This is one I have had for a while but a better copy has come into my hands so why not revisit it.
Regular readers of these pages will know of my love of Rod McKuen.
Those who don’t know who he is refer to the other comments for biographical detail and lots of ruinations by me.
McKuen was extremely popular in the 1960s and 1970s with middle aged people and older than middle aged singers who covered him. McKuen’s world view was always older than his years (though, I suppose he caught up to them) and he always seems to have one foot in the past, despite his lyrics of a brighter future.
It resonated with middle aged people beaten down (insert dramatic music) by the small cruelties of life.
But there is a dirty secret and that is that McKuen also appealed to (the hipper and more thoughtful) kids and punks.
I suspect this was a result of the multitude of his records in thrift / op shops across the US, Australia and England that were the regular haunts of indie kids looking for old music.
I have travelled and I can attest to their prominence.
I still op shop in Australia and I have managed to put together quite a collection of Rod McKuen albums, rarely spending more than a couple of dollars.
Sooner or later, just like I did, many years ago, you buy a Rod McKuen album and when you play it, it resonates and transcends generations.
It always did but it wasn’t cool to listen to old people s music.
Sure, some people send up the hipster kitsch in their McKuen covers but a large body do him totally straight.
John Doe, Nirvana, Gene Ween, The Beat Farmers, Black Box Recorder and many others are unlikely acts that have covered Rod.
Despite its cross generational appeal and, as much as I loved his music when I discovered in my 20s (it was everywhere in op shops), it seems that his music has more emotional gravitas the older I get.
Maybe that’s why it appealed to older (than him) trad pop singers like Sinatra, Al Martino, Jerry Vale, Matt Monro, Andy Williams, Robert Goulet and others …
This was Rod McKuen’s tenth (or so) album.
This is low key compared to later orchestrated McKuen and the sparseness of the songs accentuate the lyrics and the lonesome mood.
McKuen’s style was firmly set, as it had been since his third of fourth album. Lounge-y jazz trad pop folk baroque with a beatnik world weary world view embraced by a search for love and meaning in an increasingly mechanised, computerised and ordered world.
He is a crooner for the cold war modern age.
He incorporates elements of the (feminine) torch song into his ruminations on the way people interact with each other in an environment which favours alienation.
Sounds pretentious, ehhh?
Well, pretentiousness be damned, listen to McKuen and you will get what I mean.
He is American by birth and European by outlook which is not surprising as he one of the many art driven American writers, painters, etc who flocked to Paris and the continent in the 1950s and 1960s.
He becomes the American musical equivalent of the French chanson, of Jacques Brel, of continental (more southern than northern) temperament, with an occasional touch of Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot.
A young man looking forwards with an old man’s knowledge.
Much like, at times, Brian Wilson, though a whole less hip.
The beauty here is that Rod, who loves a good orchestra, has a small band behind him and they rarely intrude. They just add some mood and punctuate some emotions.
It is a quiet, lonesome album (with the usual Rod drama and occasional bombast) but one that (especially) highlights Rod's vocals and the lyric of the songs.
Tracks (best in italics)
Side One
- Seasons In The Sun – (Brel, McKuen) – a magnificent lounge ballad. One of the greatest. Rod says "For the record, Jacques wrote "Le Moribond" in 1962. I adapted it to "Seasons In The Sun" three years later. It was an international standard in both French and English thanks to recordings by The Kingston Trio, Nana Mouskouri, Bud & Travis and even Pearls Before Swine before Terry Jacks recorded it in 1974 for Poppy Family Productions. He had a big hit with it and I've always appreciated the royalties his recording brought me, they helped pay for a new roof on my house. Oddly enough his follow-up single was "If You Go Away," another Brel-McKuen collaboration. Alas, Lightning did not strike twice". http://www.rodmckuen.org/flights/020699.htm. This is a great (un-orchestrated) version of the song. Almost like a bohemian folk song with a touch of paranoia. Wonderful. for a discussion on the hipster relevance of the song http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2005/03/goodbye_papa_its_hard_to_die.html The song was a #1 around the world for Terry Jacks in 1973. The first recording of the English-language version (lyrics by McKuen) was released on 1963 album “Time to Think” by The Kingston Trio. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasons_in_the_Sun
- Love Song – (Mason Williams) – first on (apparently) the obscure “Folk Baroque” album by Mason Williams (with Paul Sykes) in 1963. Williams’ temperament, as a home grown beatnik, suits Rod. Recorded for the first time here.
- The Lovers – (Rod McKuen) – another excellent , and slightly cynical, love song.
They hold the boulevards and bars
They pray to wishing wells and stars
They ride the hurricane of hope
Not looking back but only go towards the distance and deceiving
And all the while they keep believing
They are special and apart
The lovers,
The lovers of the heart,
The lovers
- You Pass Me By – (Rod McKuen) – Perfect in mood and an excellent song, if a smidge under those above. It was first sung by Molly Bee in the film "The Young Swingers" (1963).
- Summer Song – (Dave & Lola Brubeck) – First release by The Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Paul Desmond (1956) as an instrumental. Brubeck then collaborated with Louis Armstrong on a vocal recording (1962) with lyrics written by his wife Lola for the musical show "The Real Ambassadors".
- Kearny Street – (Rod McKuen) – the lyrics were included, later, in his book of poetry "Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows" (1970). This a (largely) spoken word with music about a San Franciscan street and the vagabond who traversed it.
- The Last Day Of Summer – (Rod McKuen) – another beautiful song and suitable melancholy as you would expect from a song called "The Last day of Summer".
Side Two
- The World I Used To Know – (Rod McKuen) – a great song, one of Rod's best. Often done by him, here it has little instrumentation and orchestration. A guitar and harmonica. It had been recorded by Jimmie Rodgers and Glen Yarbrough and has been done many times since.
- Black Orpheus (Manha de Carnaval) – (Antonio Maria – Luis Bonfa) – From the film "Orfeu Negro" (Black Orpheus) (1959) which introduced Bossa Nova to the world. It has been recorded many times by trad pop singers and jazz musicians. Added vocals by The Sherwood Singers … wordless vocals from them and Rod until almost the end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manh%C3%A3_de_Carnaval
- Take Me Home Again – (Rod McKuen – Skip Redwine – Ron Stephanson) – Stephenson was in Atlanta folk quartet "The Town Criers" and Redwing was a conductor and arranger who worked with Rod on occasion.
- It Was Me (C'Était Moi) – (Gilbert Becaud – Norman Gimble) – Written by Gilbert because who also recorded it as did Tony Bennett. The first release was by Gilbert Bécaud (1960). Norman Gimbel wrote English lyrics (according to the sheet music) and its first release was by Tony Bennett (1963) though the record lists Norman Gimble (composer, arranger and electronic music innovator with introducing the Moog) at the same time. It seems more likely to be the former.
- Stanyan Street – (Rod McKuen) – the lyrics were included, later, in his book of poetry "Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows" (1970). A very personal song for Rod. He even named his record label "Stanyan Records".
- Five Hundred Miles – (Hedy West) – A folk song first released by The Journeymen (1961). The most commercially successful version of the song was Bobby Bare's in 1963 (#10 Pop US, #5 Country) but is identified with the folk movement, Kingston Trio (1962) and Peter, Paul & Mary (1963). Rod slows it down, but it works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_Miles
- Seasons In The Sun – (Brel, McKuen) – a reprise of the magnificent title tune
And …
Magnificent. One of Rod's best and one of the best trad pop albums of the 1960s … I'm keeping it.
Chart Action
Nothing nowhere
I don't get the charts. It's clear that Rod sold many albums. You find them everywhere, he recorded many albums (there isn't new product if there aren't sales), and, articles often mention that he sold 100 million (or more) albums world wide
And, yet he doesn't appear in the charts.
Is there a conspiracy out there?
Unlikely, but I suspect the charts are very poorly administered when it comes to trad pop stars.
Sounds
Seasons In The Sun (Le Moribond)
mp3 attached
The Lovers
mp3 attached
You Pass Me By
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFV-0JgfNfM
The World I Used To Know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emrx802J_lo
Take Me Home Again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYgaEuWlVP8
Five Hundred Miles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESCA_dH4afU
Others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-l0o3tOXw0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnG7o92gYk4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGnzR7ZAQio
Review
—
Bio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_McKuen
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rod-mckuen-mn0000243803/biography
Obit
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/01/rod-mckuen
and another obit with an accurate depiction of Rod’s bona fide hipster credentials
Website
Trivia
- Produced By Dave Hubert (and Ed Habib and Rod McKuen). Arranged and conducted by Jim Helms. Harmonica solo's by Tommy Morgan.
- Personnel: Rod McKuen (vocal), Jim Helms (guitar), Tom Morgan (harmonica), Hersh Hamil (bass), James Bond (bass), Mel Zelnick (drums), The Sherwood Singers (vocals), The Troubadour Singers (vocals).
- The Australian version of the album (this album) omits: The Voyeur (While Walking In A Lonely Wood)(Rod McKuen) and Night Song (Rod McKuen – Mort Garson).
