Seven Lee

Lee Hazlewood - Your Sweet Love
Lee Shot Williams - You're Welcome To The Club
Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
Lee Dorsey - A Lover Was Born
Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Soul Fire
Lee Moses - California Dreaming
Lee Marvin - Wand'rin Star

On Monday morning, shortly before I was to start the working week, my phone buzzed the buzz of an incoming text. Message received from Colin: "Lee Hazlewood's autumn finally came on Saturday. He's taking that dirtnap now." Minutes earlier I had read the extremely sad but not entirely unexpected news of Lee's passing and was frantically trying to put together a clever text message to Colin, but he beat me to the punch, again. I could only muster the lame response: "He was something special, his boots will keep on walking". The idea for a post featuring various musical Lees was already in the pipeline but the timing now seems rather apt.

With just a few words Lee Hazlewood tells a heavy tale of resisted temptation. Mournful vocals, lush strings and a line beginning with "until the death..." are all part of the recipe for 'Your Sweet Love' which first appeared in 1966 on The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood.

Like many artists at the time, Mississippi born Lee 'Shot' Williams moved north, first to Detroit then Chicago, where he had a hit in 1964 on the King subsidiary Federal Records with 'You're Welcome To The Club'. Little Milton also recorded the tune just one year later.

'The Sidewinder', the title track to an album released in 1963, was a crossover hit for trumpet player Lee Morgan. Breezey blues based funky soul jazz, it's easy to hear why this meandering track had, and still has, wide appeal.

Next is Lee Dorsey backed by The Meters doing a song he co-wrote with Allen Toussaint. 'A Lover Was Born' couldn't possibly be more NOLA. From 1969, this song is as almost as funny as it is funky.

Primarily a producer, Lee 'Scratch' Perry put his own name to 'Soul Fire'. It splendidly reflects his tortured creative-genius temperament and can be found on the excellent Arkology three disc compilation of material he recorded at the Black Ark Studio (before burning it down).

Little is known about Lee Moses, who emerged out of the Atlanta soul scene in the 60s. For a more in depth look at his recorded output, check out this post over at In Dangerous Rhythm. His incredible interpretation of 'California Dreaming' is done Bobby Womack style but with more grit and, dare I say it, more soul. It appears on his only album, Time and Place.

I used Lee Marvin's 'Wand'rin Star' in my last podcast. Such a cool song. I haven't seen the Western it's featured in, Paint Your Wagon, but from his vocals in this tune I get the feeling he's got the grumpy-old-restless-cowboy role down pat. There's lots of amusing lines, I particularly like this one: "do I know where hell is / hell is in hello / heaven is in goodbye forever / it's time for me to go".

Sinatra family forum Lee Hazelwood thread