FEATURE:
Groovelines
__________
BECAUSE the iconic…
Nancy Sinatra turns eighty on 8th June. I want to feature her best-loved song for this Groovelines. These Boots Were Made for Walkin’ was released in December 1965 and was a huge chart success. It reached number one in the U.S. and U.K. Written and produced by Lee Hazelwood (who collaborated with Sinatra through the 1960s and 1970s), it has been much covered. I am going to get to some features about this song. Ones that explore its meaning, background and impact. I am starting out with a feature from Medium. They explore Nancy Sinatra’s signature song:
“In the mid-1960s, Nancy Sinatra was trying to follow in her very famous father’s musical footsteps and make a name for herself as a recording artist. It didn’t go especially well at first…but then “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” hit number one in both the US and the UK. Overnight, if briefly, her fame eclipsed even that of Frank himself.
“These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” was written by Lee Hazlewood, who also recorded a series of duets with Nancy Sinatra, including the somewhat risque (for the day) “Did You Ever” which hinted at all sorts of things but didn’t spell any of them out clearly enough to trouble the radio censors.
Lee Hazlewood also produced Nancy Sinatra’s other big hit, “Something Stupid”, a duet with her dad Frank. This also hit the top of the charts in the UK and US and to this day is the only father-daughter collaboration to hit the top of the charts. (Probably just as well…although I like the song, given the lyrics, the father-daughter combo on “Something Stupid” is vaguely un-nerving…)
“These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” tells the tale of someone who’s had enough. She’s clearly been putting up with the bad behaviour of a partner or lover for some time…doing her best to forgive and forget.
But then yet another incident comes along. Maybe some big blow-up, more likely something minor, but the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Then it all comes out…
You keep saying you’ve got something for me
Something you call love but confess
You’ve been a-messin’ where you shouldn’t ‘ve been a-messin’
And now someone else is getting all your best
I’m not sure there’s an easy way back from that, but Nancy Sinatra piles the pressure on in a verse I really love…it might not be the best use of formal English, but as a way for person at the end of their tether to get a point across, this is genius…
You keep lyin’ when you oughta be truthin’
You keep losing when you oughta not bet
You keep samin’ when you oughta be changin’
Now what’s right is right but you ain’t been right yet
I think we all know people like that. Almost whatever decision they make, somehow they get themselves into even deeper trouble than they were already. The harder they try, the further they fall.
Some of them have supportive and long-suffering friends, partners and families…often much more supportive and longer-suffering than anyone has a right to expect”.
I am eager to highlight a feature from American Songwriter. Repeating a little of what came before, they discussed the meaning of an iconic track. One of the greatest and most important songs of the 1960s. The second single from her debut 1966 album, Boots – an album largely of covers -, there are few songs as recognisable and cool as These Boots Are Made for Walkin’. It is one that is still widely played today:
“The Meaning
Right as the foreboding acoustic and chromatic bass begin, you know you’re in trouble. The mood of the song, even as it just begins, puts you on your heels.
Written by country star Lee Hazelwood, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” was first made into a hit by Nancy Sinatra (daughter of singer, Frank Sinatra). It hit the charts on January 22, 1966 after a release in December of 1965, and peaked at No. 1 in the U.S. and U.K. Since the song’s release it has been covered by others, from Billy Ray Cyrus and Megadeth to Jessica Simpson.
While the song was made famous by Nancy, Hazlewood said the writing of the tune was inspired by a line Frank said in the comedy western, 4 for Texas, in 1963. The line was, “They tell me them boots ain’t built for walkin’.”
In the song, the boots are made for walking. They’re made for walking out on no good, cheating men and they’re good, furthermore, for walking on their hearts before the head out the door. The track appeared on Nancy’s 1966 album, Boots. It was a follow-up to her popular tune, “So Long, Babe.”
Writing the song, Hazlewood wanted to record it himself. He even said that “it’s not really a girl’s song.” But Nancy talked him out of it, saying, “Coming from a guy, it was harsh and abusive, but was perfect for a little girl to sing.” Hazlewood, perhaps receiving an offer he couldn’t refuse, eventually agreed.
Sings Nancy to her no-good cheating boyfriend:
You keep sayin’ you’ve got somethin’ for me
Somethin’ you call love but confess
You’ve been a’messin’ where you shouldn’t ‘ve been a’messin’
And now someone else is getting all your best
These boots are made for walkin’
And that’s just what they’ll do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you
The Recording
The music for the song is just as impactful as the substance and performance from Nancy.
It was good largely because it was performed by the Los Angeles corps known as the Wrecking Crew. Chuck Berghofer played double bass and that now famous chromatic descent.
In a bit of controversy, Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine says he played drums on the song but the contract shows he was not present in the session. Donald “Richie” Frost is credited with playing the drum kit.
The recording session took place on November 19, 1965 at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, California. It also produced the songs, “Foursome” and “The City Never Sleeps at Night”.
I am going to end with a feature from Stereogum. The delivery and performance is not what you would expect when you read the lyrics for These Boots Are Made for Walkin’. Nearly sixty years after its release, you can hear how many female artists have been inspired by the song. Stereogum argue how Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra never really reached the genius heights again. A song that is almost perfect:
“These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” is a total pop-music miracle, an endlessly replayable evisceration of some asshole guy who’s been messin’ where he shouldn’t have been messin’. There’s no firepower in Sinatra’s vocal; she’s talking as much as she’s singing. But she’s got her father’s gift for timing and his ability to broadcast huge levels of personality through quick little asides. Nancy’s sneery “ha!” might be the best moment on a song that’s full of great moments. She sounds tough and playful and bored, all at once. She’s too cool to be properly pissed off at the guy who’s cheated. Instead, she’s having fun with him the way a cat has fun with a mouse. He’s barely worth her energy. The song works as a laconic seizure of power, a purred threat.
The arrangement, meanwhile, is so simple and intuitive that it’s almost hard to hear how weird it is. Sinatra and Strange recorded the song with the Wrecking Crew, of course, and all the musicians play with the sort of confidence that can only come from playing on a huge percentage of the era’s hits. That descending bassline, right after Sinatra sings the chorus, is joining in the mockery, while the twangy acoustic guitar adds to the strut. But my favorite part is the horn arrangement, which keeps shifting throughout the song — quiet during the first verse, minimal Southern-soul fanfares during the second, big riffs during the third, a joyously stabby explosion on the fade-out. The end of the song is where Sinatra stops sing to the guy and instead talks to the boots, like they were people: “Are ya ready, boots? Start walkin’!” And the horns become the boots, going into hard-strut mode. I fucking love it. I love everything about it.
Over the next few years, Sinatra and Hazlewood kept recording together, finding this glorious form of hybridized drug-pop. “Some Velvet Morning” and “Sand” and “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” are all dizzy, head-blown masterpieces. Eventually, Hazlewood moved to Sweden and recorded a bunch of unheard solo albums that later became cult favorites, while Sinatra kept recording and acting and showing up in unexpected places: posing for Playboy in 1995, when she was 54, or collaborating with Morrissey and Jarvis Cocker and Sonic Youth in 2004. Both of them had amazing careers, but neither of them ever recaptured the slick, breezy glory of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” again. To their enormous credit, neither of them even seemed that interested in trying.
GRADE: 10/10”.
I am going to end things there. One of the defining songs of the 1960s, These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ is impossible cool and brilliant. Because Nancy Sinatra turns eighty-five on 8th June, I want do a double celebration. Highlight this amazing song. Also mark a big birthday for Sinatra. Someone whose voice and musical persona is like no one else’s! For those who maybe have not heard the track in a while, make sure that you…
PUT it on now.