Andy Zax did a killer PopCon presentation on Rod some years back and now he's got a podcast appearance today on the subject. Have a listen!
https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring/2022/08/rod-mckuen-the-famous-poet-we-forgot
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 02:26 (one year ago) link
Excellent overview! I could probably listen to 10 hours of examination of the particulars in American culture that lined up to make stuff like this and Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Keane paintings and piña coladas possible
― Jaqueline Kasabian Oasis (bendy), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 13:28 (one year ago) link
In response to this episode my friend Ian Wade (very happily and openly gay) described In Search of Eros as 'the fruitiest album ever' and listening now, he's not wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-tWIA5SirY
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 21:04 (one year ago) link
McKuen was extremely big in the Netherlands in the early 1970s, scoring two consecutive number ones in 1971, just when I started to become pop-conscious, with “Soldiers Who Want To Be Heroes” and “Without A Worry In The World” (another cover of a superior French original, not Brel this time, but Moustaki). This is him in 2004, talking to Dutch TV about that anti-war hit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar8jc1zPwpQ(lots of “fibbing” here as well: the “I’ve written songs with Madonna” bit refers to her sampling a San Sebastian Strings track from the 1960s that he co-wrote on “Drowned World/Substitute for Love”)
― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 22:07 (one year ago) link
Aaron Freeman AKA Gene Ween's McKuen covers album was pretty dang good.
― Cow_Art, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 22:09 (one year ago) link
his (ever so vaguely discofied) version of the old chestnut “Amor, Amor” was a top 10 hit here in 1978: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lta_J6K_Umcit’s from his criscodisco album Slide… Easy In, the tutti-frutti-aw-rooty gatefold sleeve of which has to be seen to be believed: https://queermusicheritage.com/OCT2012/mckuenLP1.jpg
― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 3 August 2022 22:15 (one year ago) link
!
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 4 August 2022 02:16 (one year ago) link