(Historic) Jaime Mendoza-Nava
Jaime Mendoza-Nava, 79, a classically trained musician who composed for such diverse projects as Walt Disney’s “The Mickey Mouse Club,” the cartoon series “Mr. Magoo” and B films made by director Ed Wood, died May 31, 2005 at a Los Angeles hospital, due to complications of diabetes. During the writing of my book, Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America, I spent days tracking down permission to quote the haunting lyrics tied to the eerie score from the movie The Legend of Boggy Creek. I finally was given the name and phone number of the music’s composer, Jaime Mendoza-Nava and spent two wonderful afternoons talking to him about that music, and his friend, the late Earl E. Smith, who did the words. Later Mrs. Barbara Smith gave me permission to use the words in my book.
So in remembrance, here’s Earl E. Smith’s lyrics that so captures Jaime Mendoza-Nava’s moody music, from The Legend of Boggy Creek:
Here, the sulfur river flows,
Rising when the storm cloud blows,
This is where the creature goes,
Lurking in the land he knows.
Perhaps, he dimly wonders why,
Is there no other such as I?
To love, to touch before I die,
To listen to my lonely cry.
(Earl E. Smith, 1972)
