Hawksley Workman - "Warhol's Portrait of Gretzky"

Recently I got a book of essays about Gretz from the library. Written by the likes of Grant Fuhr, Brett Hull, Eddie Mio (Gretzky's rookie year mentor), they paint a portrait of a very big-hearted and fun-loving guy, who reads the game better than anyone. It's hard not to overstate his magnitude in the game of hockey. As an Oilers fan in particular and a hockey fan in general, Wayne Gretzky elevated the game like no other, and we're not likely to see another player of his magnitude EVER.

It speaks to his celebrity that he was chosen by Andy Warhol to complete this portrait in 1984. This portrait doesn't hold with Warhol's best, but still he was doing the likes of Queen Elizabeth, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson. Even in the realm of athletics, it was the likes of Muhammed Ali or Arnold Schwarzenegger that caught Warhol's brush. Gretz was elevated to a high status of celebrity, and he played HOCKEY. In EDMONTON.

There was a great story about the 85-86 playoffs in which the Calgary Flames FINALLY beat the Oilers in 7 games. It took an own-goal by Steve Smith on his 23rd birthday to make it happen, but there was ecstasy in Cowtown when the Feeble Flames finally conquered the Overwhelming Oilers. The Flames didn't win the cup that year, but in the opinion of captain Lanny McDonald "our Stanley Cup was beating the Oilers".

Last summer we were visiting new friends. After a swim, they took my then 3-year-old daughter home, and in the course of their trip asked her what her favorite song was. She answered "Pretty Bloody Sexy" to much to hilarity. Last summer Mixtape 9 was getting some heavy play at our house, and the lead off track by Hawksley Workman "Warhol's Portrait of Gretzky" had the lyric in question in the chorus.Thankfully I did not include this original version of the song on Mixtape 9...as you'll see it's not kid friendly.



Bonus Video: Dynasty era theme music by Meco, Disco version Empire Strikes Back!