Captain Lou Albano died yesterday. What can you say about a guy who wore a rubber band in his beard? Who fearlessly showed his colossal gut and man boobs on TV for years? Who appeared in the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" video? Who turned against Cyndi Lauper, managing The Fabulous Moolah in her career-ending attempt to unseat Wendy Richter? And who was, on national TV, said by Cyndi Lauper to have "a calcium deposit in the medulla of his oblongata"? And who, let's not forget, is both the subject of and guest vocalist on one of NRBQ's greatest songs?
All I can say is this: Captain Lou was larger than life in every sense of the word, and life seems smaller without him.
I will be wearing a black rubber band in my beard all day in memory of the great man, but if you're female, beardless, or sporting one of those horrible chinstrap beards, you can listen to NRBQ sing his praises right now:
I think my favorite part is the way Lou just gets completely unhinged at the end, babbling incoherently about his achievements.
And if you're feeling particularly adventurous, check out 90's cult classic Complex World. Captain Lou plays a small role, but it's a really good movie about hapless terrorists trying to blow up a club full of hapless employees and a Beatles clone band. Pretty much nobody has any hap in the movie. And it's funny as hell. Here's the title sequence, featuring the title song performed by the inappropriately-named The Young Adults. This has never been released on DVD, so you'll have to hunt down a VHS copy. Or, if anything good can come out of Captain Lou's jumping off the top rope of life and body slamming eternity, maybe it's that his appearance in this movie will lead to a DVD release.
