If I had a name like Wyndham Wallace I would not associate or correspond with anyone with a simple name like mine. However, since you have lowered yourself to such depths, how can my old Indian heart (west not east) not respond favourably.
—Lee Hazlewood, fax message to the author, Valentine’s Day 1999
Our friend Wyndham Wallace has written a book about his time as friend and manager to singer and songwriter Lee Hazelwood. He’s launching it at Rough Trade East in London, Thursday night. If you order it you can also attend the event. Doors 7pm, with a reading from the author, plus some of Hazelwood’s songs performed by Ed Harcourt and very rare film footage of Lee.
‘Lee, Myself & I’ is an intimate portrait of the last years of Lee Hazlewood, the legendary singer and songwriter best known for ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’, the chart-topping hit he wrote and produced for Nancy Sinatra. It begins in 1999, when Hazlewood began his comeback after many years in the wilderness, and ends with his death in 2007. In the intervening years, Wyndham became Hazlewood’s friend, confidante, de-facto manager, and more, even providing the lyrics for Lee’s final recording, ‘Hilli (At The Top Of The World)’
You can read an extract on The Quietus, here.
‘A sweet book about hero worship and friendship, written with love by someone who was there. A must read for all fans of Lee Hazlewood.’
– Bobby Gillespie
‘Wyndham’s time spent with Lee Hazlewood evokes a golden age of music journalism and, with a cast list that involves Frank Sinatra, Nick Cave, and Dean Martin, Lee Hazlewood lived a life well worth reading about.’
– Tim Burgess
‘Lee Hazlewood was a complicated man. He had wit, charm, talent, and a temper. Wyndham Wallace’s vivid, poignant book, a biography wrapped in a memoir, brings him roaring back to life.’
– Dorian Lynskey
