Secret Songs
This webpage is dedicated to the late, great artist Zebar. A.K.A. The Secret Song Machine.
Zebar was a victim of food poisoning, giving to him at his place of residence by a jealous employee at Shady Willows Mental Institution on December 14 1987. Contrary to popular belief and rumors of his suicide, autopsy reports showed high amounts of arsenic in his blood stream, which he then thought was an indian curse. He then attempted to halt this "curse" by performing blood draining and wrapping his body in large sheets of leather and wool, which he believed would draw out the spirits which controlled the curse.
He was born on May 24th 1946. The son of a Japanese/German father and Mexican/American Mother, whom both left him when he was three years old, after he showed powerful signs of genius by sculpting a life size portrait of Louis Armstrong whom he had never previously seen or heard. His parents, superstitious and overwhelmed believed he was possessed by the evil spirits of rock and roll. A local art director and gallery owner named Marissa Covington soon adopted him and raised him in the art gallery on Wheelie and Cotton ave in Itta Bena, Mississippi, until he was 13.
At 14 years old he left Marissa's and was seen touring the states performing songs he wrote with an instrument he invented called the zorching can. Which was a large wooden box consisting of 73 strings, tuned to an ancient greek scale, a diamond shaped xylophone, and two harp-like mouth pieces.
At 17 years old he was arrested for suspicion of animal torture when friends of his found him in his room with dozens of cages of finches and lizards. he was playing his zorching can and had the animals staged around him like and operatic audience. The charges were dropped and he was released back into the care of Marissa.
At 22 years old he had a minor hit on Ace In The Hole Records, with a track called Lemon-Lime, in which he subliminally detests his anger toward the modern record industry and society in general. While promoting his new album and touring with such artists Duran-Duran, Genesis, Sting and Miles Davis, he fell violently ill and was hospitalized for sever migraines and clogged arteries.
Not Much is known about him in the following years, rumors say he took up work as a vacum sales man for a sears and roebucks store, others say he was spotted working as a train conductor on the northeast rail line.
At 33 years old he was arrested again for dancing naked on a street corner in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a sad and obvious sign of things to come.
He drifted from town to town, state to state, all the while drifting more and more into himself and insanity. A close friend of his took him to shady willows where he remained until his death.
The songs on this page are what he recorded while at Shady Willows..
"The Secret Song Machines Music is Raw and Powerful, Straight From The Soul. I Don't Know Where I'd Be Right Now If It Wasn't For His Music" - Cher
"Zebar is BRILLIANT! a true genius" - Robert Smith
"People always say to me, where'd you get your start? I always tell 'em, when heard The Secret Song Machine. I knew music could be powerful, could change people. His Music Changed Me." - Mick Jagger
"A Legend, A Genius! If you look up Amazing in the dictionary, You'll see a photo of Zebar" - Paul Simon
"Who? Oh yeah, yeah the secret song machine... shit, I almost forgot about him, how could I? He was Cool." - Britney Spears
"He's my daddy"- Some girl.
"I can't think of any other artist who has been more influential than Zebar. The Secret Song Machine! Yea, That guy is everything to me. I mean, Gosh, His music just, is timeless, it's genius! I've been Listening to him for twenty years and his music never gets old" - Bob 2 from Devo
"I don't listen to anything else but his music." - Dr. Yobb
"Fuck the rock and roll hall of fame, fuck your awards, fuck your shrines to lesser musicians, The Secret Song Machine IS Rock and Roll. He IS music"- Jeff Beck
"I Love The Secret Song Machine!"- Chanted By Fans At His Biographical Film Debut.
