Nancy and Lee Week No 6: Not the Lovin' Kind
As I have stated Nancy was nothing more than Frank Sinatra's daughter until she was paired with Lee Hazlewood: the first single written and produced by him, "So Long Babe", was her first US top 100 entry; the next, the classic "These Boots were made for Walkin' " was number one in both the states and the UK. After that came more hits, bestselling albums and the Hazlewood produced number one duet with her daddy "Something Stupid".
A lot of the tracks that Lee recorded with her were his own songs, and many of these such as "Jackson" and Did You Ever?" were essentially country and western Nashville style tracks, something that Frank would never have touched. But Lee was always prepared to take that tough girl voice somewhere else such as in "Boots" and the follow up "How Does That Grab You Darlin'?" (essentially "Boots" part 2) . As he does with his composition "Not the Lovin' Kind", a fine example of what he noticed in Nancy's voice that none of his predecessors had heard. This is great production, the stark double bass and Les Paul style guitar providing the perfect, laid back accompaniment to Nancy's worldly wise, good time girl vocal.
To understand how brilliant Nancy's vocal on this is just listen, and pretend you're her lover of the moment. She's lovely but tough, enchanting and even sympathetic. But never once does she show by the smallest inflexion in her voice even the slightest hint of weakness or regret. Also there's no sense of self pity, no sense of her own tragedy, the unspoken tragedy that haunts this song. Lee's not singing on this one, but he's there all the same, getting Nancy to make the most of the toughness needed to make it as a singer when your father has set the bar as high as it's ever likely to be. What a combination of suppressed heat and ice. You get chilblains just listening:
Tell you babe, I'm not the lovin' kind so you'd better get it right off of your mind I'll give you money, I don't care I'll take you with me, anywhere oh, tell you babe, I'm not the lovin' kind Tell you babe I'm not, not the lovin' kind get you somebody else and you'll do just fine cast your tears into the sea don't waste your tears on me
I tell you babe I'm not the lovin' kind I tell you baby I'm not the lovin' kind mmmm so you'd better move on down the line I told you so,
I've never lied your love's a train I'll never ride oh tell you babe, I'm not the lovin' kind I told you so, I've never lied love's a train I'll never ride
oh tell you babe, I'm not the lovin'
kind