About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

This is the fifth solo attempt by the producer, singer/songwriter, and self-proclaimed bohemian with "a Scotch-scarred heart," who would rather see people remembering his ill-fallen ballpoint "from a rare sort of liver ailment" instead of his songwriting -- thus he states in the liner notes to this album. In terms of concept, Lee Hazlewood-ism: Its Cause and Cure has much in common with its immediate predecessor, The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood. Both albums include the familiar, Western movie classic-styled orchestration by arranger Billy Strange, who would create a masterpiece with the follow-up, the duet album Nancy & Lee. Combined with Hazlewood's own contradictory performance -- the ambiguous content of his half-sung/half-spoken tales is delivered without a hint of irony -- the result proves mysterious, funny, and sincere at the same time. Hazlewood's performance is helped a great deal by his unearthly deep voice which, upon hearing, will make friends, family, and stereo equipment alike beg for mercy. In this instance, Hazlewood gets nostalgic about former Parisian mistresses and tries to outdo both Sinatra Sr. (the tender "I Am a Part") and daughter Nancy ("In Our Time," this time delivered by an outraged Hazlewood himself). However, most of the time he seems completely at ease with the development of an unsuccessful solo career ("Home [He's Home]"), and "The Old Man and His Guitar" nearly has Hazlewood sounding like he's been retired for ages. If you don't get the picture by now, there are the album's intriguing highlights -- the haunting epics "José" and "The Nights" -- to convince you. The former tells the tale of a homeless Mexican boy who's destined to become a glorious bullfighter, while the latter offers a closer look at the ways of life of an Indian tribe -- from the perspective of a white female who happens to live with one of them. Essential Hazlewood, if not for the phantom choirs that appear from the background with every chorus to enhance the dramatic effect, then at least for the eccentric lyrics ("The ways of a red man are lonely/And his woman can expect little more/Than a day filled with hard work and sorrow/So she learns to live for: the nights, the nights"). The entire album was reissued as part of the 2002 Big Beat CD reissue These Boots Are Made for Walkin': The Complete MGM Recordings. Quint Kik, All Music Guide

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