Of all the unsung heroes in country and folk music world, Townes Van Zandt may just be the most unheralded. And with the first Sturgill Simpson release in 3 years coming later this week, I feel there’s no better time to listen to some wisdom straight from the mouth of one of the outlaw originals that allowed today’s groundswell of truly quality country music singer/songwriters to occur.
Born to a prominent Fort Worth family in 1944, Townes was gifted his first guitar at a young age, but his family wanted him to become a lawyer or senator after discovering his high IQ in grade school. Once in college at the University of Texas Galveston branch, his parents believed that he was drinking too much and that he was suicidal, and removed him from school. He was sent for treatment where he underwent insulin shock therapy, a now defunct treatment, which tragically damaged his long-term memory.
After being rejected from the Air Force and the death of his father, he gave up schooling for good and hit the road to pursue a life on the road making music.
His life from that point could be a movie, and in fact, a documentary was produced in 2004 titled Be Here To Love Me, which details the ups and downs, successes and failures of Townes’ life. It is filled with interviews from some of country music’s biggest names (Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson to name a few), along with a number of performances and interviews with Townes himself. (Heartworn Highways is another good documentary featuring Townes as well as the likes of Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and more).
In one of those interview, the reporter brings up the often morose subject matter of his songs and his answer to why they’re that way is a window into the mind of an artist that gets it.
Reporter: “How come that most of your songs are sad songs?”
Townes: “Well, you know I don’t think they’re all that sad. I have a few that aren’t sad, they’re hopeless. About a totally hopeless situation. And the rest aren’t sad they’re just the way it goes, kinda. I mean, you know, you don’t think life’s sad?
But from recognizing the sadness you can put it aside and be happy and enjoy the happy side of life. Blues is happy music.”
Would you expect anything less from the man that gave us “Pancho & Lefty”?
So many people, including some country music fans, don’t get the draw to sad music and that’s always confused me. Sure, I understand not wanting to exclusively listen to heartbreak songs but why exclude an entire spectrum of emotion? At the risk of getting ethereal, is there not some longing we all have to know that others have experienced same bads as us, and lived to tell the tale? That we’re not alone in our struggles? Even if your life has been pretty good, we’ve all had bouts of sadness so why not explore that a bit, understand it, and then, like Townes said, use it to fully appreciate the happy moments?
Give me sad songs until I drop.
Here’s a short clip of the interview which cuts off right before the last two lines, but if you want to see the entire thing (or sit down and watch the entire documentary) it’ll be embedded below.
Full Documentary (sad songs part of the interview starts at 51:04)
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