Mister Freddie Blassie & R.E.M.

I was saddened to read about the passing last week of wrestling legend Freddie Blassie. Mr. Blassie became a pioneer in "raslin' " by adopting the persona of the villain & giving colorfully dramatic interviews. He is perhaps best-known by the current generation, in name only, as immortalized in the R.E.M. song "Man In The Moon":

"Mister Freddie Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

Of course Michael Stipe & company were referring to him in the context of their tribute to Andy Kauffman, whose own devotion to wrestling seemed at times to exceed that of his attention to comedy. While us old guys remember Mr. Freddie Blassie for who he truly was, he seems to have become just another obscure reference, an answer to a music trivia question, for the younger generation.

Although Mr. Blassie probably enjoyed the new-found attention, I'm sure he would have relished the opportunity to refer to R.E.M. as "a bunch of pencil-necked geeks"!