Lee Hazlewood, 1929-2007
“One of the most ingenious, inspired and impressively stubborn sons-of-a-bitch the music industry ever saw”
That’s from Lee Hazlewood’s obituary on myspace. Hazlewood died Saturday in Las Vegas, but right now in the lefthand corner of his website, the little orange figure is blinking away: “Online Now!”
Hazlewood probably would’ve enjoyed the absurdity. He titled his penultimate album “Farmisht, Flatulence, Origami, ARF!!! and Me.” His last one was simply “Cake or Death.”
I’ve been trying to track down an online version of Phil Milstein’s excellent article, “Nancy & Lee and Sonny & Cher,” from Hermenaut’s Camp issue, which I recall pushing on friends like The Watchtower when it came out, but I’m not having any luck. I have found a wonderful tribute over at New York Night Train by Jonathan who attended the same mesmerizing documentary series on Hazlewood at Anthology Film Archives that I did. Cowboy in Sweden, if I remember correctly, followed Hazlewood and his horse through the country’s stark, barren landscape. Kind of like Bergman with reverb and airline stewardesses.
From the film, here’s “Hey Cowboy” with Hazlewood and Nina Lizell. And the horse.