Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007

Subject: Lyr Add: COME ON HOME (Lee Hazlewood)
From: ClaireBear
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 03:48 PM

Unless I missed it, Lee Hazlewood didn't get a memorial thread upon his death this last Monday after a long battle with renal cancer. He wrote some peculiar material. I'm not sure how you would categorize his songs -- like "Some Velvet Morning When I'm Straight," which has an early alt folk vibe -- but I thought he should at least have a mention here. I have always liked his straightforward lyrics.

His BBC obit is here.

There is also a Myspace page with some songs from various points (and various styles) in his career. "Boots" is downright creepy, sung as it was meant to be sung. "Baghdad Knights" is hard to listen to, but effective. And then there's:

COME ON HOME

Lee Hazlewood

A bird can fly on just one wing,
But then, why should he?
Where there's sky there must be rain;
Where there's you, there's me.

So do, it all, get it done, be all there is to be
Then wrap yourself in something warm,
Come on, come on, come on home to me.

Love can die and never know
What it might have been
You and I will never know
Until we try again

So do, it all, get it done, see all there is to see
Then wrap yourself in something warm,
Come on, come one, come on home to me.


Rest in peace, Lee.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: nutty
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 07:09 PM

Another of my idols passes into history.

I was a fan of Lee Hazelwood when he was singing with Nancy Sinatra. In fact their LP was the only piece of property that my ex and I argued about when we divorced.

His wonderful deep gravelly voice never failed to raise goosebumps. He was a great song writer as well.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: open mike
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 07:54 PM

These boots are made for walking...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20152340/

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: pdq
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 08:35 PM

He was 78? Argh!

Anyone want some spiked Geritol?

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 10:03 PM

For the record, here's the BBC Obiturary. I had to resist correcting the name to "Hazelwood," because apparently he spelled it "Hazlewood." Interesting songwriter and performer.
-Joe-

Obituary: Lee Hazlewood
Monday, 6 August 2007, 13:00 GMT 14:00 UK

Lee Hazlewood was a singer, writer and producer
Singer and songwriter Lee Hazlewood, who wrote These Boots are Made for Walkin' with Nancy Sinatra, has died at the age of 78.
Hazlewood wore many hats - singer, musician, songwriter, producer, disc jockey, talent spotter and producer.

He was a charismatic and influential performer who produced acts like Duane Eddy and Gram Parsons.

A pioneer of country rock, his admirers included Belle and Sebastian, Nick Cave and Lambchop.

But it was his collaboration with Nancy Sinatra, for whom he wrote unforgettable hits like These Boots are Made for Walkin' and that paean to LSD, Sugartown, which brought Hazlewood perhaps his greatest fame.

Born in July 1929 in Mannford, Oklahoma, Barton Lee Hazlewood was the son of an oilman who also organised local dances.


Hazlewood's music was informed by his quirky sense of humour
After studying medicine at Dallas's Southern Methodist University, Hazlewood served in the US Army, including a spell as a DJ in Korea during the war there.

Continuing his on-air career in a small radio station in Arizona, he was one of the first to spot the potential of the then virtually unknown Elvis Presley.

While he was there, Hazlewood met the then-unknown Duane Eddy, with whom he began to flesh out and record some of his songs.

In 1956, he scored his first hit with The Fool, recorded by Sanford Clark, and his friendship with Eddy resulted in further chart success - including songs such as Movin' 'n' Groovin' and Rebel Rouser.

Faced with the British invasion in the 1960s, which saw acts like the Beatles and Lonnie Donegan ruling the US charts, he stepped back into the shadows - only to be dragged out again to work with Nancy Sinatra.



Nancy Sinatra with those boots
Sinatra, who had released a number of saccharine singles before teaming up with Hazlewood in 1965, recalled: "He said to me: 'You can't sing like Nancy Nice Lady anymore. You have to sing for the truckers.'

"At about this time, I was getting a divorce. My husband decided he didn't want to have children, and I did and he knew it. So we split.

"Lee said to me: 'You've been married and now you're divorced, and people know that. So, let's lose this virgin image. Let's get rid of it.'"

Hazlewood and Sinatra enjoyed a sexual chemistry on stage that proved highly popular, yet he eschewed any notion of becoming a superstar himself. What's more, many in the music business began to regard him as too risque.

In 1968, Hazlewood duetted with Sinatra on his own composition, the so-called "cowboy psychedelic" song Some Velvet Morning.

Pioneer of country rock

Cover versions, most notably by Lydia Lunch (1982) and Primal Scream, featuring Kate Moss, in 2002, secured the song's cult status.

In 1971, his song Did You Ever? reached number two in the UK charts. Hazlewood also wrote for stars including Dean Martin.

Another collaboration, with Gram Parsons' short-lived International Submarine Band, produced the groundbreaking Safe at Home album, today widely regarded as the first blooming of country rock.

According to legend, Hazlewood even provided Phil Spector with the inspiration for his Wall of Sound recording technique, - a story he has always denied.

"If I had come up with the Wall of Sound, do you think I'd have given it to Phil?" he asked Billboard magazine last year. "I'd have kept it for my greedy self!"



In the 1970s, Lee Hazlewood led a bohemian lifestyle
From the late 1960s, Hazlewood enjoyed a peripatetic life. Moving nearly every year, he lived, among other places, in the UK, France and Sweden.

Beside this, Lee Hazlewood was a minor film actor and produced 30 albums of his own.

He returned to Phoenix to raise his daughter Samantha and, in the 1990s, did more tours with Nancy Sinatra. Billy Ray Cyrus had a hit with a cover version of Boots, which proved a lucrative earner.


He also became something of a cult figure in the alternative music scene.

Steve Shelley, the drummer from rock group Sonic Youth, reissued some of the artist's eccentric, psychedelic albums on his own label, while Nick Cave coaxed him back onto the stage at 1999's Meltdown festival in London.


But in 2005, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and set about writing and recording his last album, Cake or Death.

The composer said the record, named after an Eddie Izzard comedy routine, was not a grand statement on his mortality.

"I don't think it has any sickness in it," he told the Los Angeles Times, "except perhaps the lyrics".

Instead, the album takes a swipe at the war in Iraq in a track entitled Baghdad Knights.

His work as a stylish, slightly quirky, songwriter will be his legacy.

As he once quipped: "These are songs which enabled my children to attend some of the best schools in America. They're called hits, God help us."

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: Beer
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 10:25 PM

Damn.
Can't believe he was 78.
Blessings to all his loved ones.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 01:21 AM

Funny--I had the radio on a local oldies station on Sunday and they played "Some Velvet Morning." I was out pulling weeds next to the garage where the radio was playing and transported down memory lane to the times I heard it as a kid, and drifting on to thoughts of "These Boots," etc. And that was the first time I thought about this performer in years. Strange songs my friends and I tried to understand, thinking there must be some meaning to grasp if only we were older. Well, I'm older now, and I can't say some of them are any more clear, but they were indeed memorable!

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: ClaireBear
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 10:11 AM

Right you are, SRS -- I should have said "straightforward and nonetheless inscrutable lyrics" in my post above. (It was his sentence structure that was straightforward, not his subject matter.) He must have been a deeply intriguing man.

Claire

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: goatfell
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 11:26 AM

another died cowboy how sad

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: Arkie
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 01:55 PM

Mr. Hazlewood left a memorable track. He had a voice and something to say.

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: Lanfranc
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 07:10 PM

"Some Velvet Morning when I'm straight..." haunted me for years.

This mortality business sucks!

Fare thee well, Lee Hazlewood, add a bass counterpoint to the songs in singers' Valhalla.

"Did you ever?" "Not so much as you would notice"

Alan

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: GUEST,Gulliver (still cookyless)
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 07:34 PM

Sorry to hear this. I really loved his stuff, even if I didn't understand what some of it was about,
ever since I was a kid. His songs will live on.

Don

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: GUEST,michaelr
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 07:36 PM

Can someone please post the lyrics to "Sugartown"? and what was that other song... oh yeah, "Sand"?

I'd like to see "Baghdad Knights" too.

Thanks,
Michael

Subject: Lyr Add: SUGAR TOWN + SAND + BAGHDAD KNIGHTS
From: bobad
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 08:11 PM

I don't mind doing it for you michaelr but, for your edification, if you google the song title + lyrics you will access the same information that I was able to.

Nancy Sinatra - Sugar Town lyrics

I got some troubles but they won't last
I'm gonna lay right down here in the grass
And pretty soon all my troubles will pass
'cause I'm in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo
Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

I never had a dog that liked me some
Never had a friend or wanted one
So I just lay back and laugh at the sun
'cause I'm in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo
Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

Yesterday it rained in Tennessee
I heard it also rained in Tallahassee
But not a drop fell on little old me
'cause I was in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo
Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

If I had a million dollars or ten
I'd give to ya, world, and then
You'd go away and let me spend
My life in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo
Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town
La-la-la-la to end
        



Nancy Sinatra - Sand lyrics

Lee:
Young woman share your fire with me
My heart is cold, my soul is free
I am a stranger in your land
A wandering man, call me sand

Nancy:
Oh sir my fire is very small
It will not warm thy heart at all
But thee may take me by the hand
Hold me and I'll call thee sand

Lee:
Young woman share your fire with me
My heart is cold, my soul is free
I am a stranger in your land
A wandering man, call me sand

Nancy:
At night when stars light up the sky
Oh sir I dream my fire is high
Oh taste these lips sir if you can
Wandering man, I call thee sand

Nancy:
Oh sir my fire is burning high
If it should stop sir I would die
A shooting star has crossed my land
Wandering man

Lee:
She whispered sand

Nancy:
(Whispers) Sand

Lee:
Young woman shared her fire with me
Now warms herself with memory
I was a stranger in her land
A wandering man, she called me sand

Nancy:
He was a stranger in my land
A wandering man

Lee:
She called me sand


Baghdad Knights: Hazlewood Lee

A soldier was sent
made to go and he went
to exist on the outskirts of hell.
And he wrote a letter to someone
wrote sometimes we fight
sometimes we run
it's just like playing football
…with a gun.
Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhhhhh
Those Baghdad Knights!
Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhhhhh
Those Baghdad Knights!

And the soldiers they stay
shoot to kill and then pray
they soon leave the outskirts of hell.
And they write their letters to loved ones
write sometimes we fight
sometimes we run
just like playing football
…with a gun.
Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhhhhh
Those Baghdad Knights!
Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhhhhh
Those Baghdad Knights!

And when the sun fades away
at the end of the day
and the sand in your mind starts to cool
the stars starts to shine
and they play tricks on your mind
`cause you brought your gun to school
Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhhhhh
Those Baghdad Knights!
Ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhhhhh
Those Baghdad Knights!

Subject: RE: Obit: Lee Hazlewood -- August 2007
From: GUEST,michaelr
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 09:12 PM

Thanks bobad. I admit to being lazy, a condition exacerbated by a very slow modem connection. I was hoping someone had the lyrics around.

"Sand"... what a weird song!

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: Lyr Add: SUMMER WINE (Lee Hazlewood, Nancy Sinatra
From: pdq
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 09:27 PM

...another great one by Lee Hazlewood (and Nancy Sinatra):

Summer Wine

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things

(LEE):
I walked in town on silver spurs that jingled to
A song that I had only sang to just a few
She saw my silver spurs and said lets pass some time
And I will give to you summer wine
Ohh-oh-oh summer wine

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
And I will give to you summer wine
Ohhh-oh summer wine

(LEE):
My eyes grew heavy and my lips they could not speak
I tried to get up but I couldn't find my feet
She reassured me with an unfamiliar line
And then she gave to me more summer wine
Ohh-oh-oh summer wine

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
And I will give to you summer wine
Mmm-mm summer wine

(LEE):
When I woke up the sun was shining in my eyes
My silver spurs were gone my head felt twice its size
She took my silver spurs a dollar and a dime
And left me cravin' for more summer wine
Ohh-oh-oh summer wine

(NANCY):
Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
And I will give to you summer wine
Mmm-mm summer wine