LEE HAZLEWOOD AND ANN-MARGRET ON THE DARK END

After smoldering around Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazelwood moved on to another sex symbol, Ann-Margret. This version of "The Cowboy and the Lady" yielded an album by that name, but no truly memorable hit…although "Dark End of the Street" is pretty vivid stuff.

The mentally uneven James Carr originally recorded it in 1967, and Elvis Costello breathed new life into it (while saluting king James' version) by covering it on his "Kojak Varieties" CD.

Most versions of this tortured torch ballad have been sung by a guilty man (Joe Tex and Percy Sledge also covered it) or tormented woman (include Aretha Franklin and Linda Ronstadt). But duos? Not too often. In fact there are only two that are well respected.

At this point it's hard to say who got there first…Hazlewood and Ann-Margret, or Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. But the clear favorite lasting the test of time is the former. They're a lot grittier and sexier about it. Besides, how in the world could you sneak Dolly Parton anywhere without people knowing??

Eventually Lee found other singing partners, using Nina Lizell and Suzi Jane Hokom and not Stockholm-born Ann-Margret (Olsson) on his 1970 "Cowboy in Sweden" album. He even worked his way back to Nancy Sinatra (you'll find the sensational "She Won't" elsewhere on this blog). But the combo of Lee and Ann-Margret deserves more acknowledgement, and so here's a sampe of Lee Ann rhymes...

DARK END OF THE STREET

THE GIRL ON DEATH ROW - Lee Hazlewood

Duane Eddy's twangy guitar intro is deep and resonant...but Lee Hazlewood's voice is smoother and higher than you remember. This is an early performance from Lee, well before he met up with Nancy Sinatra.
Duane and Lee met up when they were in high school, and Lee produced Duane's early singles in 1958 on the Jamie Label (which, no conflict of Payola, was partially owned by Dick Clark). "Moovin' 'n' Groovin'" was played on Dick's "American Bandstand" show and sold 100,000 copies. Eddy's fab "Rebel Rouser" followed...the irony here being that the howlin' rednecks you hear overdubbed onto the song, are actually black guys. They were The Sharps, who eventually earned novlty fame as The Rivingtons.
Released in 1960, "The Girl On Death Row" was used (very briefly) on the end credits to Terry Moore's depressing 1960 "Why Must I Die" film, which was in turn inspired by the 1958 Susan Hayward opus "I Want To Live." The tune lopes along at a country-rock pace as Lee sketches in the story:
"They take her life tomorrow. Is she guilty? She says no. The girl on death row. Now someone holds her trembling hand. Another says, "Please understand." Why can't they see it in her face? Another should be in her place..."
And the reason for posting it? Oh, just killing time.
THE GIRL ON DEATH ROW

JANE MORGAN and the worst lounge pianist of all time

Jane Morgan sings "These Boots Are Made For Walking," and it's on the Illfolks blog. You know what to expect.
Did anyone want this aging Mom singing a slutty S&M pop song??
OK, Jane's looking over her shoulder and sees that she'd better "get hep," but did she really think she could do it with a pianist who apparently had only three fingers on his right hand?
What turns this into an object of derision is not really Jane's earnest if clueless attempt at a song that doesn't match her personality, but the irritating arrangement that goes with it.
In other words, any smile of incredulity will be wiped into a downward frown before the song's over. You might never want to hear this again, but you'll want to experience it at least once.
Jane Morgan BOOTS it Instant download or listen on line. Mom, if you don't know how to click a link, ask your kids.

SAND RUNS OUT - Hazlewood Dies at 78

Sort of like a cross between Johnny Cash and Sonny Bono, Lee Hazlewood had a tough, almost literally flat voice and he was best when it contrasted to a similar female one. With Cher already taken, this cowpoke prodded Nancy Sinatra into stardom for them both. First he shaped Nancy from a sweet "Daddy's Daughter" performer into a painted, tainted boot-stompin' tough gal, then he began to duet with her.
Barton Lee Hazlewood, who died last Saturday, wrote "These Boots are Made for Walkin'" and the neatly nasty follow-up, "How Does That Grab Ya Darlin'?" He hit the charts with her on "Jackson" and "Summer Wine," and they made several albums including the fairly recent "Nancy and Lee 3" which failed to get a UK or USA release, even though it had some excellent tracks amid some corn and a few clinkers. Nancy sounds particularly good and Lee's a formidable octave lower. A sample of how good it could get is below; "She Won't."
Like Jimmy Webb, Lee Hazlewood could write both solid rock and soggy pop (remember Nancy's "Sugar Town"?)...but also like Webb, the Okie rarely got attention on his own solo CDs.
He knew he was dying when he put the finishing touches on "Cake or Death" the title a clue that this would be both sweet and sour, a sometimes cute often caustic musical brew of coffee, Bovril and saki. His voice was pretty strong, though not on "Boots," which does have lounge-cool brass, a twangy-guitar (he did work with Duane Eddy) and gives you the original, more masculine melody line. The lyrics are the same (including that great bit of poetic illiteracy, "you keep lyin' when you oughta be truthin').
My first choice for a salute goes back to the Cowboy Lee and Lady Nancy days, when their unrequited sexual tension was hottest (he was married) and he was moving past Ol' Blue Eyes as the main mentor and influence in her life.
"Sand," is really just a truckstop one-nighter, but producer-genius Lee uses courtly dress-up (catch the word "thee"?), Doors-type pseudo clever "fire" analogies, and shoves Beatles backward-tape psychedelia into the middle to take the concept of froggy guy and frosty princess to new depths and heights simultaneously. Or as we dudes say; "Sweet!"
Nancy: "Oh sir, my fire is burning high. If it should stop, sir, I would die. The shooting star has crossed my land. A wandering man."
Lee: "She whispered SAND...young woman shared her fire with me. Now warms herself with memory. I was a stranger in her land. A wanderin' man. She called me Sand."
Get it? Sand ran out on her. Sand bagged her. So many more of these, which you couldn't think of if he was named Grits.
SAND Instant download or listen on line.
SHE WON'T (from the last Nancy and Lee album, released only in Australia) Instant download or listen on line.