Robert Craig "Bob" Knievel Jr. (/ˈiːvəl kɪˈniːvəl/, was born on October 17, 1938. Known professionally as Evel Knievel, he was an American stunt performer, painter, entertainer, and international icon. Over the course of his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps; in 1974, he failed an attempted canyon jump across Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket.
I learned about Knievel in the early sixties; I'd already had a decade-long love affair with the motorcycle via Marlon Brando and the film, The Wild One (1953). On March 3, 1972, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, after making a successful jump, Knievel tried to come to a quick stop because of a short landing area. He suffered a broken back and a concussion after getting thrown off and run over by his motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson. I remember when this happened because I bought my BMW six months later in September (Beemer link below) after considering whether I really should but decided I wasn't going to be jumping over motorcycles, cars or canyons.
I'd had my bike a couple of years and had my Canadian venture (link below) behind me when I found, the album, Evel Knievel. The recording includes a press conference, a meeting with kids, the song, Ballad of Evel Kneivel (sung by John Cullitton Mahoney and Kneivel) as well as his poem, Why? (links below).
Never Is Forever is the second full-length album by the Norwegian band Turbonegro released in 1994 on Dog Job Records. On the CD-version there are three hidden tracks in the end of the final track: Bingo singing Staten och kapitalet, a 1970s radical left-wing progressive rock tune by Blå Tåget (some really weird sh*t about the same time as the Residents) (links below) made into a national hit song in Sweden in 1980 by punk rock band Ebba Grön, Evel Knievel performing a poem named Why? and John Cullitton Mahoney performing his song The Ballad of Evel Knievel.
I learned about Knievel in the early sixties; I'd already had a decade-long love affair with the motorcycle via Marlon Brando and the film, The Wild One (1953). On March 3, 1972, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, after making a successful jump, Knievel tried to come to a quick stop because of a short landing area. He suffered a broken back and a concussion after getting thrown off and run over by his motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson. I remember when this happened because I bought my BMW six months later in September (Beemer link below) after considering whether I really should but decided I wasn't going to be jumping over motorcycles, cars or canyons.
I'd had my bike a couple of years and had my Canadian venture (link below) behind me when I found, the album, Evel Knievel. The recording includes a press conference, a meeting with kids, the song, Ballad of Evel Kneivel (sung by John Cullitton Mahoney and Kneivel) as well as his poem, Why? (links below).
Never Is Forever is the second full-length album by the Norwegian band Turbonegro released in 1994 on Dog Job Records. On the CD-version there are three hidden tracks in the end of the final track: Bingo singing Staten och kapitalet, a 1970s radical left-wing progressive rock tune by Blå Tåget (some really weird sh*t about the same time as the Residents) (links below) made into a national hit song in Sweden in 1980 by punk rock band Ebba Grön, Evel Knievel performing a poem named Why? and John Cullitton Mahoney performing his song The Ballad of Evel Knievel.
8" x 10" signed photograph
photographer unknown
When he was 18, after a police chase in 1956, in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving. When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he noted Knievel in one cell and a man named William Knofel in the other. Knofel was well known as "Awful Knofel" ("awful" rhyming with "Knofel"), so Knievel began to be referred to as "Evel Knievel" ("Evel" rhyming with "Knievel"). He chose this misspelling for his first name because he didn't want to be considered "evil".
After many unsuccessful business ventures, motorcycle dealerships, etc., Knievel recalled a Joie Chitwood
show he saw as a boy and decided that he could do something similar
using a motorcycle. Promoting the show himself, Knievel rented the
venue, wrote the press releases, set up the show, sold the tickets and
served as his own master of ceremonies. After enticing the small crowd
with a few wheelies, he proceeded to jump a twenty-foot-long box of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions.
Despite landing short and having his back wheel hit the box containing
the rattlesnakes, Knievel managed to land safely.
vinyl LP back cover detail
cover design by Saul Saget
photo of album cover by Styrous®
He found a sponsor in Bob Blair, owner of ZDS Motors, Inc., the West coast distributor for Berliner Motor Corporation, a distributor for Norton Motorcycles. Blair provided the motorcycles, but he wanted the name changed from the Bobby Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils Thrill Show to Evil Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils. Knievel didn't want his image to be that of a Hells Angels rider, so he convinced Blair to allow him to use Evel instead of Evil.
Knievel and his daredevils debuted on January 3, 1966, at the National Date Festival in Indio, California. On February 10, in Barstow, California. During the performance, Knievel attempted a new stunt in which he would jump, spread-eagled, over a speeding motorcycle. Knievel jumped too late and the motorcycle hit him in the groin,
tossing him fifteen feet into the air. He was hospitalized as a result
of his injuries. When released, he returned to Barstow to finish the
performance he had started almost a month earlier.
Knievel's daredevil show broke up after the Barstow performance because
injuries prevented him from performing. After recovering, Knievel
started traveling from small town to small town as a solo act. To get
ahead of other motorcycle stunt people who were jumping animals or pools
of water, Knievel started jumping cars. He began adding more and more
cars to his jumps when he would return to the same venue to get people
to come out and see him again. Knievel had not had a serious injury
since the Barstow performance, but on June 19 in Missoula, Montana,
he attempted to jump twelve cars and a cargo van. The distance he had
for takeoff did not allow him to get up enough speed. His back wheel hit
the top of the van while his front wheel hit the top of the landing
ramp. Knievel ended up with a severely broken arm and several broken
ribs. The crash and subsequent stay in the hospital were a publicity
windfall.
vinyl LP back cover detail
cover design by Saul Saget
photo of album cover by Styrous®
With each successful jump, the public wanted him to jump one more
car. On May 30, 1967, Knievel successfully cleared sixteen cars in Gardena, California. Then he attempted the same jump on July 28, 1967, in Graham, Washington,
where he had his next serious crash. Landing his cycle on the last
vehicle, a panel truck, Knievel was thrown from his bike. This time he
suffered a serious concussion.
After a month, he recovered and returned to Graham on August 18 to
finish the show; but the result was the same, only this time the
injuries were more serious. Again coming up short, Knievel crashed,
breaking his left wrist, right knee and two ribs.
Knievel first received national exposure on March 18, 1968 when comedian and late night talk show host Joey Bishop had him on as a guest of the ABC Television, The Joey Bishop Show. To keep his name in the news, Knievel proposed his biggest stunt ever, a motorcycle jump across the Grand Canyon. The national attention brought both a larger paycheck and larger fanbase.
cover design by Saul Saget
photo of album cover by Styrous®
cover design by Saul Saget
photo of album cover by Styrous®
On January 7 and 8, 1971, Knievel set the record by selling over 100,000
tickets to back-to-back performances at the Houston Astrodome. On
February 28, he set a new world record by jumping 19 cars with his Harley-Davidson XR-750 at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. The 19-car jump was filmed for the movie Evel Knievel. Knievel held the record for 27 years until Bubba Blackwell jumped 20 cars in 1998 with an XR-750.[19]
(In 2015 Doug Danger surpassed that number with 22 cars, accomplishing
this feat on Evel Knievel's actual vintage 1972 Harley-Davidson XR-750.)
For 35 years, Knievel held the record for successfully jumping the most
stacked cars on a Harley-Davidson XR-750 (the record was broken in
October 2008). His historic XR-750 is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Made of steel, aluminum and fiberglass, the customized motorcycle
weighs about 300 pounds. This is 200 pounds lighter than my Beemer.
cover design by Saul Saget
During his career Knievel may have suffered more than 433 bone fractures, earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of "most bones broken in a lifetime"
However, his son Robbie told a
reporter in June 2014 that his father had broken 40 to 50 bones; Knievel
himself claimed he broke 35.
cover design by Saul Saget
Knievel died in Clearwater, Florida, on November 30, 2007, aged 69. He had been suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for many years.
A longtime friend reported that Knievel had trouble breathing while at
his residence in Clearwater, but died on the way to the hospital. The
friend said, "It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it.
Superman just doesn't die, right?"
Knievel was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in his hometown of Butte, Montana on December 10, 2007, following a funeral at the 7,500-seat Butte Civic Center presided over by Pastor Dr. Robert H. Schuller with actor Matthew McConaughey giving the eulogy. Prior to the Monday service, fireworks exploded in the Butte night sky as pallbearers carried Knievel's casket into the center.
Knievel was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in his hometown of Butte, Montana on December 10, 2007, following a funeral at the 7,500-seat Butte Civic Center presided over by Pastor Dr. Robert H. Schuller with actor Matthew McConaughey giving the eulogy. Prior to the Monday service, fireworks exploded in the Butte night sky as pallbearers carried Knievel's casket into the center.
Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. On July 10, 2010, a special temporary exhibit entitled True Evel: The Amazing Story of Evel Knievel was opened at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2017, a 13,000 square foot (1,200 m2) museum about Knievel opened in Topeka, Kansas, featuring some of his motorcycles, leathers, and helmets along with various displays and a virtual reality motorcycle jump.
In November 2010, General Motors premièred a television commercial featuring footage of Knievel's Wembley Stadium crash in 1975, followed by Knievel getting onto his feet. The ad focused on GM's restructuring and emphasized the belief that "we all fall down".
On July 18, 2012, Audi of America recreated Knievel's Snake River jump (link below) in a promotional commercial for the Audi RS5. The commercial depicts the RS5 being driven by a professional driver and jumping the canyon off a jump ramp.
In November 2010, General Motors premièred a television commercial featuring footage of Knievel's Wembley Stadium crash in 1975, followed by Knievel getting onto his feet. The ad focused on GM's restructuring and emphasized the belief that "we all fall down".
On July 18, 2012, Audi of America recreated Knievel's Snake River jump (link below) in a promotional commercial for the Audi RS5. The commercial depicts the RS5 being driven by a professional driver and jumping the canyon off a jump ramp.
Knievel has been the subject of five films and documentaries, the most famous starring George Hamilton as Knievel (link below).
In one of his last interviews, Knievel told Maxim magazine:
| “ | You can't ask a guy like me why I performed. I really wanted to fly through the air. I was a daredevil, a performer. I loved the thrill, the money, the whole macho thing. All those things made me Evel Knievel. Sure, I was scared. You gotta be an ass not to be scared. But I beat the hell out of death. [...] You're in the air for four seconds, you're part of the machine, and then if you make a mistake midair, you say to yourself, "Oh, boy. I'm gonna crash," and there's nothing you can do to stop it, not at all. |
Tracklist:
Side 1:
A1 - Prologue - 1:46
A2 - Press Conference - 23:10
A3 - Why?, Lyrics By Evel Knievel, Music By Carl Setty - 3:24
Side 2:
B1 - The Ballad Of Evel Knievel, Lyrics By Ron Kramer, Music By Dean Kay, Vocals – John Cullitton Mahoney - 2:30
B2 - Evel Talks With The Kids 20:36
B3 - Evel Talks Of The Future 2:17
Companies, etc.
Manufactured By – Transcontinent Record Sales, Inc.
Produced For – Len Levy Associates
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Amherst Records
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Transcontinent Record Sales, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Transcontinent Record Sales, Inc.
Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute
Published By – Bro-Sil Publishing
Published By – T.B. Harms Co.
Recorded At – Sound City Studios
Mastered At – Artisan Sound Recorders
Credits:
Arranged By [Music], Conductor – Jim Helms (2)
Design [Cover Design] – Saul Saget
Engineer – Bill Drescher
Executive-Producer – Len Levy
Lyrics By, Liner Notes – Evel Knievel
Narrator – Jerry Fogel
Producer – Ron Kramer
Notes:
Recorded at Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, California.
Gatefold release with an inlay, a print of an autograph card with the catalog number on it.
Cat # AMH-1001 appears on the label.
Cat # AMH 1001 appears on the spine and front cover, top-left.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout (Side A Label): AMH-1001-A
Matrix / Runout (Side B Label): AMH-1001-B
Matrix / Runout (Side A [Variant 1]): AMH-1001A-1A -P
Matrix / Runout (Side B [Variant 1]): AMH-1001A-1B -P
Matrix / Runout (Side A Etched [Variant 2]): AMH-1001-A-1A T1
Matrix / Runout (Side A Stamped [Variant 2]): C [Artisan Sound Recorders logo]
Matrix / Runout (Side B Etched [Variant 2]): AMH-1001-B-1B T1
Matrix / Runout (Side B Stamped [Variant 2]): Λ [Artisan Sound Recorders logo]
Rights Society: ASCAP
Evel Knievel – Evel Knievel
Label: Amherst Records – AMH-1001, Amherst Records – AMH 1001
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold
Country: US
Released: 1974
Genre: Jazz, Non-Music
Style: Interview, Spoken Word, Easy Listening
Viewfinder links:
Beemer Memories Pt. 1 ~ the end & the beginning
The Family Dogg, Sixto Rodriguez & Canada
The Residents
The Wild One ~ 1953 12" 45 EP
Net links:
Evel Kneivel website
Stunt performances
Snake River Canyon
Evel Knievel, The Man Who Invented A Sport
Strange & Famous ~ Evel Knievel's last interview
Portrayals in film
YouTube links:
Prologue
Press Conference (23:10)
Why?
Ballad of Evel Kneivel
Evel Talks With the Kids (20:36)
Evel Talks of the Future
Learning Channel ~ Evel Knievel: The True Story documentary
Matthew McConaughey speech ~ Knieval funeral (9:49)
Evel Knievel & the Hell's Angels (4:49)
Blå Tåget ~ Gröna Lund
The Residents ~ One-Minute Movies
I love the feeling of the fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/evel_knievel
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/evel_knievel
I love the feeling of the fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/evel_knievel
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/evel_knievel
"If you don't know about pain and trouble, you're in sad shape.
They make you appreciate life."
They make you appreciate life."
~ Evel Knievel
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, October 17, 2017
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