A Voice of the Warm: The Life of Rod McKuen

by Barry Alfonso

In his 1960s-1970s heyday, Rod McKuen was a phenomenally popular singer-songwriter as well as the bestselling poet in publishing history. To his legions of fans around the world, he was a voice of compassion and healing, as much a prophet as an author/entertainer. McKuen songs like “If You Go Away” and “Jean” earned him massive hits, while books like Listen to the Warm sold millions of copies.

McKuen's huge sales and devoted following didn't stop the critics from calling his work sentimental kitsch cranked out for the money. Who was this enigmatic artist who aroused so much love and hatred? A Voice of the The Life of Rod McKuen is the first-ever biography of one of the 20th century's most popular and misunderstood pop-culture icons. Drawing upon extensive research and over 100 interviews, author Barry Alfonso tells how McKuen overcame childhood physical and sexual abuse to become a teenage radio host, film actor, and Beat-style poet before connecting with a vast audience as a writer and recording artist. McKuen's role as a pioneering gay rights activist who bridged the '60s generation gap with a message of love and tolerance help to make his story uniquely relevant today.

Genres: Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

Published June 28, 2019

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first learned of Rod McKuen in the early 90s, well past the peak of his fame. The cool high school English teacher had a few bookshelves in the back of his classroom, and "Listen to the Warm" was one of them. Although cheesy, his writing was perfect for me as an overly emotional high schooler. Turns out my mother had a couple of Rod's LPS at home, and I listened to her scratched up copy of "The Sea" over and over.

Since that time, Rod's music has remained a guilty pleasure. In A Voice of the Warm, Barry Alfonso presents a very readable portrait of a man who fans feel that they know personally, but about whom very little is actually known. The difficulty of documenting McKuen's life story accurately is not helped by his own sometimes conflicting accounts, and his propensity to exagerate (to put it kindly) or even lie. To the author's credit, he does not gloss over his subject's faults, so the book is never overly sentimental.

The book does a good job of highlighting the popularity and timelessness of McKuen's songwriting: a LOT of musicians, from Sinatra to Ween, have performed his songs. McKuen comes across as a hard-working entertainer who is a fundamentally good person but has issues just like the rest of us.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting biography on Rod McKuen. A joy to read, and Kimley and I will be doing a podcast (Book Musik) very shortly on this title.

[Dan Seitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alfonso can't quite make himself admit that McKuen's critics have a point about the quality of some of his output, and his subject is so mercurial (and in the back half of his life so inactive) that it's difficult to get much more meat out of him. This becomes a problem both because McKuen was a relentless liar as only the insecure can be, and because he's just not on the record. It's clear that in his youth he was, to some degree, a cynical fame chaser, but it's clear something changed, at some point, as he stayed in touch with fans and as he spent his life with his partner (a complicated relationship.)

Also missing is a frank discussion of how McKuen, a phenomenon, was erased by the broader pop cultural landscape both because he was as close to an openly gay man as one could get in the era and because his primary audience was young women.

That said... this is what Alfonso has to work with, and he does an excellent job with what he has. Worth reading, especially if you're curious about the history of pop culture.

[Bill O'driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whether you remember Rod McKuen well or only a little, and even whether you liked what he did or not, this is a fascinating bio. Having grown up in the 70s, when he was at a peak of popularity, I recall mostly his feel-good doggerel poetry; others remember him mostly as a songwriter and recording artist. He was stunningly successful at both these things commercial, for a good long while; as Alfonso notes, McKuen had a hardscrabble backstory of childhood abuse, reform school and more, before finding his way into such seminal cultural scenes as the Beat era in San Francisco and the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 60s. He was also a gay-rights advocate in the 70s -- and a canny marketer of his material and "lonely boy" persona. Alfonso is a bit more of an advocate for his subject than you like to see in a bio -- nearly an apologist, at times -- but even if it doesn't sell you on the value of McKuen's work, reading the book will give you a good sense of the man.

[Phillip Block]

A Voice of the Warm – The Life of Rod McKuen was a powerful, powerful read for me. Rod McKuen was a hero to millions of Baby Boomers in the late Sixties and early Seventies. His music moved me then, and still does. I especially liked The Sea, The Earth, and The Sky. It was one of my favorite album sets over forty years ago, and remains so today.

As I finished this book, I realized that there were many, many parallels in Rod McKuen’s life, as described in the book, and my own. He searched for the lost love of his family all his life, as have I. If you can identify with the need to reach back through the years in search of misplaced or denied love in your early years, this will be a very good read for you.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this book 5 stars because Rod McKuen has been a part of my life for nearly 50 years. I was a young teenager when my cousin gave me a copy of Listen to the Warm. From there I went from owning most of his books and albums, to seeing him in concert 5 times. I was at the concert mentioned in the book at Carnegie Hall in 2003.
I learned so much more about Rod from reading this book. I appreciate the research Barry Alfonso did to make this book happen. He has captured all of Rod, and shared with us his story and what motivated him. He also shares the dark side, which is part of what made Rod McKuen the poet he was.

[Debi Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Rod McKuen when I was in college in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As they did to so many others, his words spoke to me, both from the written page & thru his sound recordings. As I grew up & grew older, I returned to him many times, always finding the comfort I needed. When I saw that, at long last, there was to be a biography of him, I quickly pre-ordered it and settled in to wait. The wait was well worth it! He was a fascinating man who led a fascinating life, and the author does an exceptional job relating it. I highly recommend this book!

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Rod McKuen in the ‘70s. I read Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows and had one of his albums. I still occasionally listen to his songs. It was interesting ( and sad!) to learn more about his life.

[Kimley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tosh and I discuss this on our Book Musik podcast.

Tosh and Kimley discuss A Voice of the Warm: The Life of Rod McKuen by Barry Alfonso. Rod McKuen was a bestselling poet (an oxymoron if ever there was one!) and singer-songwriter/recording artist. In the 1960s and 70s he was at the summit of the mainstream pop cultural zeitgeist. He was generally loathed by critics and the serious literary community and yet after discussing this book we have concluded that Rod McKuen is an essential cultural link to all that we hold dear.