The Weird and Genius Life of Townes Van Zandt


hunter60
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hunter60
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11/01/2012 12:04 am

The music business is a queer affair; at least it has been for quite a while. As fans we celebrate the maniacal musician, the one who can practically set his guitar on fire with his wild west pyro-techniques or the preening, screaming front man who struts back and forth like a pre-teen possessed by demons. And well we should to an extent. These are master showmen; people who have mastered not only their particular instrument but have also mastered their art. Heads capped with silken top hats and a carrying a bamboo cane, they can usher you to the door of another world and with a wink and a smile, lead you right inside. But the one person, the little man behind the curtain as it were, who rarely catches the applause, is the songwriter. And one of the very best was one who many people never knew.
Townes Van Zandt.
Thatā€™s a name you would remember if you had heard of him more in something more than just a passing conversation. Despite the fact that he never really had a hit song or album, Townes continues to be lauded as a top-notch musician and a ā€˜songwriters songwriterā€™ to countless of musicians. Even though he passed away in 1997, he is still always mentioned; often times the word ā€˜legendā€™ is whispered about Townes, when conversations turn to songwriters.
Born John Townes Van Zandt in 1945 in Forth Worth, Texas, he was the son of a prominent oilman / corporate lawyer. The Van Zandt name is practically royalty in Texas as Townes grandfather and other relatives were big players in Texasā€™s rich history. Actually to the point where there is a county in Texas named Van Zandt, named after his famous family. His fathers business took him around the country so the wanderlust was sown early. His early years took him through various parts of Texas, Montana, Illinois, and Colorado and back to Texas. His first guitar was a gift from his father when he was 12 years old. Like so many of his generation, it was seeing Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show that prompted the young Van Zandt to take a more disciplined approach to the guitar. ā€˜I just thought Elvis had all the money in the world, all the Cadillacā€™s and all the girls, and all he did was play the guitar and sing. That made a big impression on me,ā€™ Van Zandt told an interviewer late in his life.
While still in high school, Townesā€™ IQ was measured at genius level and he scored an impressive 1170 on his SATā€™s. It looked as if his future path was to follow in his fathersā€™ footprints into law or the corporate world. But Townes wasnā€™t convinced that was where he wanted to go. He spent a little over a year at the University of Colorado at Boulder before his parents brought him home after bouts of heavy binge drinking and episodes of crippling depression. He talked to writer Ben Hedgepeth about how he would stay in his room all week, drinking and playing the guitar only to emerge on Friday where he would throw a huge party. At one of these affairs, Van Zandt sat on the edge of his balcony of the fourth floor of his dorm, drinking wine. He thought about how it would feel to free fall four floors to the ground so he leaned back. Rather than stop, he kept going. ā€œI fell over backwards and landed four floors down flat on my back. I remember the impact and exactly what it felt like and all the people screaming. I had a bottle of wine and I stood up. Hadnā€™t spilled any wine.ā€ He said that the people rushing out to see what had happened knocked him down. ā€œAnd it hurt more being knocked over than falling four floorsā€.
His parents admitted him to a Houston area hospital when they got him home. He was diagnosed with manic depression and was treated with three months of heavy insulin therapy. The results didnā€™t do much for his depression but it did wipe out a majority of his long-term memory. In talking about his depression, he noted that it was a ā€˜total loss of meaning and motivationā€™. He went on to say that ā€˜thereā€™s been a lot of times when depression with me just became physical, it hurt so bad it was wrenching me apart, wrenching my brain apart, my whole body to the point where I was holding my head and screamingā€™.
Despite being accepted into a pre-law program back home in Houston, by 1967, Townes had dropped out of school to pursue a career in music. He caught his first gigs at the Jester Lounge in Houston, playing for $10 a night. Primarily playing covers, it was an education. During his time at the Jester, Sand Mountain and the Old Quarter, he met some of his influences including Jerry Jeff Walker, Doc Watson and Lightning Hopkins whose guitar playing had a profound impact on Townes. Not long after, he met up with songwriter Mickey Newbury who convinced Townes to head to Nashville and record his own songs. In Nashville Townes met with producer ā€œCowboyā€™ Jack Clements who became Van Zandtā€™s long time producer.
Despite his rather casual and at times, somewhat antagonistic approach towards the recording industry, Townesā€™ had his most prolific period of recording from his debut, 1968ā€™s ā€˜For The Sake Of The Songā€™ through 1973, recording and releasing 5 albums. Some of the tracks to come from this collection of recordings included ā€˜Poncho and Leftyā€™, ā€˜Tecumseh Valleyā€™, ā€˜To Live Is To Flyā€™, all songs that, to songwriters, carry the heft of Townesā€™ legendary status.
Townes was not the sort to spend a lot of time playing the game of networking or hobnobbing with the record industry. During a few summers in the seventies, Townes would disappear into the Colorado Mountains for months at a time with just his horse and some supplies. ā€œI stay in the mountains until the weather runs me out and then I come back to the world in September.ā€ His individualism and desire to remain low-keyed seemed to be a real key to his songwriting successes. He often claimed that songs would come to him in his dreams. Late in his life, Townes told the Austin American-Statesman in an interview about how he wrote the song ā€˜If I Really Needed Youā€™. ā€˜I just woke up and wrote it down. I had the guitar part and everything. I was staying with Guy and Susanna Clark and we all had the flu. So we were taking cough syrup and antibiotics, so the dreams were like Technicolor! I dreamt I was a folk singer, and I played ā€˜If I Needed Youā€™. In the morning, I played it for Guy and Susanna when we were having coffee. They said, ā€œThatā€™s a beautiful song; where did that come from?ā€ I told them I wrote it in my sleepā€™.
By that time, Townes Van Zandt had established himself as a cult hero of sorts to countless American and European musicians and songwriters.
1977ā€™s ā€˜Live At The Old Quarterā€™ was released. An intimate portrayal of the artist in his old stomping grounds before a small crowd, ā€˜Quarterā€™ is considered by many to be the best album he ever released and is still essentially required listening to any solo acoustic performer and budding song writer.
One more album, 1978ā€™s ā€˜Flyinā€™ Shoesā€™ was released on the Tomato label and that was the last from Townes until 1987ā€™s ā€˜At My Windowā€™.
During the eighties, Townes had settled into a reclusive lifestyle in a small shack on the outskirts of Nashville, appearing only occasionally to play gigs here and there. He had moved away from recording due to his depression, lifestyle choice and sustained alcohol and substance abuse. But during this time, he continued to write. His long time friend Steve Earle said that Townes had been ā€˜living in clap board shack and his main interests were in planting morning glories, listening to Paul Harveyā€™s radio show and watching ā€˜Happy Daysā€™ on televisionā€™.
By the time the nineties hit, Townes was being shuffled in and out of detox centers between writing sessions and his erratic performance schedules. By this time he had settled on performing only in small venues, favoring colleges, coffee houses and juke joints. For a few years he did manage to maintain some level of sobriety but his health was failing. In 1994 he was again abusing the bottle and back in detox. Once ā€˜dryā€™, doctors explained to his wife that trying to detox him yet again would most likely ā€˜kill himā€™.
In the early months of 1996, Van Zandt had plans to record an album with Sonic Youthā€™s front man Steve Shelley. In December of that year before the album could begin production, Van Zandt fell down the steps of his home sustaining an injury to his leg. After lying outside for an hour, he managed to drag himself into his house where he called his ex-wife who sent friends to check on him. He refused medical treatment and they took him to their home where he stayed on their couch for a week unable to care for his most basic functions. After a week, determined to get to the studio, Townes manager brought him in for the Sonic Youth sessions pushing him in a wheelchair. Shelley canceled these sessions because of Townes drunkenness and erratic behavior. Shortly after, he was taken to the hospital where it was discovered that he had fractured his hip in his fall and needed to undergo several corrective surgeries. Despite the warnings of trying to have Townes detox at home, his ex-wife checked him out of the hospital. Fearing that he would immediately drink upon his release, doctors refused to prescribe him any painkillers. Shortly after his release, Townes began to lapses into the DTā€™s for which his ex gave him a pint of vodka to ward off the effects. This seemed to have helped the pain and his mood. But the party came to an end a few hours later on January 1st, 1997
Townes died at home from what doctors called a ā€˜natural cardiac arrhythmiaā€™.
Yet even now, Townes Van Zandt songs seem like they were written today. They can make you smile and laugh and make you cry just as easily. His influence continues on even now. Listening to how easily some people can craft a song so clean that it slips into your soul with so little resistance is amazing. There were few better than the man with the name that so few people seem to remember.
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
# 1
Jeg723gtr
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Jeg723gtr
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11/03/2012 9:48 pm
Yet another example of a great talent snuffed out by addiction.
# 2
hunter60
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hunter60
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11/04/2012 1:11 am
Originally Posted by: Jeg723gtrYet another example of a great talent snuffed out by addiction.


I know, right? Sad but true. You never have to look too far to find these stories.
Thanks for reading and responding.

H60
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
# 3
docclay
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docclay
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11/04/2012 5:05 am
my copy of Roadsongs and down a glass of Scotch and one of my big fat Acid Cigars.

I've always enjoyed Townes' music and have often had occasion to wonder why his career never took off any faster or better than it did. Guess I know why now.

As someone with severe pain problems, I would never pass judgement in a situation like this. The allure of Potentiating those pain meds with EtOh is a siren's song which, thank God, I've always been able avoid. Not that I don't see why someone would do such a thing.
XXXOOO
dc
# 4
hunter60
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hunter60
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11/04/2012 11:40 am
Originally Posted by: docclaymy copy of Roadsongs and down a glass of Scotch and one of my big fat Acid Cigars.

I've always enjoyed Townes' music and have often had occasion to wonder why his career never took off any faster or better than it did. Guess I know why now.

As someone with severe pain problems, I would never pass judgement in a situation like this. The allure of Potentiating those pain meds with EtOh is a siren's song which, thank God, I've always been able avoid. Not that I don't see why someone would do such a thing.


Thanks Doc. Agree about not passing judgment. Thanks.
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
# 5

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