The Boxing Lesson

Lee Hazlewood

In his Sixties salad days, Lee Hazlewood wrote and produced hits for Duane Eddy and Nancy Sinatra while pursuing a psychedelic cowboy/MOR-surrealist sensibility on his own iconoclastic recordings. His early successes spawned maverick label LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries), which now gets its due with this insanely lavish box incorporating four CDs, a DVD of Hazlewood's rarely seen 1970 TV special Cowboy in Sweden, and an LP-sized, 172-page hardcover book. Two discs collect Hazlewood's own LHI releases, including haunting cult classic Requiem for an Almost Lady and bittersweet Ann-Margret collaboration The Cowboy and the Lady, while the remaining pair offers a generous sampling of the label's catalog. That ranges from Gram Parsons' pioneering country-rock outfit the International Submarine Band to memorable gems from unsung heroes including Suzi Jane Hokom, Honey Ltd., Hamilton Streetcar, the Kitchen Cinq, and Sanford Clark, the rockabilly star who benefited from Hazlewood's writing in the Fifties. More affluent completists can upgrade to an even-more-extravagant edition with data discs that encompass virtually everything on LHI. Those settling for the much-cheaper download version won't be disappointed either.