Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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HARDIN, Tim

(b 23 Dec. '41, Eugene OR; d 29 Dec. '80, LA) Singer-songwriter whose commercial success came from other artists' recordings of his songs. Following late '50s service in US Marines he drifted on to folk circuit; appearance at Newport Folk Festival '66 was well received; album Tim Hardin '66 demonstrated world-weary style of smoky folk. He is best-known for 'If I Were A Carpenter' (hit by the Four Tops, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash and June Carter), 'Reason To Believe' (Peter, Paul and Mary, Rod Stewart), 'Black Sheep Boy' (Scott Walker), 'Hang On To A Dream' (the Nice), 'Misty Roses' (Johnny Mathis). He moved to Woodstock late '60s; Bob Dylan LP John Wesley Harding '68 widely rumoured to have been infl. by Hardin, even to have been named after an outlaw ancestor. He made an album in the early '60s released in '67 on Atco called This Is Tim Hardin; four eponymous numbered LPs on Verve/Forecast (no. 3 was Live In Concert) plus a Best Of '70; LPs on Columbia: ambitious Suite For Susan Moore and Damian '70, Bird On A Wire '70, Painted Head '73; Archetypes '73 on MGM; excellent Nine '73 on Island/Antilles. Lived in UK '70s, playing in clubs and wine bars; was considered for the role of Woody Guthrie in Bound For Glory '76; returned to USA and died of drug overdose just as a new record deal was under way with Polygram. His own live performance of 'If I Were A Carpenter' (e.g. on an Elektra LP Neil Bleecker And MacDougal '65 in UK) was a hypnotic folk-blues; any comparison with hit recordings of it are almost coincidental, yet his own sales were not great. Simple Songs Of Freedom on Columbia and two-CD Hang On To A Dream on Polydor/Verve are good compilations.