Welcome to the WWII Forums! Log in or Sign up to interact with the community.

Rod McKuen

Discussion in 'Roll of Honor & Memories - All Other Conflicts' started by GRW, Jan 30, 2015.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2003
    Messages:
    20,815
    Likes Received:
    3,042
    Location:
    Stirling, Scotland
    I"n the early 1970s the singer, songwriter and poet Rod McKuen was loved and loathed in equal measure. His sentimentality was too much for some but if it bothered him, he never revealed it publicly. He said, “I have a style which is uniquely mine.

    I like to think there is only one Rod McKuen.” Another stumbling block was his croaky voice, although it was ideally suited to his whispered poems and songs of lost love. “I have a range of two octaves,” he once told me, adding with a wink, “On a clear night you can hear John Denver.”

    He was born in 1933 in a Salvation Army hostel in Oakland, California and raised by his mother and an abusive, drunken stepfather. He left home as soon as he felt able to support himself and he dug ditches, felled trees and worked as a ranch hand. He kept a diary of his experiences which would fuel some of his poetry. As a late night radio DJ in Oakland he read poems in between the records.

    In 1953 he was conscripted to Korea, prompting his pacifist song, “Soldiers Who Want To Be Heroes”. (“Soldiers who want to be heroes, Number practically zero, But there are millions, Who want to be civilians.”) He recorded this himself, while another song relating to those days, “Doesn’t Anybody Know My Name”, was recorded by Vince Hill in 1968."
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rod-mckuen-poet-songwriter-and-distinctively-voiced-singer-who-was-nominated-for-an-oscar-and-worked-with-jacques-brel-and-frank-sinatra-10014815.html
     
  2. bronk7

    bronk7 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 5, 2013
    Messages:
    4,753
    Likes Received:
    328
    Location:
    MIDWEST
    looks like his early life gave a lot of material to sing about
     
  3. Martin Bull

    Martin Bull Acting Wg. Cdr

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2002
    Messages:
    13,578
    Likes Received:
    1,487
    Location:
    London, England.
    Brings back memories of the Andy Williams Show...... :eatpopcorn1:
     

Share This Page