‘PARALYZED’ LEGEND SET TO WAIL

I went to the refrigerator Hungry as an alligator Opened the door and what did I see Saw my baby staring right back at me I was paralyzed, paralyzed .

--”Paralyzed,” by the Legendary

Stardust Cowboy

It’s been called everything from a revelation and a milestone to incoherent bellowing. All true.

It’s appeared on such anthologies as “Rockabilly Psychosis and the Garage Disease” and “The World’s Worst Records.” In the opinion of record collector and commentator Ken Barnes, editor of Radio & Records magazine, “it has no coherence whatsoever. Its dementia is absolute--that’s what people value in it.”

Enthuses local rockabilly and esoterica connoisseur Art Fein, who arranged the Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s L.A. debut tonight at the Lingerie: “It’s just psychotic frenzy, a screaming rock ‘n’ roll avalanche. It has a drum solo, it has a bugle solo.”

It is the Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s “Paralyzed,” one of the most celebrated cult records in the rock ‘n’ roll archives. It’s no surprise that this slice of sonic mayhem became a Dr. Demento favorite and a beacon for the new generation of punk and psychobilly bands. What’s amazing is that the record actually entered the Top 100 of the national sales charts when it came out on the Mercury label in late 1968.

“It really did surprise me,” admits the Legendary Stardust Cowboy--real name, Norman Carl Odam, and “Ledge” to his friends. He wrote the song in 1965 for a radio station talent contest in his hometown of Lubbock, Tex. “The original inspiration was to write a song that was wilder than ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ because those two songs were too slow for me,” Odam, 37, recalled during a phone interview this week from his home in Las Vegas.

Odam cut “Paralyzed” in Fort Worth, where a group of vacuum cleaner salesmen he met in a nightclub introduced him to the proprietors of a recording studio next to their office. One of the young engineers at the studio was T-Bone Burnett, now a widely admired singer-songwriter and producer.

“I said we need a drummer,” Odam recounted, “so he volunteered. I told him to beat the heck out of the drums, which he did. That’s what got us going.” Odam played dobro and bugle (which he’d taught himself after being inspired by Herb Alpert records) and unleashed the blood-curdling whoops that send the one-take classic over the top.

Another of “Paralyzed’s” noteworthy features is the indecipherability of its lyrics.

“I intended it to be like that,” Odam insisted. “I can sing it so the audience can understand the lyrics, but the idea is to be able to dance--and there’s a wild dance on the stage that goes along with it that’s very unique. Plus, people can write in to my record company and get a copy of the lyrics in my own handwriting.”

“Paralyzed” got the Ledge a guest spot on “Laugh In,” but that was about it until the new underground bands like the Cramps came along to raise his banner anew.

Late last year some recent Stardust Cowboy recordings were released as the “Rock-It to Stardom” album on Amazing Records. The Ledge is backed by Austin rockers the Leroi Brothers, and besides an updated version of “Paralyzed,” the album features Odam’s demonstration of a rebel yell, Comanche war cry and elephant call. In addition, Odam toured Europe in the spring, backed by former members of L.A. swamp-rockers the Gun Club. Another tour is booked, and he plans to record his next album, “Retrograde,” in the fall.

Odam, who adopted his colorful pseudonym because “I didn’t like people mispronouncing my last name and misspelling it,” insists that the wild-man image created by “Paralyzed” is “totally opposite to what I really am.” Besides his music, his two passions are the Old West and space travel. One of his early singles was “I Took a Trip (on a Gemini Spaceship),” which he updated on his recent album to “I Took a Trip (on a Space Shuttle).”

“I hope someday I can be a spokesman for NASA and they send me around different places making speeches,” he said. “My manager’s sent them an album trying to get them to play one or two songs to the astronauts, to wake them up.”

Odam moved to Las Vegas eight years ago, where he enjoys horseback riding and mountain climbing in the wide-open spaces, and the bright lights and show-biz atmosphere in the city.

Because his musical career has been erratic, Odam has taken various jobs, but he sounded a little sullen when asked about them.

“Oh, I kick around the Dunes Hotel,” he said.

As a waiter?

“Yeah, something like that. I don’t like to talk about that that much. That’s not as exciting as jumping up on the stage whooping and a-hollerin’.”