Townes Van Zandt.
If I needed you would you come to me,
Would you come to me, and ease my pain?
If you needed me
I would come to you
I’d swim the seas for to ease your painIn the night forlorn the morning’s born
And the morning shines with the lights of love
You will miss sunrise if you close your eyes
That would break my heart in twoThe lady’s with me now since I showed her how
To lay her lily hand in mine
Loop and Lil agree she’s a sight to see
And a treasure for the poor to find
Writing a folk song’s easy. You just have to shoehorn Romeo and Juliet into a nursery rhyme. Or, in Townes Van Zandt’s case, he said it was Robert Frost and Lightnin’ Hopkins.
Loop and Lil were his parakeets, by the way.
When asked for a quote to plug
Townes’ record, Steve [ Earle] said: “Townes Van Zandt’s the best songwriter in
the world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots
and say that.” After the record came out, Townes said that was nice but
that he’d met Bob Dylan’s bodyguards and he didn’t think that was a very
good idea. (link)
5 Responses
Lovely
Townes was awesome, he wrote many truly great songs, and was a very uneven performer, but capable of some truly marvelous live performances. Many of his songs reward different interpretations and are deserving of multiple listenings in order to appreciate all that they contain.
One of my favorite Towns albums is his live performance of cover songs, so he had performing chops when he could get his act together.
Thanks for posting this.
Blaze Foley(a friend of Townes) was pretty darn good too.
The son of a friend of theirs shot Blaze to death on his front porch. Strange story.
teresa said the above, sheesh.
I'd never heard this man before: I certainly shall again.
Thanks.