Donegan, Done In Again

Celebrating a Deathday™: Legendary UK skiffle player Lonnie Donegan — aka, Doyle Lonnegan — died on this day, November 4, 2002. Known as the “King of Skiffle,” the Scottish-born Donegan greatly influenced a generation of British musicians in the 1960’s, and with song titles like, “Diggin’ My Potatoes (Strainin' My String Beans),” “My Old Man's A Dustman (My Mum's The Virgin Mary),” "Take My Self-Pleasuring Hand, Lord" and “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (After The Thirty-Second Chew?)” 'tis easy to see why! Skiffle was a ragtag style of music that borrowed loosely from jazz, blues, folk, country swing, early prog, glam rock and rave club ambient, and was played on largely homemade instruments, such as washboards, fishing poles, garbage can lids, hockey sticks, hub caps, hollowed pumpkins, emptied AriZona® iced-tea jugs, automobile grills and Prince Albert tobacco tins, all of which created a driving rhythm that would drive anyone with discerning ears mad. We'll guess that skiffle music was the antidote for a depressed post-war generation — we don’t know that for a fact, but that’s the kind of thing music wankerers like to posit to make themselves sound smart — however, we do know that skiffle caught fire — quite literally — when the band “The Oneders” went up in smoke after their drum kit burst into flames, an incident that was the basis for the song “(Second Hand) Smoke On Or About The Water” by England’s Deep — or to our eyes, Very Dark — Purple. Donegan's skiffle prowess is said to have largely influenced The Quarrymen, who went on to become Herman Hermit’s — or possibly Procol Harum — before finally arriving on the moniker Mungo Jerry. With over twenty Top 30 UK hits, Lonnie Donegan was the most successful British musician prior to the arrival of Oasis, according to either the Guinness Book of World Records® or brothers Liam and Noël Gallagher and their mum and aunties. Donegan retired from music in the 70’s and would later enjoy success as a pinstripe-suited, moustoachioed card shark — operating under the alias "Doyle Lonnegan" — riding the rails, out-hustling young grifters looking to cash in on the big con. Happy Anni-hearse-ary™, then, Lonnie "Doyle Lonnegan" Donegan!