida , where he began learning about vegetarianism and meditation .
Full Moon Filmseden ahbez is often considered a pioneer of the early hippie movement in America.
By the forties , the vagabond instrumentalist had go to Los Angeles . Now in his 30s , he assume on the name eden ahbez and fall in up with a local community of nature mystics , many of whom were passionate about vegetarianism , raise environmental consciousness , and the musical theme of “ repay to nature . ” These philosophies all play a vast role in ahbez ’s modus vivendi .
“ Put just : he did not conceive fellowship , government , legislating , or education could solve the problem of the nerve and of why humans suffer and fight each other and destroy the major planet , ” enjoin Brian Chidester , who ’s grow a documentary on ahbez , in an interview withIt ’s Psychedelic Baby ! Magazine . “ He feel that could only come through solitude , patience , focus , awareness of nature and of the present instant , and through compassion . ”
eden ahbez also found love after he have to L.A. While he was perusing a wellness food store one mean solar day , a woman named Anna Jacobson caught his eye . set to meet her , ahbez follow her out to a streetcar , take place a note with his name and the address of the place he was detain at the time . Anyone else likely would have been terrified — but Jacobson , a fellow religious mystic herself , was charmed , and the two were married just a month subsequently .
It’s Psychedelic Baby! Magazineeden ahbez was with the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson in the studio when Wilson was recording theSmilesessions.
Through it all , ahbez continued to work on music — a passion that would soon result to him create a hit song for Nat King Cole .
“Nature Boy”: An Unlikely Hit
In 1947 , eden ahbez approached either the manager or the valet for Nat King Cole wing at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles and hand him some tattered sheet music , asking him to give it to Cole .
Cole quick come down in lovemaking with the patch , which was titled “ Nature Boy . ” He get down playing it last at his shows , but he could n’t formally memorialize it until he bring in tactual sensation with the mystery military personnel who wrote the song .
As the floor goes , ahbez was finally found living underneath the Hollywood signal . He give permission to Cole to record the Sung , and presently after he did , “ Nature Boy ” skyrocket to the top of the charts , claiming the figure one spot for eight weeks during the spring of 1948 .
As The Wind: The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbezahbez’s solo album sold less than 100 copies when it was first released, but it’s since become a cult classic.
The release of the soft , peaceful birdcall came at a tumultuous time for America . World War II had recently finish , and the Cold War had just begun . But early opinion of the anti - war apparent motion that would take hold in the Carry Nation in the 1960s and seventies were get to come along .
“ For such a aristocratical , pacifistic birdsong to have become the well - selling ace of the year speaks to a horse sense of incipient longing in the U.S. at that time , barely three years after the second world warfare , ” wrote Jon Savage forThe Guardian .
The vocal becoming a countrywide smasher was , ironically , in direct contrast with ahbez ’s lifestyle . Even after earning royalties from “ Nature Boy , ” ahbez keep to populate his itinerant modus vivendi , shun most material self-possession and granting few interviews to funny reporters . But every so often , he would reemerge in the public eye to portion out more of his work with the humankind .
Eden Ahbez’s Continued Music Career
It ’s Psychedelic Baby ! Magazineeden ahbez was with the Beach Boys ’ Brian Wilson in the studio apartment when Wilson was memorialize theSmilesessions .
A number of other artists covered eden ahbez ’s “ Nature Boy , ” include Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan . Meanwhile , eden ahbez continued to write Sung dynasty for Cole — like “ Land of Love ( fall My Love and Live with Me ) ” — and several other big - name performing artist , such as Eartha Kitt and April Stevens .
Notably , in 1958,Sam Cookereleased ahbez ’s song “ Lonely Island , ” which charted within the top 30 call on the Billboard chart .
In 1960 , ahbez decided to loose a solo album , Eden ’s Island , whichLight in the Attic Recordslater call “ one of the earth ’s most important album in the field of Exotica , Jazz and even Proto Psychedelic Music . ”
One reviewer write in 2023 : “ ‘ edens island ’ is a mix of spoken give-and-take intermezzo , jazz and exotica that surely stands out as original for its time . I have no idea how much it sell but it certainly had an result on Brian Wilson and you could hear its influence on ‘ Smile ’ in position . ” ( Interestingly enough , ahbez was in fact snap with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in the studio around the clip of theSmilesessions . )
That said , the album sell poorly at the time it was released — reportedly less than 100 copy — but it has come to be regarded as more or less of a furor classic and has been recognize for ahbez ’s influence on some of the popular music of his clip , such as exotica and island - inspired melodic phrase . ahbez ’s influence even hand The Beatles as they immortalize theirWhite Album .
“ I think ‘ Nature son ’ had an inexplicit and sometimes explicit effect on the hippie propagation in general , ” Chidester said . “ Paul McCartney said as much when he credited ‘ Nature male child ’ with being the inspiration behind his birdcall ‘ Mother Nature ’s Son ’ in an interview a few years ago . ”
Eden Ahbez’s Later Years And Lasting Influence
As The Wind : The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbezahbez ’s solo album sold less than 100 copy when it was first released , but it ’s since become a cult classic .
In the sixties , the hippie social movement that eden ahbez had personify ahead of time on entered into the mainstream . But after his married woman died of Crab in 1963 , he lose much of his artistic inspiration , as she had inspired many of his songs .
By the terminal of the decade , he had become increasingly withdrawn , though he occasionally resurface to get together with artists on projects . And every so often , he ’d concede a rarefied interview to newsperson who contacted him .
ahbez die in 1995 at long time 86 follow a car accident , but his influence live on , and there has been renewed interest in his life-time and euphony , especially in late yr . His solo albumEden ’s Islandwas reprint shortly after his death , and has since been reissued legion time in recent decades .
Brian Chidester , who is presently working on a documentary about ahbez calledAs the idle words : The Enchanted Life of Eden Ahbez , also worked with a Swedish exotica band named Ixtahuele to record and release an record album of ahbez ’s live songs , titlededen ’s ahbez ’s Dharmaland .
“ In 2009 , I ended up doing research on [ ahbez ] at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and came across a big single file of copyright lead - sheet that he ’d put forward to the library between 1955 and 1968 , ” Chidester allege . “ In there were 22 title of respect from 1960 - 63 , none of which I recognized from my old inquiry , and which over time I realized had some deal theme , either musically or lyrically or both . ”
He continued , “ Between late 2018 and summer 2019 , I whittled it down to twelve tracks from the original hoard of 22 trail - sheets , based mainly on the path in which the tracks were interlink , and how they told a loose story of this imaginary human beings called Dharmaland . ”
While eden ahbez was lesser known during his life-time — make unnecessary for his employment on creating the beloved song “ Nature Boy ” — his life history and influence on exotica medicine and the hippie movement are now finally coming to light .
After reading about eden ahbez and “ Nature Boy , ” read aboutthe “ first ” American hippy , who fetch the lifestyle to the U.S. in the 1910s . Or , check out thesephotos of the Beatnik bowel movement of the 1950s .
