Skinny Legs and All

Skinny Legas and All may refer to:

Skinny Legs and All (novel)

Skinny Legs and All, novelist Tom Robbins' fifth book, was published in 1990 by Bantam Books. As with all of Robbins' novels, it weaves disparate and seemingly unrelated themes into a single narrative.

Plot introduction

The opening scene of Skinny Legs finds newlywed, Ellen Cherry Charles and Randolph "Boomer" Petway III driving cross-country in an Airstream that has been welded into the shape of a giant turkey by Cherry's fiance, Boomer. During her journey to seek freedom as an artist, Cherry loses precious objects and observes Boomer attain greater artistic recognition. Through a metaphorical belly dancer, Skinny Legs and All confronts the veils of society, and the pain, pleasure and freedom derived as they are lifted. Irony, opposites and parallels, in relationships, art, artists, sex, politics and religion expose the danger of deeper issues in humanity; regarding outmoded gender and cultural roles and rituals, insecurity, guilt, indulgence, gluttony, occultism, war, violence, hypocrisy, greed, and psychosis.

Skinny Legs and All (song)

"Skinny Legs and All" is a song composed and recorded by soul singer Joe Tex and released in 1967 on the Dial label in 1967. The single was later featured on Tex's "live" album, Live and Lively a year later in 1968.

Recording and release

By 1967, Joe Tex had been recording for over a decade but started reaching his commercial peak in the mid-1960s with the releases of R&B hits such as "I Want To (Do Everything For You)", "A Sweet Woman Like You" and "Hold What You've Got", which became the first song in the Southern soul style to become a top five pop record. The three aforementioned records had also peaked at number-one on the R&B singles charts.

Tex was also known as an energetic live performer whose intense dancing was often compared to the likes of Jackie Wilson and James Brown. Two of his major trademarks, which Tex accused James Brown of stealing from him, was doing microphone stand kicks and adapting a cape, the latter of which Tex poked fun of during a rare joint headlining gig with both musicians, in which he covered Brown's hit "Please, Please, Please" but in the middle as his emcee dropped the cape on him, Tex yelled "please, please, please...get this cape off me!" which didn't go over well with Brown, who allegedly later shot at Tex and his entourage at a nightclub after the show. Luckily for Tex and his entourage, no one was injured.