In the 1966 smash-hit "These Boots are Made for Walkin'," Nancy Sinatra charged "You keep samin' when you oughtta be a-changin'." The same could not be said about Lee Hazlewood, the pop auteur who wrote and produced the song. The longevity of his 50-year career is matched only by its variety and eclecticism. In the 50s, he produced the early singles of celebrated rock 'n roll guitarist Duane Eddy long before becoming the musical mastermind behind Sinatra's chart-topper. Post-"Boots," he went on to lay down half the vocals for a series of duets with Nancy Sinatra that are now regarded as masterpieces of consumer-friendly, country-politan psych-pop. Before becoming a kind of peripatetic cowboy-crooner in the 70s, when he recorded albums in Sweden of all places, he found the time to bankroll and press the first and only International Submarine Band album (that being Gram Parsons' first experiment with country-rock).
Judging by the guest contributors to his new album Cake or Death, including the lead singer of the German punk band Die