eden ahbez (born George Alexander Aberle; April 15, 1908 – March 4, 1995) was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s-1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential on the hippie movement. He was known to friends simply as ahbe.
Ahbez composed the song "Nature Boy," which became a #1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat "King" Cole and has since become a pop and jazz standard.
Living a bucolic life from at least the 1940s, he traveled in sandals and wore shoulder-length hair and beard, and white robes. He camped out below the first L in the Hollywood Sign above Los Angeles and studied Oriental mysticism. He slept outdoors with his family and ate vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He claimed to live on three dollars per week.
Read more about Eden Ahbez: Early Life, Career, Personal Life, Death
Famous quotes containing the word eden:
“For sometimes it is shown to me in dreams
The Eden that all wish to recreate
Out of their living, from their favourite times;
The miraculous play where all their dead take part,
Once more articulate....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)