Rod McKuen, mega-selling poet and performer, dies at 81
Rod McKuen, the husky-voiced “King of Kitsch” whose music, verse and spoken-word recordings in the 1960s and ’70s won him an Oscar nomination and made him one of the best-selling poets in history, died Thursday. He was 81.
McKuen died at a rehabilitation center in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he had been treated for pneumonia. He had been ill for several weeks and was unable to digest food, said his half brother, Edward McKuen Habib.
Until he took a sabbatical in 1981, McKuen was an astonishingly successful and prolific force in popular culture, turning out hundreds of songs and poems and records, including the Academy Award-nominated song “Jean” for the 1969 film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”
Sentimental, earnest and unashamed, he conjured a New Age spirit world that captivated those who didn’t ordinarily like poetry and those who craved relief from the war, assassinations and riots of the time.
“I think it’s a reaction people are having against so much insanity in the world,” he once said. “I mean, people are really all we’ve got. You know it sounds kind of corny, and I suppose it’s a cliche, but it’s really true; that’s just the way it is.”
His best known songs, some written with the Belgian composer Jacques Brel, include “Birthday Boy,” ”A Man Alone,” ”If You Go Away” and “Seasons In the Sun,” a chart-topper in 1974 for Terry Jacks. He was nominated for an Oscar for “Jean” and for “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” the title track for the beloved Peanuts movie.
Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Dolly Parton and Chet Baker were among the many artists who recorded his material, although McKuen often handled the job himself, in a hushed, throaty style.
McKuen is credited with more than 200 albums — dozens of which went gold or platinum — and more than 30 collections of poetry.
He was particularly productive in the late ’60s, releasing four poetry collections, eight songbooks, the soundtracks to “Miss Jean Brodie” and “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” and at least 10 other albums.
McKuen was recognized worldwide in every medium: movies, music, books, television, stage. He took an extended break beginning in 1981.
“I was tired. I peaked. I left when I was on top,” McKuen told the Chicago Tribune in 2001.
He had no formal musical or literary training and prided himself on writing verse that anyone could understand. Among his most quoted phrases were “Listen to the warm” and “It doesn’t matter who you love, or how you love, but that you love.”
McKuen, however, didn’t receive universal acclaim. Newsweek dubbed him “The King of Kitsch,” while the magazine Mademoiselle preferred “Marshmallow Poet.”
He was born in Oakland, Calif., in 1933, and his father left when he was a baby. Terrified of his alcoholic stepfather, McKuen had run away by 11. He spent his teens doing everything from ranching to roping horses in a rodeo, and he wrote poetry in his free time.
McKuen slowed down over the second half of his life, and many of his books fell out of print. However, he continued to publish poetry, remastered old musical recordings and gave occasional concerts. He provided voiceovers for the Disney movie and TV series “The Little Mermaid” and appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1995 for an 80th birthday tribute to Sinatra.
