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FIRST PICTURES: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966-1971 / 5-disc set

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You know some care and attention has gone into this Lee Hazlewood Industries (LHI) deluxe set when you open the front cover (complete with gold foil blocking) and find a replica business card printed on textured paper with an embossed logo, mounted within a die-cut page! No corners appear to have been cut with the presentation of There’s A Dream I’ve Been Saving 1966-1971 – an anthology that, according to indie label Light In The Attic, has been seven years in the making.

Lee Hazlewood was an established songwriter and producer when he set up his own label, Lee Hazlewood Industries, in 1966. He’d had success co-writing with Duanne Eddy (Peter Gunn) and really put his name on the map as writer and producer of Nancy Sinatra‘s global smash These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, released earlier the same year. LHI became a vehicle for his Hazlewood’s talent, creativity and ego. He had total autonomy and built a tight-knit team around him which included girlfriend Suzi Jane Hokum and Tom Thacker, who acted as general office manager. According to Thacker LHI was “really just a bunch of people hanging out and trying to make hit records.”

The four CDs within the book contain 107 tracks, including on the first two discs, everything Lee recorded for LHI and a handful of unreleased tracks. Discs three and four cover key tracks from the LHI stable of artists including Suzi Jane Hokum, The Kitchen Cinq, Ann-Margret, The International Submarine band and more.

The fifth disc is a DVD (new digital transfer from the 16mm master negative) of the never before released film Cowboy In Sweden. It features remastered sound and is region free. A red flexi-disc is also included.

The 172-page book is amazing. So well put together; brilliant photos, fantastic design, key associates interviewed and pictures of sleeves and labels. It puts many books we’ve seen to shame, to be honest.

Photographed here is the ‘standard’ edition of There’s A Dream I’ve Been Saving, but a deluxe version is also available which packages the book within a cloth-bound clamshell box with reproductions of LHI-era artifacts including press photos and a reproduction plane ticket used by Hazlewood back in ‘70. The deluxe comes with three further data DVDs which include just about every 45 single and every LP ever released on LHI — around 17 albums and 72 singles, totalling 305 songs. The are supplied in in both WAV and MP3 formats.

There’s A Dream I’ve Been Saving 1966-1971 is out now.

Standard Edition (4CD+DVD+Book)

Deluxe Edition (4CD+4DVD+Book + Cloth bound clamshell box + extras)

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Four discs at the front of the book
contents
Some very funny photos within this set
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Fantastic graphic design
pages
The early years with Suzi Jane Hokom
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Excellent illustrated timeline at the bottom of the pages

art

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Photographer Murray Garrett is interviewed
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Record sleeves
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Hazlewood moved to Sweden and made a film
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“Cowboy In Sweden” included on DVD
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Record labels and track listings
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Quality linen binding
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That business card
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Spec sheet

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9 Comments

9 thoughts on “FIRST PICTURES: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966-1971 / 5-disc set

  1. Don’t know how much of a bargain this is and knowing how I and many other feel about mp3s, but amazon uk are offering the set on mp3 download for £14.98.

  2. My set arrived today. I took the plunge with the Deluxe set too. It really is by far and away the most beautifully put together box set I’ve ever seen. The only one that comes close for me is The Books box set that they put out when they split. It’s feels like quality from the outer box upwards. Well worth the delays to end up with this.

  3. I purchased this set a few weeks ago, and I have to say it is well worth the price. Just the amount of music makes it a value. And the deluxe edition is so well made that I feel very comfortable paying the price asked. The book, which I am looking at now, really is well made. The printing is incredible and the size lets you feel as if you are holding the albums in your hands. There was a lot of research done to get the interviews with all the key players, and it will take many hours of reading to get through it.
    If you are on the fence, I say take the plunge.

  4. Ken I think you’ve sort of missed the point a litle with this set. It looks to me to be an absolute labour of love. The three DVD’s will give you everything bar one album that was released on LHI. That’s has to be worth the extra cash doesn’t it? The book looks far better than the usual grab bag of photos and lyrics, and any fan of Lee will rejoice at finally getting their hands on Cowboy in Sweden. Maybe not for everyone, but I think for a real Hazlewood fan this is the sort of thing we never thought possible.

  5. As Sordel states above this is a wonderful set…..but is it worth the £141 that Amazon UK are asking for the “Deluxe” set? The music industry has now found another way to fleece the music buying public. Lets not forget it’s the music that’s important and this set contains just 4 cds. If this set was sold as 4 separate cds, a separate dvd and the book etc as a separate item there is no way the cost would be £141! Okay so you also get 3 “data dvds” (just what is a data dvd?) most of which will be played once but does anyone actually want a Lee Hazelwood plane ticket from the 70’s.
    Most of these Deluxe sets are well overpriced and contain mostly music that has been previously released, often several times. We keep hearing that the sale of cds are in decline and is it any wonder.
    The reasoning behind these sets seems simple. I don’t think many of them are sold to the young end of the music buying public so this appears to be a last chance to sell these artists at inflated prices to the ageing audience still buying music in cd form.
    It’s also strange to think that Lee Hazelwood can get this kind of treatment yet hundreds of vinyl albums have yet to be released on cd (for example most of the “Rocket” labels output).

    1. I agree that the ‘deluxe’ version is overpriced at £140+

      For me the ‘standard edition’ at around £60-ish on Amazon feels about right. Of course if you look at it as just a 4CD set then it’s not brilliant value, but the book is of such quality and so well done that the bigger price tag is largely justified.

  6. Wonderful set. I do hope other record companies take some tips from this one, because the attention to the music is fully the equal of the attention to the packaging.

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