- Nick Hathaway
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Nick Hathaway 
The only known portrait of Nick Hathaway, painted in the 1940sBackground information Birth name Jameson Babcock Born 1915, Chester, Pennsylvania Died March 30, 2011, Chester, Pennsylvania Genres All Occupations Songwriter, pianist Nick Hathaway is a fictitious American songwriter created as a stunt for April Fools' Day by the music critic David Hajdu [1] [2] with the help of the musicians John Doe, Jill Sobule, Geoff Muldaur, Jon Weber, and the computer scientist Stephen A. Edwards. The factual inspiration for the Nick Hathaway story is a few lines of mock song lyrics that Bob Dylan improvised in an interview with Gil Turner for Sing Out! magazine in 1962. Hajdu alerted Dylan's organization about the Hathaway stunt in advance, and the parody encomium that Hajdu wrote about Hathaway was published on The New Republic website with an April Fool's message. On April 1, 2011, the Wikipedia for Hathaway appeared as follows.
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Nick Hathaway
Nick Hathaway (date unknown, 1915-March 30, 2011) was an American songwriter who wrote hundreds of songs in all musical styles, none of which was successful during his long lifetime. He is known mainly for writing Ooka Dooka Dicka Dee, a song that Bob Dylan quoted in an interview in 1962 [3] .[4]
Life and career
Hathaway's original name was Jameson Babcock, and he grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania. In his youth, he was given the nickname Nick, which is short for "nickname." When he started writing songs, the name clicked, because he got most of his ideas by borrowing (or "nicking") from songwriters with talent. His stage name Hathaway came from the label of one of his shirts or a shirt he borrowed (or "nicked") from a friend.
Hathaway never left Chester, Pennsylvania, except for extended periods when he lived in New York, Chicago, and various other cities in the United States. He is understood to have written hundreds of songs in every style, following the trends of the previous year. In the country and western genre, his songs include "If You're Running Away from Me, I'm Behind You All the Way." He even experimented in psychedelic rock, composing "The War Between the States of Mind." He wrote several musical shows, including an adaptation of "West Side Story" set in Shakespeare's time, and an all-Black "Finian's Rainbow." He also composed scores for films his own movie scripts (unproduced), special material for industrial productions, and sound design for the Theater for the Deaf. His songs are sung as widely as ever.
Nick Hathaway died at the piano, like his music, in Chester, Pennsylvania on March 30, 2011.
References
- ^ Hajdu, David (April 1, 2011), "Remembering the Forgettable Nick Hathaway", The New Republic, The Famous Door (Blog), http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-famous-door/86123/remembering-nick-hathaway-tin-pan-alley
- ^ An April Fool's Day obituary from Prof. David Hajdu Columbia Journalism School News, April 5, 2011
- ^ Heylin, Clinton (1991). Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades. Fireside Books - Simon & Schuster.
- ^ Sounes, Howard (2002). Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan. Grove Press. ISBN 0802138918.
External links
- Heylin's book on Google Books
- Sounes's book on Google Books
- YouTube: Jill Sobule and John Doe pay tribute to the late songwriter Nick Hathaway
- YouTube: Geoff Muldaur sings Nick Hathaway
- Remembering the Forgettable Nick Hathaway
- Nick Hathaway, writer of "Ooka Dooka Dicka Dee," dies at 96
- The Daily For Blog, Ooka Dooka Dicka WHAT?
- An April Fool's Day obituary from Prof. David Hajdu
Categories:- Fictional musicians
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