"Tim Hardin was a high school pal of mine. At a party one summer night in 1959, Tim sat down at the piano, played a few brief licks, turned to me and said, 'Freeman, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me...!'
A year later, Tim moved to New York and by 1965 he was famous. Tim Hardin and Bob Dylan lived and worked in Woodstock, New York. Here were the two great american poets, living on opposite sides of town, setting the musical pace and standard, going from acoustic to electric, inventing tunings, and writing hit after hit.
Tim Hardin was a concert performer and recording artist, playing Carnegie Hall in America and the concert halls of Europe, recording 14 albums between 1965 and 1975. Throughout his career, stories reached home about Tim's battles with heroin and alcohol. In 1970, Tim moved to London to avail himself with England's methadone program and to complete a recording contract and a concert tour of Europe. From 1975 on, no word reached home at all. His friends, myself included, wondered about his whereabouts and condition.
After 19 years, we were reunited in Tim's Hollywood apartment in the middle of December, 1979. I found Tim happy, ebullient and moody. I could not get him to sing his songs, so I took my guitar from the case and sang, 'If I were a Carpenter' and 'Reason to Believe'. This infuriated Tim. He took the guitar and said, 'Let me show you how it's done.' What I heard was a richness and maturity in Tim that was not present in his classic albums, Tim Hardin 1 and 2.
I invited Tim to come back home to Eugene, Oregon, to do a TV-documentary on his life and a homecoming concert for his friends. Tim was delighted at the prospect of both the TV-show and the concert inasmuch as he wanted to tell his story and he wanted to play Eugene, which he had never done before. He was thrilled to be going home in time to spend christmas with his grandmother, Manner.
We did the TV-documentary, in which Tim talks about Lenny Bruce buying him a piano and giving Tim a room in his home so Tim could write and record. 'That's where 50% of the tunes you hear off me were written'. Tim recalled his Woodstock days, told the sorry story of the selling of his song catalogue, his earning of 23 million US-dollar and, through a series of legal maneuvers, ending up broke. He spoke of his heroin habit, why he took the drug, kicking the habit in 1977, and why he might use it again. All the time we were doing the TV-tapings, Tim was preparing for the concert. He did in-depth interviews on five radio stations and both TV stations. Three newspapers did feature stories on him. The concert was a sellout.
This album is the live recording of Tim Hardin's 'Homecoming Concert'. It is the definitive Tim Hardin. The singer whose voice and style excited and moved critics and audiences from the beginning. The songwriter/poet whose lyrics grab and hold their intensity of love, adoration and truth. And the musician. It is a rare artist, indeed, who can carry an audience through a complete performance on the strength of his voice, the quality of his material and his mastery of his instrument.
It's all here. Tim, his music, his love for his audience and their love for him. This is the last live concert Tim gave. He returned to Hollywood, was in the process of recording an album, which was one-half completed, when he died on December 29th, 1980, six days after his 39th birthday.
Listen closely to "Tribute to Hank Williams", for in many ways Tim had written his own song.
Phil Freeman, a friend"
On one hand it breaks my heart to listen to this knowing that Tim would be gone not long after this wonderful concert.....on the other hand, I am so grateful to have this last great moment. Tim sounds so happy to be BACK.
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I know several here had the fine privilege to hear Tim live..especially the UK members....while Tim lived in the UK for a while.
Some brilliant and beautiful songs from the Homecoming Concert...
Hang On To A Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhO2Hi9jQD4
From his LIVE IN CONCERT 1968...one of my all time favorite live albums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85RLNxd_ ... re=related
Don't Make Promises....love it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZXwH8uPBEk
....Another from my tortured artist section of my all time favorite artists!! What is with me.?!..I guess I hear something in their music that is as deep as it gets...brought out in their music.
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