The Next Hundred Years

Hawkins, Ted

album cover

An Incredible Busker Finally Gets His Shot

Ted Hawkins (1936–1995) spent most of his "career" sitting on a milk crate on Venice Beach, playing a beat-up acoustic guitar and singing for spare change. Patterning his phrases after Sam Cooke, he'd do soul standards and well-known blues tunes to enchant passersby. Occasionally, he'd slip in one of his own hard-luck songs, which referred, obliquely, to his tough upbringing, his struggles with alcoholism, and various trips to prison. Among his regular visitors were people who worked in the music business; after being primed for stardom by unscrupulous types, Hawkins grew wary and bitter. As he complained in a 1994 interview, "Seemed like every week somebody would come along and tell me how I was going to be rich."

Tony Berg, a Geffen Records executive, managed to win Hawkins's trust, and in 1993 convinced the singer, who'd already recorded several solo efforts, to go into a studio and record with a top-flight band. The Next Hundred Years brought Hawkins his first real critical acclaim; months later, before the first royalty check could come his way, he suffered a stroke and died.

That sense of misfortune defines not just Hawkins's career, but the songs he loved to sing. One, "There Stands the Glass," shares the thoughts of a man who's haunted and seduced by alcohol; it's gripping because Hawkins, whose voice has the texture of coarse sandpaper, clearly empathizes. The original "Strange Conversation," mean-while, showcases Hawkins's stylistic blendings—his ability to apply a folkie's philosophical perspective to a dispiriting blues tale, while singing like a wounded soul angel. Incredibly, Hawkins never sounds like he's out to smash borders when he sings. This unique artistic place his songs evoke, a world he developed over years on the boardwalk, was simply where he lived.

Genre: Blues
Released: 1994, Geffen
Key Tracks: "Strange Conversation," "There Stands the Glass," "Groovy Little Things," "Ladder of Success," "Long as I Can See the Light."
Catalog Choice: Watch Your Step
Next Stop: Ben Harper: Diamonds on the Inside
After That: Taj Mahal: The Natch'l Blues
Book Pages: 349–350