Lee Hazlewood -- Search and Destroy

Might be the tiem of the year to take out 13

i still think this dude is really hit or miss. i hate his voice (it's like a cartoon version of johnny cash) and the kitsch factor is sometimes a wee bit too high for me. he's a good songwriter and a damn fine producer, though.

Love & Other Crimes (Bugles In The Afternoon, After Six, For One Moment, etc)

-and-

The Many Sides Of Lee Hazlewood (Long Black Train, The Railroad, Whe A Fool Loves A Fool, and so many more)

Cowboy in Sweden [Smells Like, 1999]
Hazlewood is an "interesting" figure, always was. A natural hipster, in the biz but not of it, pop and rock and country and just plain weird--Duane Eddy, Nancy Sinatra, and Gram Parsons is quite a trifecta. Problem is he'snever been all that good. There's a nice best-of hiding in his collected works, including the new standards collection. But his vogue transcends crass track-by-track quality controls, combining the usual convolutional one-upsmanship, a visceral distaste for roots-rock's sonic canon, and a generation of aging slackers' discovery that doing bizness needn't deaden your mind or rot your soul. If slick blues licks make you sick, Hazlewood's studio hacks and string-section dreck will be some kind of change. If you like Nancy Sinatra almost as much as Karen Carpenter, thin-piped Nina Lizell will clean away enough Janis-and-Bonnie grit. If you doubt all shows of soul, the flaccid sentimentality of "Easy and Me" will be one more trope as far as you're concerned. But without opening a book I can recall half a dozen unreissued singer-songwriter albums that do more with their varied conventions than this Europe-only 1970 rarity--by Thomas Jefferson Kaye, Nolan Porter, Marc Benno, Hirth Martinez, Alice Stuart, Mississippi Charles Bevel. And I shudder to think of the unreasonable claims to be made when their time comes around again. B-

One Last Walk for the Man Behind ‘These Boots’
an excerpt:
By SIA MICHEL
Published: January 28, 2007
HENDERSON, Nev.

"LEE HAZLEWOOD is ready to die. Suffering excruciating pain from renal cancer, Mr. Hazlewood, the reclusive singer, songwriter and producer doesn’t have much time left, maybe a year if he’s lucky. So he has been preparing for what he calls his impending “dirt nap.”

He has decided he wants to be cremated, and to have his ashes strewn on a Swedish island where he composed some of his favorite songs. He has chosen his epitaph: “Didn’t he ramble,” referring to his loner-drifter nature. He has already given away most of his gold and platinum records, which he earned making hits for Duane Eddy, Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra, including “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” one of the most famous pop songs of all time. He has released his swan song, the quirky album “Cake or Death,” which hit stores last week. And he married his longtime girlfriend, Jeane Kelley, in a drive-through ceremony in Las Vegas."

True, he is one of the more iconoclastic figures of 20th-century pop, a cantankerous, hard-living innovator who walked away from fame and fortune whenever he felt like it. One of the major hitmakers of the ’50s and ’60s, he helped Duane Eddy shape twang-rock, transformed Nancy Sinatra into a megastar and, on his LHI label, released what is widely considered the first country-rock record, by Gram Parsons’s International Submarine Band. And he made a series of beautifully oddball solo albums that were mostly unheard in America, until a member of Sonic Youth reissued them in the ’90s.

Today Mr. Hazlewood is sadly unsung, which is partly his own fault. He spent decades trying to disappear, flitting between Europe and the United States — particularly those states with no personal income tax. “I’m kind of a bum,” he said.

If you're a fan you absolutely have to hear the Einsturzende Neubauten cover of "Sand".

back to Lee: would that we all could display such casual bravado in the face of our own mortality...a true maverick...(Warren Zevon, too)..

"He had a knack for mainstream pop too. Dean Martin interpreted his jaunty wandering-man lark “Houston,” a huge hit in the mid-’60s. They bonded over a love of scotch: Mr. Martin was a J&B man, Mr. Hazlewood drank Chivas Regal. “Here’s Dean Martin drinking J&B and I’m drinking something which is twice as much money and twice as good,” he said, shaking his head with mild disgust. “I didn’t drink to get drunk. I drank as a reward, and I only drank the good stuff.”

Soon Frank Sinatra wanted him to fix the floundering career of his daughter Nancy. Despite a decade-plus age difference, Mr. Hazlewood and Ms. Sinatra hit it off; they remain close friends. He thought that she was too cutesy, that she needed to seem more like truck-driver-dating jailbait. “He was part Henry Higgins and part Sigmund Freud,” Ms. Sinatra said by telephone. “He was far from the country bumpkin people considered him at the time. I had a horrible crush on him, but he was married then.”

Romance rumors swirled, but they never had an affair, Mr. Hazlewood said, “and now we’re old enough to tell you if we did.”

wow did this guy ever make a bad record?

I don't know about bad, but some of them are definitely better than others (most of the Anne Margaret record is not good, but it's saved by the awesome singles tacked on at the end.)

i never got into "poet, fool, or bum" personally. but the hit:miss ratio is remarkable.

ann margret record is great if you can get beyond her abrasive way of singing, but i agree the singles are more interesting

I've never heard 40 either. That one's not supposed to be great either.

also, the final few records, including the last nancy & lee one, were not good

"ann margret record is great if you can get beyond her abrasive way of singing"

Yeah see I can't do that. Cover is awesome too btw.

I just heard the Ann Margaret for the first time yesterday and totally dug it, don't mind her hamminess at all. Agree about the extra singles though - You Turn My Head Around is amazing

i never got into "poet, fool, or bum" personally. but the hit:miss ratio is remarkable.

"Poet, Fool or Bum" is good, as is "Back on the Streets".

I've never heard 40 either. That one's not supposed to be great either.

I love "Paris Bells" on that one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bggeCwBR6Y

The Lee Hazlewood bug bit me pretty severely a couple months back, haven't been able to stop listening since.

recently i've been listening to "guitar on my mind" that LH wrote and produced for duane & miriam eddy - really oddball song that is a proto-some velvet morning

I love Lee's 1970's hungover Marlboro man look

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCLJIi6SSZ0&feature=related

I think these last two youtubes are from Swedish telivision?

this is from a Nancy TV special in the late 60's I believe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnkuRQ8tjIE&feature=related

I would imagine the viewing public were like,
who the hell is that mustachioed man with Frank's daughter?

"your thunder and your lightning" is like johnny cash stealing the mic from ian curtis for a song

heeeeey cowboy.

http://torbjornaxelman.com/

This is a damn good song.

"My Autumn's Done Come" is such a great song.

No more slinky Vogue dolls for me.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Anyone see BBC 4's current batch of "Singer-Songwriters at the BBC"? Lee Hazlewood on the Rolf Harris Show from 1971 (I think), not duetting unfortunately! "Cold Hard Times" is the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2k4Z12VHZk

Light in the Attic is about to put out some very rare Hazlewood stuff:

http://lightintheattic.net/releases/739-a-house-safe-for-tigers

A House Safe For Tigers is the soundtrack to one of the seven TV movies Lee Hazlewood made with the director Torbjörn Axelman during his period living in Sweden in the early 1970s. Hazlewood had moved there to lay low and to help his son avoid the draft, but wound up finding happiness and creative freedom. Many of the albums recorded in Sweden made their way no further than Scandinavia, but of them all, A House Safe For Tigers is the holy grail for collectors, often changing hands for hundreds of dollars.

saw a couple of killer-looking comps that appear sorta similar, design-wise, to the above, recently - two vinyl reissues compiling bunches of lee's stuff seemingly by mood; there was a syrupy one with wait and see on & another with no train to stockholm, the nights, &c, iirc. they were stickered with fan-club-only or something, i don't really know much about them. they had ridiculous sleeves, one with a photoshopped remake of the trouble sleeve but with a cut-out futuristic & moustachioed head of lee taking the place of a train on the tracks in the distance. mainly stuff from the records but they looked pretty good.

Oh man, that Tigers reissue is great news!

Yea this is awesome.

So prolific, insane how often I thought I had exhausted the catalog and then more comes up

Light In The Attic seem to imply that some remastered, better quality reissues are coming. Any confirmation on that?

Just this:

For the past 7 years we’ve been begging, pleading, and praying to re-release some of Lee’s greatest solo recordings and production work, including material from LHI, Lee’s own label from ‘66 to ’71. We are ecstatic to announce that we will launch a detailed Lee Hazlewood Series this spring all gloriously re-mastered from the original analog master tapes. The series will include scores of unreleased sides and unseen photos. As I write this, we’re digging through hundreds of tapes that have been untouched for over forty years, meticulously transferring the reels, and drooling in anticipation for the months ahead.

...but no specifics yet...

Dying to know what some of those "Movie Facts" were.

And now Wyndham Wallace's book, rec by author of recent Robert Wyatt bio:

Marcus O'Dair
‏@marcusodair

.@WyndhamWallace is on @BBCGidCoeShow next week, talking about his brilliant Lee Hazlewood book, Lee, Myself and I. Recommended.

Rock's Backpages has a free Lee section at the moment (dunno for how long)

http://www.rocksbackpages.com/public/img/home/129-free.jpg

A COWBOY IN NEW YORK — Wyndham Wallace recalls his first encounter with the legendary Lee Hazlewood in 1999 and NME's Tony Stewart talks Nancy Sinatra and more with Lee in 1971. PLUS exclusive audio of "the ol' sonofabitch" talking about his early years in Oklahoma…
That last is an epic mp3 talk with/to/at Barney Hoskyns. You gotta go here and scroll down through this vast trove of freebies, also register, but it worked pretty well for me:
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Free

Nad here's the Lee concert, with comments by facilitator Wyndham Wallace, whose dream come true:
(mp3s, get 'em while you can)
http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=2436

"movie facts" still such an incredible clothing slogan

Lee and Suzi Jane Hokom

http://41.media.tumblr.com/6bb756c6c9b2e70a8151dd9452dc3142/tumblr_nf1en7A1DK1soodkfo1_1280.jpg

New album of 1955-1956 material out today!
https://leehazlewood.bandcamp.com/album/400-miles-from-l-a-1955-56

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnAlNilp48E

Nice overview:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/lee-hazlewood-musician-texas/

Holy Shit at him going to high school with revisionist Western stalwart L.Q. Jones.

(... one for the 'the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually still alive' thread)

Really enjoyed that article. His push 'n' pull affection for the landscape of petroleum refineries and Methodists adds a bit of new understanding to his eccentricities.

this clip was new to me, nicely done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbtKHrI-OAs

We are so very excited to announce the next release in our Lee Hazlewood archival series, The Sweet Ride: Lost Recordings 1965-68, a new compilation of demos, outtakes, and home recordings from Lee’s most prolific and successful era. https://t.co/276FrR2dIb pic.twitter.com/ITZwoh44g6

— Light In The Attic (@lightintheattic) July 29, 2022

For a long time I thought that the Belly song “Sweet Ride” was a Lee Hazlewood composition bc I’m absolutely certain I saw it erroneously credited as such somewhere. As is clear from this new comp, Lee’s “Sweet Ride” is an entirely different song. Funnily enough though, Belly’s song sounds very much like it could be a Hazlewood tune.

My pick for underrated Hazlewood composition is “In Our Time,” recorded by him and later, with bowdlerized lyrics, by Nancy Sinatra.

"For A Day Like Today" was my top Spotify song a couple of years ago.

You probably already knew this, but the Sweet Ride film had another perspective theme song written & recorded by Moby Grape which they mime to in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glo-RJ4go-I

I did not already know this.

Nor I.

I do know that a very interesting upcoming book will feature a detailed analysis of the recording of “Omaha.”

Brane is breaking just looking at the ToC: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003093206/one-track-mind-asif-siddiqi

i know this was posted before by me and maybe others but don't see it, broken link perhaps
great song but prime wrecking crew footage is what makes it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54x78pcWIgc

INA youtube channel has some gems in there among the rote tv promotional stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFNDY9ocrhE

his best song, maybe. always puts me in a space.

TIL that Reprise thought they could make lightning strike twice by having Lee produce another Rat Pack daughter...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7DI__tn7fw