{"id":6346,"date":"2015-01-30T13:10:52","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T20:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=6346"},"modified":"2015-02-24T13:15:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T20:15:32","slug":"rod-mckuen-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/30\/rod-mckuen-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"Rod McKuen Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

from The New York Times<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Rod McKuen, Poet and Lyricist With Vast Following, Dies at 81<\/h1>\n

By\u00a0MARGALIT FOX<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rod McKuen, a ubiquitous poet, lyricist and songwriter whose work met with immense commercial success if little critical esteem, died on Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 81.<\/p>\n

Mr. McKuen, whom The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture described as having been, at his height, \u201cthe unofficial poet laureate of America,\u201d was the author of dozens of books of poetry, which together sold millions of copies.<\/p>\n

For a generation of Americans at midcentury and afterward, Mr. McKuen\u2019s poetry formed an enduring, solidly constructed bridge between the Beat generation and New Age sensibilities. Ranging over themes of love and loss, the natural world and spirituality, his work was prized by readers for its gentle accessibility while being condemned by many critics as facile, tepid and aphoristic.<\/p>\n

Mr. McKuen\u2019s output was as varied as it was vast, spanning song lyrics, including English-language adaptations (\u201cSeasons in the Sun\u201d) of works by his idol, Jacques Brel; music and lyrics, as for \u201cJean,\u201d from the 1969 film \u201cThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,\u201d for which he received an Academy Award nomination; and musical scores, including that of the 1973 television film \u201cLisa, Bright and Dark.\u201d He also appeared as a singer on television, on many recordings and in live performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat McKuen guarantees is that a certain California sexual daydreaming can be yours for the asking even if you do move your lips rapidly as you read,\u201d Louis Cox sniped in The New Republic in 1971.<\/p>\n

[ click to read full obit at NYTimes.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from The New York Times Rod McKuen, Poet and Lyricist With Vast Following, Dies at 81 By\u00a0MARGALIT FOX Rod McKuen, a ubiquitous poet, lyricist and songwriter whose work met with immense commercial success if little critical esteem, died on Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 81. Mr. McKuen, whom The St. James Encyclopedia of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}