reasons to believe
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
His songs were, usually, miniature. But classic all the same. "Reason To Believe," "Misty Roses," Don't Make Promises," ""How Can We Hang On To A Dream," ""Black Sheep Boy," "Red Balloon," "The Lady Came from Baltimore." Not one of them is longer than 2 1/2 minutes, and quite a few are under 120 seconds long. It's puzzling to me that Tim Hardin isn't spoken of in the same reverent tones as Nick Drake, or Tim Buckley, that the neo-folkies don't name-check him as frequently as they do Donovan, that there isn't a Hardin tribute album on some label's drawing board.True, his burst of songwriting brilliance was brief. When he left Verve Records to sign with Columbia, it seemed as though his muse didn't make the complete journey. And then he pretty much vanished until his death in 1980.But those first two studio albums, and especially his live third album, are just classic. It was blues, folk, and jazz-influenced pop music, etched into perfect little songs, sung in a hauntingly bruised voice.Bobby Darin, an expert mimic, copped Hardin's phrasing exactly on his hit cover of "If I Were A Carpenter." "Reason To Believe" and "Misty Roses" were recorded countless times. But Hardin never had a hit record of his own, and he faded from sight.There isn't a lot of video on Tim Hardin. Believe me, I've looked. But this clip is pretty damned cool:Buy this:
Comments (7)