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Biff Rose is an American singer/songwriter who was mainly active during the 1960s and 1970s.

Rose is a fringe figure from the sixties and seventies folk music scene, though he was not in any way truly ever a "folkie". His 'music' married old timey piano style with sensical and non sensical diatribes padded with slang lingo. Rose has often looked to the work of others for his lyrical side, relying on many, including Paul Newman's uncle, Joseph S. Newman, whose poetry was first brought to light by the more widely renowned Lord Buckley.

Paul 'Biff' Rose first came to notice, in Hollywood, as a comedy sketch writer with George Carlin for a host of television variety shows, ultimately working with some regularity on the Mort Sahl show. Eventually, Rose moved back to the songwriting he had developed during his youth growing up in New Orleans. A song written with Sahl co conspirator Paul Williams, Fill Your Heart, found its way on to a Tiny Tim record, and eventually, onto David Bowie's breakout release, Hunky Dory. This would prove to be anti-climatic, as Rose was never able to emulate any of the notoriety, fame, or riches Carlin, Williams, Tiny Tim, and, of course, Bowie all achieved.

In the meantime, Rose began writing his own lyrics and marrying them to the carnival-esque sounds he produced on the piano. Much of Rose's music tended towards his comedic side, with which he oftne prodded the political climate of the time.

Bill Cosby's Tetragrammaton label released his first two records. Once releasd from there, Rosebecame a journeyman artist for the rest of his career, recording for Buddha, United Artists, and Pacific Arts among others. He was able to parlay a whole lot of luck, being in the right place at the right time, with his peculiar brand of entertainment, and voila, Biff Rose began a series of twelve performances on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. These culminated with his12th (and final) appearance when the performace of his song, Jesus and Mary Magdalene, led to Rose being banned from returning to the Tonight Show. His albums began to sell more regularly, though his live performances became increasingly erratic, often more paranoiac rant than they were recitations of his "songs".

Rose recorded sporadically as the seventies wore on, finally vanishing from the scene entirely. He said in a chance 1979 interview with Mark Foster, a music journalist and friend from Rose's Hollywood days who happened on the singer accidentally while on vacation in Florida, that he'd been living out of his VW bus, and jokingly added that he hoped to get a new one in exchange for the plug. Nothing more was heard from the singer/songwriter throughout the 80's.

Rose popped up again in the mid nineties, apparently back in New Orleans, with a vanity disc. He began assembling new pastiches of his past style, ghosting the regularlity with which he had recorded in the late 60's and early 70's. But these recordings were doused with angry 'in jokes' the audience of old was not privy to, and the wordplay relied heavily on disillusioned sentiments of a man whose time had come and gone. Finally, in the year 2000, he was arrested in Florida for sexual misconduct with a minor, a boy under the age of eleven. He fled the state to avoid prosecution.

• American songwriters