Those of you who are Harry's fans know perfectly well where a sizable portion of Chapter 3 (and, indeed, the setting of Dayton itself) came from.
For those of you who are not... Harry once said that "Mr. Tanner" came from a review he read in the New York Times that was "unbelievably cruel, but I imagined what came before and what came after and came up with the story."
The "real" Mr. Tanner is still alive, and is named Martin Tubridy. He gave two performances at The Town Hall in New York City, one in 1971 and one in 1972. These were the reviews:
Tubridy Makes Song Debut
Tubridy Performs in Second Recital
It's not altogether clear which one prompted the song, as the "Mr. Martin Tanner, baritone..." bridge appears to borrow from both of them.
It happens that Martin Tubridy didn't even learn of the song's existence until more than 30 years later. The song's chorus includes "O Holy Night" being sung in countermelody, and when Harry's brother Steve performed a concert in Connecticut in 2016, the man himself appeared and sang that part.
Although I admit to still being partial to that duty being performed by Harry's bassist and backup singer, Big John Wallace.
Those of you who have been following me for the past several years know that I spend part of the run-up to Christmas working with our local mall's Santa. I have been on vacation this week, but this elf reports for duty once again in the morning.
Chapter 4 will be posted on Saturday, and may my U.S. readers have a delightful Thanksgiving.