Lee Hazlewood -- Search and Destroy

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...

Please, please let them do the Honey Ltd. album.

House Safe For Tigers is NUTS. Got the LHI comp too - wish these came with MP3s

One of his best, for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E99wO8fluXg

I just splurged on this Light in the Attic 7" box set in a fit of ridiculous financial irresponsibility and I have no regrets at all. It's so, so, so good. I didn't know so many of these songs, and there's not a dud on this thing.

http://blog.lightintheattic.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/honeyltd_invite-675x928.jpg

Press release says 4 young women but there are 5 on the cover?

I was gonna post about this like an hour ago

this reissue has been suuuuuper overdue

Had no idea the sisters were still going: http://likehoneymusic.com

What kind of crummy photographer gets a flower right in the face of one of the subjects?

A botanical photographer. Actually I think that's just a superimposition of the middle girl.

this reissue has been suuuuuper overdue

Hell yes. Such a great record, too.

Great article by DL in the Guardian today, and that
box set looks very exciting.

I hate trying to put links in.

Okay so I'm a bit bummed that in order to get the complete LHI catalog as mp3s you basically have to spend $180. I have most of the Lee and I guess the Honey Ltd. Is there really enough out there to make this even remotely worthwhile?

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