How hard up are you Nancy Sinatra-Lee Hazelwood collectors for something cool to show off at your next gathering of rock nerd friends or to spin on your college radio show? Granted, this rant is a good 20 years overdue, dating back to the time when we all started feeling warm and fuzzy about this stuff, but it’s gone on too long. Suddenly, the joke’s on us. Let’s review the supposed “greatness” of these collaborations.
The groovy camp appeal of “These Boots Are Made for Walking” is undeniable. The tune is pretty cool. Nancy’s looking good. Women feel empowered. And all that jazz. An unforgettable treat.
Certainly, I get the hipster, so-bad-it’s-great appeal of “Some Velvet Morning”. When we first discovered this song in the ’80s and cool bands started covering it, this was the appeal, right? It’s like a musical equivalent of Mandom. Honestly, though, beyond the giggle factor of of this song and the associated images of these two clowns, what’s there to dig? Isn’t this kind of stuff best left to the French, who excelled at making melodramatic, semi-lame, semi-laughable, semi-groovy ’60s pop music? Plus, those French women were much hotter than Nancy. Sorry, Frank.
I’m not qualified to answer this because I was never enough of a hipster/rock nerd to be in on the whole Lee-Nancy thing, but I think your write-up is hilarious.
(I always knew Lee Hazlewood as the guy who messed up Sweetheart Of The Rodeo.)
as a way into this discussion:
i’m the one who wrote “something stupid” in the poll, but not for the reasons you may think, mod.
along with enjoying seeing the words “something stupid” as a response to that poll question, I must confess that along with the hipster MANthem “some velvet morning”, “something stupid” is the *only* other thing nancy did that ever got my attention
of course, “jackson” is fun, too, i suppose. but then there’s that awful cover of “day tripper”, which ranks with that terrible performance of “the word” that you posted last summer.
and in general, there’s not much to recommend in the nancy / lee collaboration if you’re looking to “sink your teeth” into some “serious” music.
but that’s not the point…or is it?
i always wondered if hazlewood knew the ironic limits of his own “art” and flirted with the line. on the one hand, he must have been aware that music’s kitsch-factor was through the roof.
but on the other, i always hear a seriousness in what he does that betrays him on some level.
have you checked out his solo stuff? it’s the same thing. tales of woe so sappy that they couldn’t possibly straight up, or could they?
so i guess
…sorry…i hit send by accident…
so i guess lee’s music is kind of mystifying, not in the profound sense of the word, but just elusive enough in the way i’ve described above, to have had an appeal in the ironic 90s.
that is all.
Get this, according to wikipedia, Hazelwood was born in Mannford, Oklahoma!
Boots is a great record (a country song really, when you think about it), but I don’t get the other stuff. Looking at these clips, it just seems like a cultural pattern — a not very good looking guy of no particular talent or charm ends up with a total babe. Look at half the sitcoms on TV. It’s the secret vision of Mandom!
BigSteve, I’m glad you’ve further elucidated the tie-in to Mandom. I’ve suspected that the whole rock geek-love that sprung up around these collaborations is fueled by understandable fantasies that us nondescript, mildly talented sorts might harbor while scouring record bins and hoping that the one cute woman working in the store will take notice of us. We’re doing some groundbreaking sociorockological work here today!
My dad had a few Lee Hazlewood records hanging around when I was a kid and I always confused him with Sonny Bono (I’d actually prefer to hear “Laugh At Me” over most of the Hazelwood catalog). Later, when I started to swipe some of Dad’s albums, I snagged a few of the Hazelwood/Sinatra records, but the one that “stuck” with me was The Cowboy and The Lady and only because it is really strange and trippy with Ann Margret instead of Sinatra.
Hazelwood doesn’t quite get my “so bad it’s great appeal” nod. I’ll save that for say..Heino.
I’m not sure why people are worked up over something that’s rather culturally
marginal.
Unlike the cult that’s formed around, say, Nick Drake, I hear little, if any, passionate love for Hazlewood.
He had kind of a cool voice, though, and he did influence some of the darker subject matter put out by No Depression bands.
Dr. John pretty much nails it. With this rant alone, Mr. Mod has already thought harder about Lee Hazlewood than I have since I first heard the name back in high school. So…what’s up with that?
Guy works hard to keep a bunch of damn asses entertained, that’s what.
I mean, dumbasses. Mine is grass after this week of work, that much is clear.
Every week here on RTH we talk about stuff at least as culturally marginal as Lee Hazlewood. And the guy wrote and produced These Boots Are Made for Walking, which had the kind of cultural impact Nick Drake could never dream of. You keep lyin’ when you ought to be truthin’.
True, BigSteve, but we’ve gotta draw a line somewhere. In maintaining the Seger Principles of Mediocrity, we do our part to tighten up the bottom end of the rock nerd food chain.