Lee Hazlewood Dies at 78

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


mojo-cover-hazelwood.JPG
Singer/songwriter Lee Hazlewood died Saturday in Henderson, Nevada, losing a three-year battle with kidney cancer. While Hazlewood had his own label and musical career, he was best known for penning tracks for Nancy Sinatra, especially “These Boots Are Made for Walking” and “Some Velvet Morning,” on which he also sang. “Morning” is one of the weirder tracks to ever hit the Top 30 (reaching #26 on the Billboard charts in 1967)—a reverby mix of country and psychedelia that’s notable for its alternating 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures, whose accelerating back-and-forth provides the song’s disorienting climax. The lyrics’ open admission of substance use (“some velvet morning when I’m straight”) made it a counter-cultural touchstone, and it’s since been covered by artists from Slowdive and Primal Scream to Lydia Lunch and Vanilla Fudge.

Grab an mp3 at rocksellout.com here; plus check out the Pitchfork and Billboard stories on Hazelwood’s legacy.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate