JOHN BERGER / JBERGER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Popular poet of the '60s Rod McKuen is keeping himself busy and has been writing music among other things.
Poet past & present
Poet, composer, singer Rod McKuen
-- who has no intention of slowing down
at 70 -- plays a priest in the rock opera
'Soulmates' on Maui this weekend
When I come out as a priest they'd better have their umbrellas," Rod McKuen said, a twinkle in his eye suggesting that the heavens might split open on witnessing this controversial poet, composer and recording artist don clerical garb.
CORRECTION
Saturday, Aug. 23, 2003>> Sascha Alexander directed, filmed and edited all the "Soulmates" videos. In a Page D1 story on Tuesday, he was misidentified as Phillip Marcus.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.
"My friends said, 'You're going to Hawaii to play a priest?' Well, why not? I've heard of priests. I never thought I would wind up with a (priest's) collar, but it's going to be fun. I can't wait. The only thing is, we only have three nights."
'Soulmates'
Featuring Rod McKuen
Where: Maui Arts & Cultural Center
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $35, $25 and $20; $15 for under 18
Call: 242-7469
E-mail: www.soulmatesArockopera.com
McKuen is talking about his role in "Soulmates," a rock opera by Maui resident Patricia Watson, which premieres at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center this weekend. He stopped in Honolulu for a few hours last week to help promote the production.
The world premiere also stars Mary Jo Catlett and within the rock opera will be three videos directed by Phillip Marcus, who has won an MTV Award for his work with Bon Jovi, and American Music Award for his work with Nirvana.
Experimentation is nothing new to McKuen, who turned 70 in April and says, "I certainly don't feel 70. I've having fun. I'm just having such a good time, and I've never been happier in my life," he said. "I have no intention of checking out. They're going to have to drag me out of this world. I've having too good a time."
McKuen is busier than ever. He's writing classical music (almost all his commissions are for European orchestras), chamber music, and an opera based on a "little-known poem" by Walt Whitman. He recently finished a mass and is now working on the libretto for a "secret project with a major composer."
As if that's not enough, McKuen is also finishing up a collection of more than two dozen songs co-written with Johnny Mercer, and a second collection of half-completed songs that came out of a collaboration with another composer.
He celebrated his 70th birthday by playing Carnegie Hall for the 24th time. The theme was "The 30th Anniversary of My 40th Birthday," and he made it a particularly noteworthy occasion by singing several of his favorite songs by other composers.
"It's great to sing other people's songs. I was a record collector long before I was a performer or a singer. When I was a kid, if I had to chose between a record and a steak, the record won every time."
And, although McKuen says he had to be "dragged kicking and screaming" to the Internet six years ago, he writes a daily on-line column at www.rodmckuen.com.
"It keeps me on my toes," he says of dealing with daily deadlines imposed by his on-line work.
"The worst thing is that I rewrite everything. I used to drive the publishers nuts because I would rewrite from edition to edition, and I still do that. I run across a poem that I want to put on the Web and I think, "I took four stanzas, I can do that better in two."
LOOKING BACK AT his work, McKuen says he was derided as being too pop and too commercial during the late '60s, when his work started to attract the attention of the mainstream pop market.
COURTESY SASCHA ALEXANDER / PROMEDIA PRODUCTIONS
Singing their way through "Soulmates, A Rock Opera," are, from left, Sherlyn Kong, Kelly Covington, Barbara Hanger, Valeta Plummer and Melinda DeJean.
Some of his work, rooted in the back-to-nature, hippie era, was political, but other songs about being in love led a generation of women to swoon -- not always a good thing for artistic credibility.
"I was either the scourge of academia or I was beloved by it. There were some people who liked (my work) at the beginning, but as soon as you stop being a cult figure you and you actually make money, a lot of people actually get very upset about it. The same reviewers that liked my stuff in the beginning started disliking it, but I had the last laugh because it's in a lot of college texts."
Most of McKuen's recordings will soon be available on CD. The Bear Family, a label that specializes in meticulously restored and annotated CDs and boxed sets, is releasing six CDs that cover his work for RCA, and another 22 to cover his years with Warner Bros., a total of "about 1,200 songs," he said.
That'll leave one gap for the moment -- the albums that combined his poetry with the music of Anita Kerr and the San Sebastian Strings. The series began in 1967 with "The Sea," and continued into 1968 with "The Earth" and "The Sky."
McKuen's poetry -- pieces including "Days of the Dancing," "The Waltz," "My Mother Wanted Me to Play Mozart" and "How Many Colors of Blue?" -- was set to expansive orchestral arrangements that accented the wide range of subjects and emotional images found in his work.
McKuen and Kerr continued with "Home to the Sea," "For Lovers" and "The Complete Sea," a three-album package that contained "The Sea," "Home to the Sea" and a new album, "The Soft Sea," which was later released as a separate album. The original "Sea-Earth-Sky" trilogy was released as a boxed set.
McKuen and Kerr collaborated on a second series of albums tied together with seasonal themes, and recorded several one-of albums as well. All are currently out of print, and not by McKuen's choice.
"It's a real problem because they're owned by three different parties -- Warners, myself, and Anita Kerr. Anita and I are fine, but we have a lot of problems with Warners. They're the only copyrights of mine at Warners that I don't own totally outright, but it'll happen."
In the meantime, vinyl copies of the McKuen/Kerr albums in good condition are worth grabbing on eBay.
What's next for Rod McKuen after "Soulmates" this weekend? He's not sure, but it could be something completely new.
"I still don't know what I really want to do. I know that there's something out there that I haven't done that I'll be better at, because if what I've done so far is all I'm gonna do I'm not impressed. I have too many more roads to travel and too much more work to do. It's a great life."
Click for online
calendars and events.
