A quick word with Don Rickles
A quick word with Don Rickles

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Rickles was born in the New York City borough of Queens to Jewish parents. He grew up in the borough's Jackson Heights neighborhood.After graduating from Newtown High School, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and he was honorably discharged in 1946. 
Two years later he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and played occasional bit parts on television. Frustrated with the lack of acting work, he began doing stand-up comedy. He eventually became known as an insult comedian by learning to respond to hecklers. The audience liked these insults more than his prepared material, so he developed them as part of his act. His act reminded some observers of the older insult comic Jack E. Leonard.
While working in a Los Angeles nightclub early in his career, he spotted Frank Sinatra, and said "I just saw your movie, The Pride and the Passion and I want to tell you, the cannon's acting was great." and "Make yourself at home, Frank: hit somebody!" Sinatra, whose pet name for Rickles was "bullet-head", enjoyed Rickles so much that he encouraged fellow celebrities to see Rickles' act and be insulted by him. Sinatra's support helped Rickles become a popular headline performer in Las Vegas

I took myself a blue canoe
And I floated like a leaf
Dazzling, dancing
Half enchanted
In my Merlin sleep

Crazy was the feeling
Restless were my eyes
Insane they took the paddles
My arms they paralysed

Chorus
So where to now St. Peter
If it's true I'm in your hands
I may not be a Christian
But I've done all one man can
I understand I'm on the road
Where all that was is gone
So where to now St. Peter
Show me which road I'm on
Which road I'm on

It took a sweet young foreign gun
This lazy life is short
Something for nothing always ending
With a bad report

Dirty was the daybreak
Sudden was the change
In such a silent place as this
Beyond the rifle range

(Chorus)

I took myself a blue canoe