Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Lee Hazlewood - Love And Other Crimes (1968)

Sinister, psychedelic country from the late, great, Lee Hazlewood, the pioneer of "Saccharine Underground." He is best known for his work producing Duane Eddy's late-50s twangy sides and Nancy Sinatra's go-go pop in the 60s. Lee wrote Nancy's greatest songs, including "These Boots..." and "Some Velvet Morning," on which he duetted. However, as I recently discovered, he also put out dozens of records under his own name, and is plain bad-ass in his own right. Hazlewood was blessed with a voice (and, when he felt like it, a moustache) that other musicians (myself included) would pray for - as Beck so eloquently put it, “His voice had the kind of stature that Johnny Cash's had. It had a gravity that allows him to be sincere and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. It's that immense voice of experience, not expecting any kindness from humanity other than a spare cigarette.” I'm not even going to select my favourite tunes from this album. Each one of them is fantastic.

Track listing:
1. Love and Other Crimes
2. Morning Dew
3. She Comes Running
4. Rosacoke Street
5. She's Funny That Way
6 The House Song
7. Wait And See
8. Forget Marie
9. Pour' Man
10. Love And Other Crimes

Note: I do not take credit for ripping this album. Someone else did and put it on their blog. I've had it on my computer for a while and only just discovered it. Thanks to whoever that was.
Enjoy, link in comments!