The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Of all the things you could do while in the back seat of a police car as you’re being arrested for DUI, singing a heartfelt a capella rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the better options. That’s what Robert Wilkinson (pictured on the right), who was picked up by the RCMP in Edson, Alberta (for my non-Canadian readers, Alberta is Canada’s Texas, with bits of Florida thrown in for good measure) did, and his performance was caught on video, which appears above. Not only does he sing the vocal parts Queen’s classic rock anthem, he also does the instrumental parts and even does a teensy bit of lyrical improvisation at the end. At the very least, he was probably more entertaining than the last set of infamous drunk Canadian travellers, the two RIM execs who caused that Air Canada flight to Beijing to make an emergency landing.

For more about Robert Wilkinson and what happened, see this writeup in The Smoking Gun.

Bonus: Queen Hits in Japanese!

Robert Wilkinson — no surprise here — loves to sing karaoke. So in his honour, I present the video above, featuring a megamix of Queen hits as performed by people from the land of karaoke. They’re Queen songs, translated into nihongo, and they do a hell of a job fitting all those extra syllables in.

Well, he got his revenge two ways:

• He finished a lot, including Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake.
• Have you ever tried to read Joyce?

Found via The Editing Room.

I’d really love to hear the backstory for this one.

And people call me crazy for taking my accordion wherever I go.

This is me in Osaka, Japan in late October 1998, in the CD department of a department store called Loft. I spent the week leading up to Hallowe’en in Southwestern Japan, visiting my friend Anne, who’d gone there to teach English for the year. It was the second part of my Asian vacation that year; I’d spent about ten days in the Philippines visiting family and having a grand old time. The fun would continue in Japan, and that couple of weeks still stand out to this day as one of my all-time favourite trips. I consider it a prelude to the era of the accordion, which I would take to the streets for the first time six months later.

In the photo, I’m checking out the international edition of Fatboy Slim’s then-new album, You’ve Come a Long Way Baby (the one with Praise You, Right Here Right Now, Gangsta Trippin’ and The Rockafeller Skank). I didn’t buy it, since I already had the North American edition, and 1880 Yen was a lot of money then. Instead, I bought a single, Everybody Singin’ Love Song, by a j-pop band called the MB’s (or Magokoro Brothers, or 真心ブラザーズ). It’s a catchy little tune from a time when a lot of bands seem to have rediscovered Stevie Wonder’s sound (Jamiroquai, I’m lookin’ right at you), and I apologize in advance if this song gets stuck in your head all day. Here’s the lower-fidelity version, featuring the video for the song…

…and for those of you who want to get your groove on, here’s a higher-fi version with just the album graphics: