Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 Poet, Fool or Bum
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arranger
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songwriter
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- A2 Heaven Is My Woman's Love
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arranger
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S. K. Dobbinssongwriter
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- A3 Kari
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arranger
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songwriter
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- A4 Feathers
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arranger
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songwriter
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- A5 Nancy & Me
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arranger
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songwriter
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- B1 The Performer
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arranger
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songwriter
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- B2 Come Spend the Morning
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arranger
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songwriter
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songwriter
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- B3 Wind, Sky, Sea & Sand
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arranger
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songwriter
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- B4 Think I'm Coming Down
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arranger
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songwriter
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- B5 Those Were Days of Roses (Martha)
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arranger
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songwriter
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Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
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2 Issues
3 Reviews
Thanks for coming by to sit and watch me die
This album has pretty much the same problem as Back on the Street: while you need that one just for "Dolly Parton's Guitar", the title track here is among Barton Lee Hazlewood's career-best pieces. An incredibly infectious rhythm and a super-catchy little melody, in minor key yet to whistle along, the obligatory odd-ball lyrics, the too-cool-for-itself delivery ("noooooooooooooooooo - I'm only me"), and an instrumentation that starts simple, then adding one or two instruments every few bars, until you get an orchestra halfway between a blindfolded mariachi-band and a senile brass orchestra on a sinking ship. Perfect Hazlewood-ism. The rest is pretty nifty stuff, even if you haven't already been infested by mentioned -Ism (or "addicts" as Lee used to call us). Actually, "Kari", "Nancy & Me" and even the over-the-top campy "Think I'm Coming Down" (with a production that falls somewhere between synth hair metal and "Sound of Music"-broadway) are very decent numbers. "Come Spend the Morning" is awful and actually the first hint of what unbridled shmaltz abominations Leonard Cohen (who wrote this!) would be capable of later on.
Then there is harmless country pop ("Feathers", "Heaven Is My Woman's Love") that don't hurt your ear and that you'll have forgotten before their own runtime is over ("A true zen saying", as Zappa might have thrown in here).
So, that doesn't make for a bad record at all, even with its lows. And hell, Lee proves that he's still of impeccable taste, covering "Martha" from the then just released debut Closing Time by Tom Waits. So: Hazlewood covering Waits and singing Cohen, throwing in one of his best originals, and also giving you a tribute to Nancy (& himself). Need more rhetorics to get this? Well, I'm out.
PS. The "Martha"-version is worse than Tom's own, but fun. And, as usual, I recommend the double package of this record paired up with "Back on the Street". As all of these double-releases of Hazlewood, they end up being more than their respective parts. And for a good price, too.
Trivia: According to Bob Stanley's 2004 liner notes, it was Charles Shaar Murray who wrote the infamous "Bum."-review.
In other news:
spoiler: click to read
Published
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The review (by Greil Marcus, I think) in Rolling Stone back when it was released famously just said "Bum." Well, it is NOT Lee's best, but it is definitely not total shite either. It has fx the very fine - and obscure - Leonard Cohen-tune "Come Spend the Morning", among other decent efforts in a slightly countrified vein ... of which the title-tune has plenty of the drama Lee rightfully is famous for. Having said that, a song like "Heaven Is my Woman's Love" is pretty awful. I don't think Jimmy Bowen's production is much to write home about either.
Published
ST-11171 Vinyl LP (1973)
The close of Lee's 70s peak period. Bereft of sardonicism but stuffed with windswept pop-country restlessness. Nearly everything works, although God knows what type of woman calls herself "Feathers". And the cover of Tom Waits' "Martha" falls flat. But, man, hearing Lee inhabit the failed club singer of "The Performer" ("Can't you tell by my clothes I never made it/... Can't you see in my eyes that I hate it/Wasting twenty long years on a dream")...
Elsewhere we have the one-two-three punch of "Come Spend the Morning," "Wind, Sky, Sea, & Sand," and "Think I'm Coming Down". In other words: we have a syrupy ode to one-night stands with a towering chorus that would make late-life Elvis blush; an easy-listening lyrical ode to the elements with seasick strings; and one downer of a great-great-great-great-granduncle to Lifter Puller's "Mission Viejo" (trust me, it's in there somewhere).
Elsewhere we have the one-two-three punch of "Come Spend the Morning," "Wind, Sky, Sea, & Sand," and "Think I'm Coming Down". In other words: we have a syrupy ode to one-night stands with a towering chorus that would make late-life Elvis blush; an easy-listening lyrical ode to the elements with seasick strings; and one downer of a great-great-great-great-granduncle to Lifter Puller's "Mission Viejo" (trust me, it's in there somewhere).
Published
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Catalog
6 Jan 2024
-
A1
Poet, Fool or Bum
-
A2
Heaven Is My Woman's Love
-
A3
Kari
-
A4
Feathers
-
A5
Nancy & Me
-
B1
The Performer
-
B2
Come Spend the Morning
-
B3
Wind, Sky, Sea & Sand
-
B4
Think I'm Coming Down
-
B5
Those Were Days of Roses (Martha)
16 Nov 2023
18 Oct 2023
7 Oct 2023
21 Sep 2023
9 Aug 2023
1 May 2023
18 Feb 2023
1 Feb 2023
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A1
Poet, Fool or Bum
-
A2
Heaven Is My Woman's Love
-
A3
Kari
-
A4
Feathers
-
A5
Nancy & Me
-
B1
The Performer
-
B2
Come Spend the Morning
-
B3
Wind, Sky, Sea & Sand
-
B4
Think I'm Coming Down
-
B5
Those Were Days of Roses (Martha)
28 Aug 2022
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A1
Poet, Fool or Bum
-
A2
Heaven Is My Woman's Love
-
A3
Kari
-
A4
Feathers
-
A5
Nancy & Me
-
B1
The Performer
-
B2
Come Spend the Morning
-
B3
Wind, Sky, Sea & Sand
-
B4
Think I'm Coming Down
-
B5
Those Were Days of Roses (Martha)
17 Jun 2022
20 Mar 2022
28 Jan 2022
10 Oct 2021
27 Aug 2021
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