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Tim Hardin

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Not to be confused with Tim Harding (disambiguation) or Tim Harden.

Tim Hardin
Hardin in 1969
Hardin in 1969
Background information
Birth nameJames Timothy Hardin
Born(1941-12-23)December 23, 1941
Eugene, Oregon, U.S.
DiedDecember 29, 1980(1980-12-29) (aged 39)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
GenresFolk
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active1964–1980
LabelsVerve, Columbia

James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980)[1][2] was an American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his own popularity, his songs If I Were a Carpenter, Reason to Believe, Misty Roses and The Lady Came From Baltimore were hits for other artists. [3]

He grew up in Oregon and had no interest in school, dropping out before graduating high school and joining the Marines. After his discharge, he moved to Greenwich Village and Cambridge, playing there, recording several albums and performing at the Newport Folk Festival and at Woodstock. He struggled with drug abuse throughout most of his adult life and his live performances were sometimes erratic. He was planning a comeback when he died in late 1980 from an accidental heroin overdose.

Early life and career

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Tim Hardin was born in Eugene, Oregon to Hal and Molly Hardin who both had musical backgrounds. His mother was an accomplished violinist and concertmaster of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and his father played bass in jazz bands in the Army and in college.[4][5]

It was at the South Eugene High School where he first picked up the guitar. When he was 18, he dropped out and joined the Marines where he improved his guitar skills and built up a repertoire of folk songs. He also got a taste for heroin while stationed with them in Southeast Asia.[6]

After his discharge, he moved to New York City in 1961 where he briefly attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[6] He was eventually dropped for poor attendance[7] and began to focus on his music, performing around Greenwich Village playing folk songs and blues. During this time, he became friends with fellow musicians "Mama Cass" Elliot, John Sebastian and Fred Neil.[8]

He moved to Boston in 1963 and became part of a growing folk music scene there where he was discovered by upcoming record producer Erik Jacobsen (later the producer for The Lovin' Spoonful) who arranged a meeting with Columbia Records.[9] The next year, he moved back to Greenwich Village to record for Columbia and made a handful of demos, as an audition, which they did not release. They soon terminated his contract.[10] Verve Forecast would release these tracks six years later as Tim Hardin 4 as though they were a newly recorded album.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1965, he met actress Susan Yardley Morss (known professionally as Susan Yardley)[6][11] and moved back to New York with her. He signed with Verve Forecast records and released his first album, Tim Hardin 1 in 1966 which included "How Can We Hang On to a Dream", "Reason to Believe" and the touching ballad "Misty Roses" to critical acclaim and which got Top 40 radio play. That same year, he played at a Saturday afternoon workshop of contemporary and protest songs at the Newport Folk Festival.

He was admired for his beautiful voice, "a soft voice, a sweet voice,” a Los Angeles Times reviewer later wrote, “a voice which quavers between the tugs of the blues and the tender side of joy. He can sing nasty, but his forte is gentle songs whose case allows him to slip and slide through a rainbow of emotions.”

“I think of myself more as a singer than a songwriter and always did,” he told a reporter in an interview with the Oregon Daily Emerald. “It happened to be that I wrote songs. I’m a jazz singer, really, writing[[ in a different vocabulary mode but still with a jazz feel. I don’t ever sing one song the same way. I’m an improvisational singer and player.”

He recorded another much covered song, Black Sheep Boy in 1966, about his drug use alienating him from his family despite, as he says in the song, wearing the golden fleece, (a symbol of authority and nobility), and holding a winning hand. Bobby Darin, Ronnie Hawkins, Bill Staines, Joel Grey and Don McLean recorded their versions of it.

In 1967, Verve released Tim Hardin 2 which had one of his most famous songs, "If I Were a Carpenter". That same year, Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records released an album of earlier material called This is Tim Hardin featuring covers of House of the Rising Sun, Fred Neil's Blues on the Ceiling and Willie Dixon's Hoochie Coochie Man plus several of his own songs including the driving tunes, Fast Freight and Can't Slow Down. The liner notes state that he recorded the songs in 1963–1964, well before the release of Tim Hardin 1.

By 1967, after critical acclaim for his first album and the release of This is Tim Hardin, a wide variety of artists were covering his songs and he was in demand to tour Europe and the United States. However, the quality of his work was in decline due in part to "his own combativeness in the studio, his addiction to heroin, his drinking problems and his frustration with his lack of commercial success". He began performing poorly and missing shows, reputedly falling asleep on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1968.[5][12] At the time, he was viewed as enigmatic, with one journalist stating that while "his position as one of the best songwriters of his generation is unquestioned ... [he] ... courted the scene in the most fumbling manner imaginable". The same writer noted his seemingly uncaring relationship with his audience, often ignoring them, just singing "at times badly, at times beautifully ... somehow always fascinating".[13] He wrote that Hardin did have an "uninspired stage presence" in spite of having what the reporter said was "not a bad voice".[14]. The tour was cut short after he contracted pleurisy.[15]

In 1968, Verve released Tim Hardin 3 Live in Concert, a collection of live recordings along with remakes of earlier songs which they followed withTim Hardin 4, his unreleased Columbia demos dating from the same period as This is Tim Hardin. In September of that year, he and Van Morrison shared a bill at the Cafe Au Go Go, each performing an acoustic set.[16]. In 1969, he signed with Columbia again, recording three albums for them, Suite for Susan Moore and Damion: We Are One, One, All in One; Bird on a Wire; and Painted Head. He had one of his few commercial successes with a non-lp single, a cover of Bobby Darin's "Simple Song of Freedom" reaching number 48 in the US and hitting the Canadian Top 50 chart.[17] Between his heroin use and his stage fright, he was undependable in his live performances [6] and he did not tour in support of the single.

That same year, he appeared at the Woodstock Festival where he sang If I Were a Carpenter solo and played a set of his songs backed by a full band.[18]. He was scheduled to open the festival though he was in such bad shape that Richie Havens opened instead. None of his performances were included in the documentary film or the original soundtrack album.[6] His performance of If I Were a Carpenter was included on the 1994 box set Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music.

Later work and death

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In the years that followed, he traveled between Britain and the U.S. In 1969, he went to England for a program to treat heroin addiction but was unsuccessful and he became addicted to barbiturates which were used during the withdrawal stage from heroin.[7] His heroin addiction controlled his life by the time his last album, Nine, was released in 1973 (the album wasn't released in the U.S. until Antilles Records released it in 1976). He sold the writers' rights to his songs but accounts of how this happened differ.[6]

In late November 1975, he performed as guest lead vocalist with the German experimental rock band Can for two UK concerts at Hatfield Polytechnic in Hertfordshire and at London's Drury Lane Theatre. According to author Rob Young, in the book All Gates Open: The Story of Can, he and Can got into a huge argument after the London concert during which he threw a television set through a car's windshield.[19]

After several years in Britain, he returned to the US in early 1980, writing ten new songs and recording them at home for a comeback. However, on December 29, his longtime friend, Ron Daniels found him dead on the floor of his Hollywood apartment. The police said there was no evidence of foul play and it initially appeared that he died of a heart attack.[20] The Los Angeles coroner's office later confirmed that he had died of an accidental heroin overdose.[21] He buried in Twin Oaks Cemetery in Turner, Oregon.[22]

The following year, Columbia released his last work, eight unfinished tracks, on the posthumous album Unforgiven along with a compilation of his previous work for them, The Shock of Grace.[23]

Covers

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Among his successes, Tim Hardin wrote the top 40 hit If I Were a Carpenter, covered by Bobby Darin, Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, the Four Tops, Robert Plant, Small Faces, Johnny Rivers, Bert Jansch, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Dolly Parton and Joe Nichols and others.

Many artists covered his song Reason to Believe notably the Carpenters, Neil Young and Rod Stewart who had a number one hit with it in the UK.

How Can We Hang On to a Dream had many covers including Cliff Richard, Françoise Hardy, Marianne Faithfull, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Frampton, The Nice featuring Keith Emerson and Echo and the Bunnymen.

Morrissey and Nico covered Lenny's Tune, Bobby Darin and Johnny Cash both charted hits with The Lady Came From Baltimore, Astrud Gilberto sang Misty Roses and Johnny Mathis had a top 40 hit with it.

Tributes and legacy

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In 2005, the indie rock band Okkervil River released a tribute album called Black Sheep Boy said to be based on his life. According to one reviewer, the concept of the album is a "collection that should go some way towards rekindling an interest in his life and work".[24] Will Sheff from Okkervil River said "There is something very disarming about how simple those songs are ..., a Tim Hardin song never outstays its welcome. It's very short and pretty: one verse, one chorus, second verse, the song is over and he's out of there. It's like a tiny, perfectly cut gem".[25]

In January of 2013, a tribute album, Reason to Believe:The Songs of Tim Hardin featuring indie and alternative rock bands from Britain and America was released. Mark Lanegan who sang Hardin'sRed Balloon on the album told Rolling Stone: "I've always been haunted by his devastating voice and beautiful songs ... I can't imagine anyone hearing him and not feeling the same".[26] Another performer on the album, Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith said of him that "you get what he’s telling you without him spelling it out ... when it came time to make my first record, I kept that in mind".[27] One music website initially described the album as appearing "surprisingly mainstream" but later acknowledged it in the article as a "comprehensive package ... [that] ... transcends its limitations ... [with the folkier songs] ... capturing the fragility of Hardin's original work without disrupting the moody, maudlin flow".[28] The album was described as an opportunity to focus more on his music than his issues with drugs and his early death.[29]

Roger Daltrey included "How Can We Hang On to a Dream" on a commemorative CD of his favorite music which won him the 2016 Music Industry Trusts Award. In the liner notes he says, "I was a huge fan of Tim's".[30]

On his third solo album, recorded in 2015, Pete Sando, of the 1960s band Gandalf, included a song called "Misty Roses on a Stone" that he co-wrote as a dedication to Hardin after a visit to the singer's grave. He acknowledged that he was very much influenced by Hardin noting in particular "his lyrical economy and musical balance ... just the sheer simplicity and beauty of his songs was so appealing".[31]

Bob Dylan reportedly said that Hardin was "the greatest living songwriter" after hearing his first album.[32] In a 1980 interview when asked about the Dylan quote, Hardin recalled: "Yeah, I played him part of the album one night and he started flipping out, you know. Man, he got down on his knees in front of me and said: 'Don't change your singing style and don't bleep a blop...'".[33] In the same interview, Hardin expressed some mixed feelings about Dylan but in another article, Brian Millar concluded [that] "Dylan was right: for some years, Tim Hardin was the greatest songwriter alive. And just as no one sang Dylan like Dylan, no one sings Hardin like Hardin".[34]

He later claimed to be either a distant relative of or direct descendant of John Wesley Hardin, the 19th century outlaw, but this was only a part of his self-mythologising;[35][36][4] it has been said that this provided the inspiration for Dylan's album John Wesley Harding.[20][37]

After his death, there was considerable reflection on his impact. Writers said that, along with Leonard Cohen, he was the only musician who could rival Bob Dylan in composing "deeply moving love songs" however critics also noted that he never gained the attention he deserved and by the time he died, not one of his albums was still in print.[38] Jon Marlow writing in the Miami News said he was not about to "glorify yet another dead junkie's lifestyle" but held that the Tim Hardin Memorial album is an "unheralded but still beautiful record of 12 songs that deserve your attention and money ... and has nothing to do with dead hero worship ... it's simply here to remind us that via his first two albums Tim Hardin made a lot of promises he couldn't keep".[39] Another reviewer wrote of the memorial album that it "firmly establishes him as an enduring and influential artist".[40] Though his excesses came under scrutiny, one reviewer noted that "few people who have ever heard the poignant, often lonely, tone of [his] body of work would dispute the suggestion that he was one of the most affecting singer-songwriters of the modern pop era".[41] The Los Angeles Weekly said' that his life showed that drugs, alcohol and creativity were not a long lasting or positive partnership, with the writer concluding: "I don't think Tim Hardin was ever really sure how good he was and he went from arrogance to despair, conscious of the promises he couldn't keep ... [He is] ... gone, but the songs aren't and they will last".[42]

Discography

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References

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  1. ^ Moody, Rod (21 March 2002). "Memorial Page for Tim Hardin" (Data base and images). Find a Grave. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  2. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 243. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. Archived from the original on 10 July 2022.
  3. ^ Unterberger, Richie (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 467. ISBN 9781858284576 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b Tattooed on Their Tongues, Colin Escott, 1996, Schirmer Books, p. 2
  5. ^ a b Decker, Ed. "Tim Hardin Biography". Musicianguide.com - Index of Musician Biographies. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Brend, Mark (2001). American Troubadours: Groundbreaking Singer-Songwriters of the '60s. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-87930-641-0.
  7. ^ a b Sharrock, Ian. "A Reason to Believe in Tim Hardin". triste archive. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Tim Hardin Biography". Zipcon.net. Archived from the original on 6 December 1998. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  9. ^ Richie Unterberger. "Tim Hardin | Biography & History". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  10. ^ Richie Unterberger. "The Roots of the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas and the Papas". From Chapter 2 of Turn! Turn! Turn!: Richieunterberger.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2002. Retrieved 12 October 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  11. ^ "Will Sheff on Hardin". saidthegramophone. 24 August 2005. Archived from the original on 10 April 2008.
  12. ^ Macamba0 (20 December 2015). "Tim Hardin 12/1980". Rock and Roll Paradise. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Rodriguez, Juan Rodriguez (17 August 1968). "Tim Hardin - jazz singer extraordinary". The Gazette. Archived from the original on 24 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Lloyd, Jack (29 December 1972). "Hardin Has Knack of Turning Masterpiece into Dullsville". Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 13. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Tim Hardin Contracts Pleurisy", Rolling Stone, No. 16, August 24, 1968, p.5
  16. ^ "A 60's Tale 7 Years Underground The True Story of Café Au Go Go". Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  17. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles – August 30, 1969" (PDF).
  18. ^ Lawrence, Wade; Parker, Scott. "Tim Hardin 50 Years of Peace & Music" (Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival, August 1969–2019). Bethel Woods Centre for the Arts. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  19. ^ Young, Rob; Schmidt, Irmin (2018). All Gates Open: The Story of Can. Faber & Faber. pp. 257–258. ISBN 978-0-571-31149-1. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021.
  20. ^ a b Kennedy, Michael J. (30 December 1980). "Tim Hardin, '60s singer-songwriter, is found dead". Des Moines Tribune. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Tim Hardin's Death Caused by Overdose". Intelligencer Journal. 27 January 1981. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "Buried Here - Tim Hardin, Singer/Composer of "If I Were a Carpenter" & "Reason to Believe"". Rock & Roll Roadmaps. 19 December 2015. Archived from the original on 24 July 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  23. ^ Browne, Ray B.; Brown, Pat, eds. (2001). The Guide to United States Popular Culture. Popular Press. p. 364. ISBN 978-0-879-72821-2. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022.
  24. ^ Meaghur, John (26 January 2013). "Believe in the talent of tragic singer Hardin". Independent.ie. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  25. ^ Lifton, Dave (29 December 2014). "The Day Songwriter Tim Hardin Died". UCR Classic Rock & Culture. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  26. ^ Johnson, Miles. "Mark Lanegan Honors His Folk Hero in 'Red Balloon' – Song Premiere Former Screaming Trees frontman covers Tim Hardin". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  27. ^ Thompson, Graeme (19 January 2013). "Tim Hardin: remembering the lost genius of his music". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  28. ^ "Spring 2013: New & Impending Tributes Part 3: Tim Hardin & Nick Drake, Revisited". Cover Lay Down. 3 April 2013. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  29. ^ Peel, Hannah; Pinkunoizu (29 January 2013). "Reason To Believe: Tim Hardin". Clash Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 July 2022.
  30. ^ Sexton, Paul (23 December 2021). "Reason To Believe: The Introspective Brilliance Of Tim Hardin". udiscovermusic. Archived from the original on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  31. ^ "Misty Roses On A Stone (Tribute to Tim Hardin)". petesando.bandcamp.com. Archived from the original on 9 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  32. ^ "Some thoughts on Tim Hardin". Songs from so deep. 17 August 2013. Archived from the original on 9 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  33. ^ "The Heavy Heart of Tim Hardin". Bardach Reports. September 1980. Archived from the original on 9 July 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  34. ^ Miller, Brian (31 December 2020). "Tim Hardin 'Tormented Genius' Gone 40 Years". vivascene.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  35. ^ The Tombstone Tourist: Musicians, Scott Stanton, Gallery Books, 2003, p. 323
  36. ^ "The Songs of Tim Hardin | Pias".
  37. ^ Speelman, Paul (11 March 1982). "One reason to believe in Tim". The Age Melbourne. p. 53. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  38. ^ Hilburn, Robert (4 January 1981). "In Memoriam: A Reason to Believe in Tim Hardin". Los Angeles Times. p. 369. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. ^ Marlowe, John (11 November 1981). "Tim Hardin made promises he couldn't keep". The Miami News. Archived from the original on 24 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ^ Kanzler, George (12 November 1981). "Melancholy memories of Tim Hardin". Edmonton Journal. p. 34. Archived from the original on 24 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ^ Hilburn, Robert (18 March 1994). "Recapturing Tim Hardin's 'Dream'". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 24 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ^ Delp, Lauren (16 January 1981). "Hello Tim Hardin, Goodbye Tim Hardin". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  43. ^ Richie Unterberger. "Suite for Susan Moore and Damion: We Are One, One, All in One - Tim Hardin | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 17 March 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
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