Daily Corinthian • Sunday, February 1, 2015 • 3B
Rod McKuen was mega-selling poet, performer BY HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer
NEW YORK — Rod McKuen, the huskyvoiced “King of Kitsch” whose avalanche of music, verse and spokenword recordings in the 1960s and ’70s overwhelmed critical mockery and made him an Oscarnominated songwriter and one of the best-selling poets in history, has died. He was 81. McKuen died Thursday morning at a rehabilitation center in Beverly Hills, California, where he had been treated for pneumonia and had been ill for several weeks and was unable to digest food, his half brother Edward McKuen Habib said. Until his sabbatical in 1981, McKuen was an astonishingly successful and prolific force in popular culture, turning out hundreds of songs, poems and records. Sentimental, earnest and unashamed, he conjured a New Age
spirit world that captivated those who didn’t ordinarily like “poetry” and those who craved relief from the war, assassinations and riots of the time. “I think it’s a reaction people are having against so much insanity in the world,” he once said. “I mean, people are really all we’ve got. You know it sounds kind of corny, and I suppose it’s a cliche, but it’s really true; that’s just the way it is.” His best-known songs, some written with the Belgian composer Jacques Brel, include “Birthday Boy,” ‘‘A Man Alone,” ‘‘If You Go Away” and “Seasons In the Sun,” a charttopper in 1974 for Terry Jacks. He was nominated for Oscars for “Jean” from “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and for “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” the title track from the beloved Peanuts movie. Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Dolly Parton and Chet Baker were among the
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His best-known songs include “Birthday Boy,” ‘‘A Man Alone,” ‘‘If You Go Away” and “Seasons In the Sun,” a chart-topper in 1974 for Terry Jacks. He was nominated for Oscars for “Jean” from “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and for “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” the title track from the beloved Peanuts movie. many artists who recorded his material, although McKuen often handled the job himself, in a hushed, throaty style he honed after an early life as a rock singer cracked his natural tenor. McKuen is credited with more than 200 albums — dozens of which went gold or platinum — and more than 30 collections of poetry. Worldwide sales for his music top 100 million units while his book sales exceed 60 million copies.
He was especially productive from 1968 to 1969, releasing four poetry collections, eight songbooks, the soundtracks to “Miss Jean Brodie” and “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” and at least 10 other albums. Around the same time, his “Lonesome Cities” album won a Grammy for best spoken word recording and Sinatra commissioned him to write material for “A Man Alone: The Words and Music of Rod McKuen.” With his sharply parted blond hair, sneakers and jeans, McKuen was recognized worldwide and thrived in every medium: movies, music, books, television, stage. When not writing or recording, he appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and other talk show programs, formed a film production company with Rock Hudson and toured constantly until he took an extended break in 1981. “I was tired. I peaked. I left when I was on top,” McKuen told the Chicago Tribune in 2001. “One year, I did 280 concerts.” He had no formal musical or literary training, but often turned out a
song or poem per day and prided himself on writing verse that anyone could understand. The work seemed to call for accompaniment by a single, sad guitar or a sobbing chorus of strings. Among his most quoted phrases: “Listen to the warm” and “It doesn’t matter who you love, or how you love, but that you love.” The words written about McKuen were as notable as his own. Often compared to “Love Story” author Erich Segal, he was dubbed “The King of Kitsch” by Newsweek, while the magazine Mademoiselle preferred “Marshmallow Poet.” A National Lampoon parody interspaced mock verses with dollar signs. The escapism of his work was contrasted by an early life well in need of escaping. Born in Oakland in 1933, he hardly knew his father, who left the family when he was a baby, and McKuen recalled being terrified of his alcoholic stepfather. By age 11, McKuen had run away and he would spend his teens doing everything from ranching to roping horses in a rodeo, while writing poetry in his free time. After serving as a propaganda writer in the Korean War, McKuen wound up in San Francisco, where his friend Phyllis Diller helped him find work in the growing nightclub scene. He went on to sing with the Lionel Hampton band, acted in a handful of movies and TV shows, read poetry on the same bill as Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers and had a minor hit single
in the early 1960s with the dance parody “Oliver Twist.” Without critical approval or a book or recording contract, McKuen proved that an artist could thrive on word of mouth alone. He sang in bowling alleys to promote “Oliver Twist,” and his self-published collection of poems and lyrics, “Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows,” sold tens of thousands of copies before Random House acquired it. McKuen slowed down over the second half of his life, and many of his books fell out of print. But he continued to publish poetry, remastered old musical recordings and gave occasional concerts. He provided voiceovers for the Disney movie and TV series “The Little Mermaid” and appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1995 for an 80th birthday tribute to Sinatra. Artists continued to record his songs, including the former Gene Ween, Aaron Freeman, who in 2012 released an album of McKuen covers called “Marvelous Clouds.” McKuen did at times take on social and political issues. He opposed the Vietnam War, wrote a poem about the Watergate scandal and supported civil rights and equal rights for gays. Often described as a loner, he was reluctant to discuss his own romantic preferences beyond saying he did have them. “Cats have it all,” he once wrote, “admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.”
Miranda Lambert leads ACM Awards with 8 nominations BY MESFIN FEKADU AP Music Writer
NEW YORK — Miranda Lambert is continuing her reign as contemporary country queen with eight nominations at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards. The ACMs announced Friday that Lambert is the top contender, including a nomination for entertainer of the year, pitting her against top-billing male stars Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line. Lambert is also nominated for album of the year for “Platinum,” female vocalist of the year as well as vocal event and video of the year for “Somethin’ Bad’” with Carrie Underwood. “Automatic,” Lambert’s hit single, earned her a nomination for song of the year and two nominations for single record of the year since she also co-wrote the song.
The ACMs reflect next month’s Grammy Awards, where Lambert is nominated in all four country categories, including best country album. The 31-year-old’s main competition at the ACMS — to be held April 19 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — is Dierks Bentley, who earned seven nominations, including male vocalist, album, single record, song, video and vocal event of the year. Last year George Strait won entertainer of the year, but if Lambert takes the top honor home she will be the first woman to do so since Taylor Swift in 2012. Lambert has won female vocalist of the year for five consecutive years and is the current record holder in the category. Chart-topping duo Florida Georgia Line earned five nominations, while Luke Bryan, Kenny
Chesney and Eric Church earned four apiece. Glen Campbell, who earned Oscar and Grammy nominations for “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from the documentary, “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” is up for video of the year for the song’s music video. The 78-year-old is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Brandy Clark, who is nominated for two Grammys including best new artist, will compete at the ACMs for female vocalist of the year and song of the year since she co-wrote Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow,” a song about acceptance. Musgraves, Aldean and Underwood are up for three awards each. The ACMs are celebrating their 50th year, and Bryan and Blake Shelton will help bring the party to life as the show’s hosts. The show will air live on CBS.
Hallmark Channel’s Kitten Bowl teams vie for purring rights BY LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES — Football tampering is inevitable when felines take the field Sunday in Hallmark Channel’s Kitten Bowl — a four-team playoff to promote the adoption of shelter animals. The channel says kitties simply can’t help the fact that claws and balls don’t go together. “Our issues tend to be more related to the size of the ‘yarnage’ markers on the ‘kitiron’ and, of course, the length of their milk breaks,” said Bill Abbott, president and CEO of Hallmark parent Crown Media Family Networks. In other words, cute
trumps controversy when fluffy, big-eyed kitties are involved, just as it should. “Kitten Bowl II” kicks off at 11 a.m., starting with semifinal matches between the Northpole Panthers and Hallmark Channel Hearties, and the Good Witch Wildcats versus the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Mountain Lions. The winners then play for ultimate purring rights. Hallmark goes for giggles as well, with “quartercats” dubbed Tawny Unitas, Ryan Fitzcatrick and Joe Montuna. John Sterling and Mary Carillo host the big game, with Boomer Esiason serving as Feline Football
League commissioner. The kitty contest isn’t the only televised alternative to Sunday’s Super Bowl match between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. Fish Bowl II is on the Nat Geo WILD channel (5 p.m.) and there’s Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl (2 p.m.) that kicked off the trend and is in its 11th year. The latter also promotes pet adoption. Viewers lap it all up. Last year’s Puppy Bowl drew 13.5 million viewers, with the inaugural Kitten Bowl watched by 1 million. That’s not the 2014 Super Bowl’s 112.2 million viewers, but it beats a bowl of kibble.