The James Coburn Cool

As the man in the corduroy suit or the cowboy who could throw a knife quicker than his opponent could shoot, James H Coburn’s silver hair stole the silver screen. He blew up trains in A Fist Full Of Dynamite, saved the world, twice, as Derek Flint, and cycled to freedom in The Great Escape. Little is known, however, of his great love of gongs. In The President’s Analyst, when Coburn played the gong in the Hippy band Clearlight, he really did play them. He collected gongs and loved to play them to any lucky visitors willing to listen. Whether or not this oddity is by the late great James Coburn or just another garage group re-working of Louie Louie is not certain. But it is still very cool.