Lee Hazlewood Makes “A House Safe For Tigers”

One of our favorite characters here at Second Disc HQ is the one and only Lee Hazlewood.  Whether singing psychedelic duets with the daughter of the Chairman of the Board, proving that Hollywood kids Dino, Desi and Billy were “Not the Lovin’ Kind” or going all twangy with Duane Eddy, Hazlewood made his mark wherever he went.  Light in the Attic kicked off a new Hazlewood reissue campaign in April with the release of the deliciously offbeat The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes and Backsides 1968-1971, promising further treasures would be liberated from the vaults of Hazlewood’s own LHI Records label.  That promise has materialized with the announcement of the August 21 reissue of A House Safe for Tigers.

A House Safe for Tigers is the soundtrack to one of seven TV movies Lee Hazlewood made with the director Torbjörn Axelman while living in Sweden in the early 1970s. Hazlewood had moved there to lay low and to help his son avoid the draft, but wound up finding happiness and creative freedom. This period of Hazlewood’s career has been the stuff of collectors’ circles, as many of his recordings made in Sweden never made the commute back to his native America.  Originally only available in Sweden, the Light in the Attic reissue (to be available on CD, vinyl and special gold vinyl) marks the return of Tigers.  Hazlewood starred alongside Axelman in the documentary-style “buddy movie” that might be thought of as a precursor to reality television.  Hazlewood and Axelman reflected on their respective childhoods, sharing reminisces and encountering various people along the way.   “It’s strange, very strange,” Hazlewood said.  “But we meant it to be strange.”  Adding to the strangeness (at least for any potential American viewers!), much of the film is in Swedish, and some even in Latin.  The film’s title has been attributed by various sources to Buddhist prayer, or Asian or Swedish folklore, in which one’s home is blessed to be kept safe from metaphorical “tigers.”  One version states that the presence of flowers strewn in the home will keep the tigers at bay.

Hit the jump for more, including order links and track listing!