Today would have been the 69th birthday for Townes Van Zandt. A man about whom the great Steve Earl once said, "Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter in the world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and tell him so!".
69 is not that old for a hard core troubadour, singer and forger of songs to be. Were he still with us, he would probably be writing the best songs of his career and still traveling and dazzling us with them.
Years of substance abuse took it's toll on his health though, and he fluttered off this mortal coil in 1994 at the RIPE young age of 52.
Am I sad or jealous...I don't know.
Sing us one Townes, show us how you really feel. This is the first song he ever wrote.
Guy Clark heard that a a couple others he friend had written and figured that that was all something worth doing. And then Guy became a great song writer too.
This, the admiration of friend Steve and a thousand others who were touched by his music and who played his stuff at their weddings is his legacy.
We miss ya Townes.
Talk to you soon.
Lifting my glass to Townes in salute. 'Sorrow and solitude, these are the precious things. And the only words worth rememberin'"
ReplyDeleteWell sais, Paul!
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