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This album isn't the easiest thing in the world to explain, so bear with us for a moment.
First, of all, the album is a product of the mind of Lee Hazlewood, who is impossible to explain. Basically a writer, Lee has created a number of great rock-and-roll smashes of the past decade. But at heart Lee's still a country-type fella. He chews straw a lot, stuff like that. He's also one of the funniest guys ever. So, finally, Lee has put together an album just the way he feels an album should be put together. To say the least, it's different.
On each band, Lee begins telling a tale. It's usually a gentle tal, usually about a soul that, if not lost, is at least pretty widely overlooked (hence, the album title).After a minute or so of winsome verbal wanderings, Lee then launches into another Hollywood product: a song., usually less winsome and more pointed, and satirical.
So much for the record.
Now a few words about the man behind the record. Lee Haslewood is one of the leading independent reocrd producers in the United States. A Mannford, Oklahoma evacuee, Lee now lives in the San Fernando Valley of California, spending his time writing, loafing (he hates ties-he owns lots of pants, lots of shirts, and one tie which glows in the dark and reminds you of a vacation trip to Govler's Knob, Ken.), and fixing his favorite food, Billy Steak ("take one fifth of twelve-year-old Scotch and eight ounces of cheap steak; drink the fifth of Scotch and feed the steak to the dog; novody likes to eat a cheap cut of steak anyway"). Lee also givew considerable thought to the developement of a low-cal Scotch.
At this point, it would be best to confess that we at Reprixe Records have a real problem. We orignially asked Lee to write his own liner notes for this album. Wha is so embarrassing is that he did.
The following notes, by Lee Hazlewood, are reprinted as nearly verbatim as we feel is decent. Written in the style of Dylan, it is. . .what it is. In case you need help, some of the characters mentioned below are Mo Ostin (general manager of Reprise Records), Jimmy Bowen (producer at Reprise) , and Jack Nitzsche (an arranger).
Lee's Liner Notes
THE N.S.V.I.P's (a free verse tone poem originally performed in 19 B.C. by three thousand an nine scantilly clad short distance runners with small arms1 accompaniment by twenty-two irate long distance runners.)
in may of 1964
(when the world an i were very young)
i met jimmy bowen (former teenage star)
and i said
"jimmy bowen,
"former teenage star,
"why is it thou does not asketh i
"to make a brilliant album
"filled with wit and jolly satire?"
jimmy bowen (former teenage star)
jurled me no leww than three kos2
and disappeared with the speed of
a psycophant3 into the lost
generation.
in june of 1964
(when the world was young)
(and i was wrinkled)
i met jimmy bowen
(dramatic, former teemage star)
and i said,
"i, though wrinkled
"bear you no malice
"nor pox, nor stuff.:
"so whata ya say, huh?"
jimmy bowen
(dramatic, former teenage star)
stood looking more like
someone
than someone else.
he opened his mouth
as if to speak and
spaketh,
"so maketh your dammed album"
i touched the hem of
his beau gentry cape
for good luck and dashed
blindly into the street
where i was promptly
crushed beneath the
wheels of a
red go-devil
driven by a half-crazed
young arranger
called
jack
of the house of nitzsche.
a kindly gentleman, who
shall remain
anonymous,
but for4 clarity sake
we shall call
mo ostin,
came a stoned passing
strangers, who were
taking my shoes and
loose change.
the kindly gentleman
spake
"if you should survive
"(and surely no one in your
"(pitiful condition can),
"you should know two things."
at that moment
i knew why
i was born.
"oh what sir?" i cried
in tragic pain
(while some heartless
(jackal took the lace
(from my left sandal and
(ran into the
(darkness).
"what should i know sir?"
"oh pray tell,
"0h."
he spake again.
"life is not a bowl
"of rainsin bran."
"oh, oh"
icried,
"why has this knowledge
"come so late?"
the kindly mo ostin
continued,
"learn to forgive your fellow
"man for he is flesh and flesh
"is weak."
"it deeply wounds me,"
he saidth,
"to inform you that. . .
"TARZAN AND JANE WERE
"NEVER MARRIED."
darkness closed around me
but i
cared not.
i smiled and fell face
down in a pool fo go-devil oil
and was
no more.
notes:
- small arms accompaniment
helped many short distance
runners develop rapidly into
long distance runners.
- a measure of distance in India
varying from 1 1/2 to 3 miles.
- a mentally disturbed elephant.
- first long distance runner to
die from injuries received in
a head-on collision with a
psycophant.
special thanks to thes nsvip's
a gorilla named-roger
a barefoot sombrero named-leo
a lady great dane named-trouble
a casey named-al
a strange named-billy
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