|
Harvey Larvae first burst onto the music scene as the lead
guitarist for the highly popular rock group: The Memphis Maggots.
Billing themselves as the greatest band in the history of mankind,
they toured endlessly in their three years together. But trouble
eventually broke out when the lead singer, Arty "Farty" McFarson,
began his deep dark descent into drug abuse. His drug of choice:
Laxatives. You see, Arty always had a problem controlling his
weight. Most people, however, would try to correct their weight
problems by diet or exercise. Well, Arty couldn't be bothered with
that. That would have required willpower. So he chose laxatives
instead. At first, it didn't really affect the band at all. But
eventually, the seepage began to show on stage. The band felt that
it was destructive to their image to have a lead singer that soiled
himself during each performance. It just wasn't cool. It really
wouldn't have been so bad if Arty hadn't insisted upon wearing white
pants.
The final straw came during a
televised performance at Madison Square Garden. Arty soiled himself
again, just like so many performances before, but this time Harvey
slipped on the runny pile Arty left on the stage. He broke his arm
in the process. The doctors thought that Harvey might never be able
to play guitar again. But after 6 months of rehabilitation and
physical therapy, his guitar playing was right back to where it was
before the infamous "pile on the stage" incident. The band never got
back together again because, quite frankly, Harvey just couldn't
deal the crap anymore. So he practiced his vocals and went solo.
Harvey released his first solo
album, Sounds like Pupae, to critical raves. The public also went
wild over it. The album sold more copies than any of his previous
albums with the Memphis Maggots. He went on to have a string of top
ten albums. After years of not associating with one another, Harvey
and Arty finally buried the hatchet. Arty had kicked his drug habit
and cleaned up his act. So all of the original members of the
Memphis Maggots got together again for a reunion tour. But because
of being in the limelight, once again, Arty became very
self-conscious of his weight. He began using laxatives again. While
performing once again at Madison Square Garden, this time on a
world-wide telecast beamed via satellite, Arty laid another runny
pile on stage. Harvey, during an extended lead guitar solo, ran
across the stage and slipped on the aforementioned runny pile and
fell. He hit the base of his skull on the stage. He went into a
coma. He died the next day. His legacy still lives on though.
Millions of people still play his music, both his solo works as well
as his work with the Mags. He was a true original. |
