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FROM IAN BURREL, ENGLAND
Hello. My name is Ian Burrel. While surfing, I discovered your web site.
Since one year, I also try to find a guy who's called The Dude. He rather
seems to look like the portrait you've made.
Right before the end of last year, this guy with the impossible look entered
in the restaurant where I had dinner with some friends. All the evening
long, he told us his story. This too appears to agree: he told us that
when he was young, he had been surfing a lot with Dennis Wilson of Beach
Boys. We wondered whether he was bluffing or not... He also showed us
an incredible dance step...
I'd like to be sure that we speak well about the same guy... Does it have
you says that he was a musician? That he has been playing with great musicians
and singers and had? That he met and spent time with many American artists?
Let us try to join our efforts to find him. I rely on you to send me information
if you find some. I'll do the same if only I got some news.
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FROM STEPHEN AOTERAOA, NEW ZEALAND
I've just visit your web site. Funny! What you tell about this old guy
reminds me somebody I met. He was also called The Dude. It happened five
years ago. I had just bought and old Haley Davidson falling in pieces
and I was just beginning to repair it, all by myself. I was installed
outside. Suddenly, the guy came and told me I was going the wrong way
about it. He offered his services to help me. He spent eight days, working
on my motorbike with me. And gave me a lot of ideas for customizing it.
In return, he asked me if he could set up in my garden and use my bathroom
for a shower sometimes; I proposed him to sleep in my house but he refused.
He preferred to sleep in the open to be inspired for his music. Besides
he was quite an impressive musician. Sometimes he was playing fantastic
stuffs with my electric guitar. One morning, he told me he had a very
important appointment in Auckland and left as he came. I never saw him
again. I don't know if my story can help you. But your man was in New
Zealand, five years ago.
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FROM GLADIATOR, TOULOUSE
Hi! I guess I saw your guy last spring in Toulouse. I was having fun with
some friends about soft machines. The old man came and took a part in
our conversation, declaiming stuffs in English. We couldn't stop him anymore.
When he was finished, we asked about his delirious. He answered, evoking
beat generation and Burroughs, the guy who wrote the book called The Soft
Machine (till this night, I believed that Soft Machine was just a band
name)… We didn't understand anything. But he was cool and fun. So
we offered him a drink. Many drinks, to tell the truth. This bloody bastard
could really stand alcohol !
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FROM FRANCESCO, FRANCE
If we talk about the same Dude, I carried him in my car, as he was hitchhiking
in Italy last month. I remember him very clearly because I was just listening
an old Steely Dan record. All the distance long, he talked about the band.
He has been jamming with them because he was a Chevy Chase's mate (I had
never heard about this American actor before!). Chevy Chase, who sometimes
played drums with Fagen and Becker, introduced them The Dude. He claimed
roughly that he inspired some Steely Dan songs. I left him in Bari and
I can't tell you more about him.
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BELINDA BEAUMONT, TUCSON, ARIZONA
Internet is such a cool thing! I've got the feeling that the guy you're
seeking is my grandfather. I've never seen him, neither my mother. Let
me explain: in early 60's, my grandmother was working as a striptease
artist in Carrousel Club, Jack Ruby's burlesque house. You know, the same
Jack Ruby who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Well, in short, during year 1963,
a movie director wanted to make a movie called Naughty Dallas, with the
club strippers. My grandmother, who then was called Pompon "Ring
My Bell" Beaumont, made a brief appearance in the movie. The director
appointed a kid who was hanging around as a handyman. This kid spent a
little time with Pompon… Then, without any warning, he left her pregnant.
My mom and me, we heard very often this story. A few years ago, my grandmother
confessed that she had seen him again later, by accident… Without
telling us. Then, he was asking people to call him The Dude. Granny described
us exactly the same man you describe on your web site. I'm sure you understand
I'm really curious to meet him one day. Just to be sure… I hope you'll
help me if ever you meet him again.
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NICKLAUS STAUBER, HEIDELBERG
You wrote that The Dude is a contemporary hero: I confirm! I met this
man in 1993. I was working on a book about Hansel and Gretel and I wanted
to interview Stephen King, because his books reefers to this legend very
often. But King had decided to play rock'n'roll with his band, The Rock
Bottom Reminders. During May 1993, he precisely was on tour and I had
to follow him in several towns. That's the way I met The Dude. He was
caring of the band's instrument on the tour and sometimes, gets on stage
and played with the musicians. First, he began to tell me the story of
his life. His adventures were so amazing, so fascinating that I told him
immediately I wanted to write a book about him. He's dead set against
the plan. Two or three nights later, he disappeared. I interrogated everybody.
I wanted to know where he came from… In fact, somebody told me that
King engaged himself The Dude. I asked King, but I couldn't get a word
out of him. I had the impression they knew each other since a long time.
I even wonder if the old man didn't sit for The Gunslinger' s character…
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UNN CASPARSEN, NORWAY
Sorry… I've no information for you. I'm just writing to you because
I'm preparing a documentary. If you quickly find The Dude, I'd like to
include his testimony in my film. Please let me know if you've got some
news.
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IAN BURREL, LONDON
Thanks for your answer. How far have you got? For me, it becomes urgent
to meet him again. There is one thing I didn't tell you in my last e-mail.
When he left last year, The Dude let me a messy rucksack full of old vinyl
records where he was credited and tapes where fragments of music were
recorded. Plus some notebooks with texts scraps mixed with celebrities
autographs. He had written on notebooks "Now here comes your turn
to play. You are The Dude!" I worked on his ideas with some musicians.
We've made a record. Maybe we've got an opportunity to release it, but
the label would like to get the old man's agreement. If you're on some
new tracks, please answer me. I've noticed you had pictures on your web
site. I send you on of mine attached. See U.
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PINACOLADA, HAWAÏ
At the beginning of December, your Dude was making Pipeline's waves in
Hawaii. Is he still here? That's the question. You just have to check
it by yourselves…
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FAZE, PARIS (France)
Hello boys! I'm Faze, ZE best choreographer in the world! I can't help
you in your seek, but I had a kick on the music of your web site. While
waiting to listen some more, here is a little demo about the shuffle it
inspired to me. I'd like to get in touch with the composer. Could you
do that for me? See U.
See
the video
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DYLAN, MIAMI (USA)
Hi! Your web site stirred up the hidden private eye in me… Leading a little
inquiry in Miami, I achieved this old fantasy. I send you the result.
Do what you wanna do, but it'll be cool if my film could be on line on
your web site. I won't drop the affair. I'll contact you again if I got
some news…
interview
1 - interview
2 - interview
3 - interview
4
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French version
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