Townes Van Zandt -- 1/2/97
J. Steven Swinnea
I don't know any details as of yet, but Townes Van Zandt was found
dead at his home this morning. I picked up on this listening to
KUT-FM (Austin, Tx) this morning. Not much that one can say other
than Austin and the world has lost another great songwriter.
Steve Swinnea
swi...@che.utexas.edu
Mike Evans
In article <5agt17$i...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>,
swi...@weiss.che.utexas.edu says...
Really sad news. He was at home recovering from hip surgery and died
Wednesday night of a heart attack. He just just 52 too.
Tom M
Apparently Townes had a heart attack around 10 pm New Year's Day. More
information at Len Coop's TVZ home page:
http://www.orst.edu/Dept/entomology/coopl/tvzindex.html
Townes was one of the great songwriters and, when he was on, an awfully
entertaining and charming performer.
Tom Meltzer
MIKE REGENSTREIF
In article <5agt17$i...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, swi...@weiss.che.utexas.edu (J. Steven Swinnea) writes:
>I don't know any details as of yet, but Townes Van Zandt was found
>dead at his home this morning. I picked up on this listening to
>KUT-FM (Austin, Tx) this morning. Not much that one can say other
>than Austin and the world has lost another great songwriter.
>
>Steve Swinnea
>swi...@che.utexas.edu
Townes apparently died suddenly of either a heart attack or blood clot
about 5 hours after returning home from the hospital following hip surgery.
The information I received indicated that he died on Wednesday evening. He
was 52 years old.
My favorite album of his was THE LATE GREAT TOWNES VAN ZANDT. That
title has come true much much sooner than it should have.
Mike Regenstreif
"Folk Roots/Folk Branches" on CKUT in Montreal
mre...@vax2.concordia.ca
Olin Murrell
J. Steven Swinnea wrote:
>
> I don't know any details as of yet, but Townes Van Zandt was found
> dead at his home this morning. I picked up on this listening to
> KUT-FM (Austin, Tx) this morning. Not much that one can say other
> than Austin and the world has lost another great songwriter.
>
> Steve Swinnea
> swi...@che.utexas.edu
Folks, here is the AP article on Townes' death.
By JIM PATTERSON
Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Singer Townes Van Zandt, who wrote the
country hits "If I Needed You" and "Pancho and Lefty" and gained a cult
following for his blues-inspired recordings about life's losers, has
died. He was 52.
Van Zandt had returned to his Smyrna home to recuperate from hip
surgery last week. He died Wednesday night of an apparent heart attack
with friends and family nearby.
His young daughter, Katie Belle, "came running in and said, 'Daddy's
having a fight with his heart,"' said Beverly Paul, a Sugar Hill Records
spokeswoman. "They rushed into the room and Townes was already gone."
The gaunt Texas native began releasing albums in 1968, becoming one of
a hard-living group of folk troubadours in that state that included Guy
Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker and Mickey Newberry.
While he was the son of a prominent oil family, his songs often told
stories of prostitutes, bums, gamblers and other losers. But he said he
wasn't always so somber as the desperate people who lived in his lyrics.
"I have a lot of heavy-duty songs," he said in a 1996 Associated Press
interview. "I've always thought if you took enough of them or any
particular one seriously enough -- if you took it seriously enough, you'd
be in trouble."
In the song "A Song For," Van Zandt wrote,
"There's nowhere left in this world where to go
"My arms, my legs they're a tremblin'
"Thoughts both clouded and blue as the sky
"Not even worth the rememberin'."
Don Williams and Emmylou Harris had a hit with "If I Needed You,"
which reached No. 3 on the country charts in 1982, and Willie Nelson and
Merle Haggard teamed up the following year on a version of "Pancho and
Lefty" that reached No. 1. Ms. Harris also recorded "Pancho and Lefty."
Van Zandt himself never had a hit as a singer, but released a series
of albums on independent record labels like Tomato, Poppy and Sugar Hill.
His most recent was "No Deeper Blue," in 1994.
He did not try to mold his talents for mass market success, preferring
to emulate the bluesmen he grew up admiring, especially Lightnin'
Hopkins.
Latter-day artists like Steve Earle, Hal Ketchum, Robert Earl Keen,
the Cowboy Junkies and Rodney Crowell all cited the influence of Van
Zandt.
On the liner notes for Van Zandt's 1987 album "At My Window," Earle
wrote: "Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and
I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."
Townes was a good friend, an enormous talent, and he will be sorely
missed.
--
Olin Murrell
Austin, TX
ol...@bga.com
http://www.realtime.com/~olin
j...@swcp.com
I had the opportunity to get to know Townes when I was working with Eric
Andersen's company Wind and Sand Records. He was an extremely
intelligent, sensitive and sweet soul. I am very saddened by this news. I
have been remembering his sense of humor.
Eric: Townes, are there more guns or 7-11s in Texas?
Townes: More guns. Not everyone can afford a 7-11.
Any other Townes stories out there as we remember a great soul? I just
can't believe he is gone. peace, veronica
ghost
In article <5agt17$i...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> swi...@weiss.che.utexas.edu (J. Steven Swinnea) writes:
>I don't know any details as of yet, but Townes Van Zandt was found
>dead at his home this morning. I picked up on this listening to
>KUT-FM (Austin, Tx) this morning. Not much that one can say other
>than Austin and the world has lost another great songwriter.
>
>Steve Swinnea
>swi...@che.utexas.edu
My immediate reaction is "I can't take any more of this. Who's left?"
which I think is the reaction of many.
I had a list, mental-not-physical, of people I had meant to go see play
sooner or later, & Van Zandt was on it. I may have seen him do a show or
two back in the 70s but if I had it was neither so good nor so awful that
it stood out from 100s of other shows that were neither good nor so awful,
so I had forgotten it. Therefore, when he came through here on his last
tour, in support of the then-new "No Deeper Blue" album, I went to see him
3 times, which from my "money-spent, & you've seen something new"
perspective was *maybe* one time too many for the same tour, but *now*
of course I don't regret it. The reason for the repeat goings was that the
1st show I saw, out at the now-also-defunct Old Vienna Coffeehouse in
Worcester, was one of those complete-connection-with-the-audience shows
that I live for. They don't come around all that often. And anyone who
can do it once can do it again, though maybe not every, or even most of
the time.
One of the 2 other shows was at Johnny D's (in Somerville), which wasn't at the
level of the Old Vienna show, but turned into a lovely genial
"request it & I'll see if I can play it; whoops; I'll learn *that* one
before I come back here, OK?" kind of thing. Sing-along-with-Townes, can
you believe it?
The other was at the Norwood Theater (in Norwood!) "closing for" Guy Clark.
From my perspective I'd have thought Clark would have been closing for
Van Zandt, at least in Norwood, but it turns out that the guy who wrote the
bigger hits is the star. I'll have to remember that one. I hoped very much
that Clark & son & Van Zandt would do a bunch of songs together, but they
didn't, which kind of disappointed me, as its why I came to this 3rd show in
so short a time, even though a jam was *not* advertised.
It was a good show, though, with Van Zandt displaying none of the slightly
spastic guitar work that I didn't mind at all but that a poster on
a newsgroup or mailing list said had marred the Old Vienna show for them.
(Well, OK, it was complete-connection-with-the-audience minus that *one*.
Didn't hurt the vibe any.) Someone else said the slight spasticity was a
nervous-system problem, *not* a direct sign of being on something, though the
nervous-system problem could have been ultimately caused by chemicals.
He was displaying something else worrysome at Norwood though, a tendency to
kind of touch his face more often than people usually do, making me wonder if
he was on some kind of drug that made you a little less spastic but had other
unusual side-effects.
Van Zandt was an unusual person, his fans all agree. I'm reading lately
that he was yet-another one of those sons of a rich family who become
touring folkies in the persona of a down-&-out-hobo, to the point that you
really believe they *are* that down-&-out-hobo. *They* certainly believe
it; they've been everywhere that the hobo has been.
Van Zandt still had the Texas boy buried not too deep in his makeup
that had him refuse a request in Norwood, saying without a bit of wit or
irony "That song has a word in it that I can't use here because there are
children present. You understand, don't you? I'll sing it some other
time." This despite his just having finished a song which, though less
specifically worded, was not exactly kind to women; the word he didn't want to
say in front of children was "whore", & the song "Tecumseh Valley", which
despite the word he didn't want to say & some questionable sociology is,
ultimately, certainly *not* unkind to women,
There's another story from the Norwood show that I wish I had written up
at the time because I can't remember it in all its glory now. I didn't
want to give his stage patter away, anyway, because he did have bits of
specific verbatim stage patter. But I don't think this was one of them,
though I'm told the least-likely of songs did subsequently make its way into
his nightly act.
So here's a bit of reportage on the workings of the mind of
Townes Van Zandt, with maybe a few clues as to why other people can't
write his type of songs, which were sometimes quite wretched & often quite
wonderful, but more often than not, whichever of those categories they fell
into, nothing less than quite weird. His mind didn't work the same way
as the minds of you & me, is all. Well not like the mind of me, anyway.
Speak for yourself!
Townes started to introduce a song.
At least that's what he said he was doing.
He started to tell us about some parakeets. I couldn't figure out, till
much later, *why*. He told us that one was named "Loop" & the other "Lil",
& that they were in love with each other, & that he took them everywhere
with him, including road trips. He would travel dressed in a shirt with
two front pockets, a bird in each pocket. I've done a bit of travelling
that didn't even include lugging a guitar around & performing anywhere,
& I could not imagine for the life of me how he successfully executed this.
He said that he used to let the birds fly around the hotel room, & one day
some fool opened the hotel room window, & Loop flew out. Lil died of
loneliness within the week.
He then started to talk about birds in general, about how he loves them &
has a bird feeder outside the kitchen at his home in Texas & likes to drink his
coffee & watch the birds eat from it, except that his neighbor's fool dog is
always bothering them. He says that he told the neighbor to try & contain her
dog, & was rewarded for this by one day finding the neighbor had moved &
left the dog for him with a note saying "you care about him so you train
him now", or something like that. So now, he says, he's got the most
foolish dog in Texas. Sits on the porch, where they keep him so he can't
get at the birds out back feeding at the feeder, & snaps at birds through
the screen because he hasn't figured out he can't *get* at them through
the screen.
Townes says that this reminds him of a song, but he hasn't played this song
in a while. In fact he can't remember when he's even heard this song
played in a folk club, despite, he says very soberly, its *being* a
folk song. He then breaks into "Old Shep", completely on the song, all the
way through, all the words, everything. People in the audience cry.
I think Townes cries just a little himself. (For those who don't know,
"Old Shep" dies.)
He then starts up the song he was *orginally* going to sing, which
contains the verse
"Lupe and Lil agree
You're a sight to see
And a treasure for the world to find".
You know, I'd heard that song for years, & either I never paid attention to
that verse or the hit version didn't *have* that verse or I couldn't make
out the words to that verse because I don't expect to hear proper names in
the middle of a song (a failing I also had with "Jambalaya" once) or else
I figured that "Lupe and Lil" were neighbors who's opinion he valued, &
was quoting. I never expected that they were *birds*, & that he would
want the opinion of his birds before giving a compliment to his girlfriend.
Buried in that story above was also, I think, the story he tells about
writing that song, "If I Needed You", after waking up from a
cold-medicine-drugged sleep ("completely legal cold medicine, perscription
medicine even, we were all very sick & were all taking it") at Guy Clark's
house. The song was an instant hit with the publisher except for one verse
which, though I can't recall it exactly, had something in it about
"since I taught you to moo". Townes didn't think there was anything wrong
with that, but the publishers did not agree. They thought it was just too
weird. He changed it, & the rest is history.
j...@swcp.com
Townes was a brilliant songwriter and quite the character. Some stories to
make you and me smile through the tears. My favorite memory was after a
gig at the Turning Point, he and Eric Andersen played cards with the
ownner. Townes won all the pots and pans in the kitchen and after there
were no more left, he then won thebarmaid! Being the gentleman he was, he
never cashed in on his winnings. He was a friend a long time ago and a
dear soul whose songs, smiles and stories will besorely missed. His humor
and his corniness will never leave me. When asked if there were more guns
or 7-11s in Texas, Townes thought about it and said there
were more guns - not everyone could afford a 7-11! He once asked me if I
knew the only state mentioned in the Bible. I said no. He said "Arkansas.
Noah looked out the ark and saw." We visited him and his family once in
Nashville and Townes had the largest collection of Bibles I had ever seen!
All those hotel rooms during gigs had Gideon Bibles! He once explained to
me how he remembered which was the waning and waxing moon; wane has
4 letters, so does the word left (as he created the crescent moon with his
left thumb and forefinger). Everytime I shall see the waning moon or pass
through Raton, I shall remember Townes. Adios amigo. Til we meet again.
Love, Veronica
Janet Penelope Gunn
In article <009ADC56...@vax2.concordia.ca>,
mre...@vax2.concordia.ca (MIKE REGENSTREIF) wrote:
>
> Townes apparently died suddenly of either a heart attack or blood clot
>about 5 hours after returning home from the hospital following hip surgery.
>The information I received indicated that he died on Wednesday evening.
I am just curious as to whether he was sent home from hospital "too soon"
because of medical cost-cutting measures. If he had been in hospital overnight,
with a nurse regularly checking his vital signs, would it have made any
difference?
(Cynical) Janet Gunn
Jens Koch
I feel totally shattered - Townes was to have played near my hometown on
his European tour only last autumn. It didn't happen, and now it never
will. I have a number of his live records, and they are a poor comfort
now, but a rich treasure for all the beauty in the songs. Thanks for the
memories.
Jens
Todd Brown
In article <5agt17$i...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> swi...@weiss.che.utexas.edu (J. Steven Swinnea) writes:
>I don't know any details as of yet, but Townes Van Zandt was found
>dead at his home this morning. I picked up on this listening to
>KUT-FM (Austin, Tx) this morning. Not much that one can say other
>than Austin and the world has lost another great songwriter.
>
>Steve Swinnea
>swi...@che.utexas.edu
Townes Van Zandt, 52, Country and Folk Songwriter
Townes Van Zandt, an influential songwriter whose dark and
tragic country and folk ballads mirrored his own life, died
Wednesday at his home in Smyrna, Texas. He was 52.
The cause was apparently a heart attack, said Beverly Paul, a
spokeswoman for Sugar Hill, the music label for which he recorded.
Van Zandt broke his hip last week and had just returned home after
undergoing surgery, she said.
Van Zandt's powerfully written songs and spare, haunting
delivery influenced many country, folk and rock performers,
including Neil Young, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle,
the Cowboy Junkies and the grunge band Mudhoney. Willie Nelson and
Merle Haggard topped the country charts in 1983 with a version of
Van Zandt's song "Pancho and Lefty."
But Van Zandt never achieved mainstream success himself, in part
because of his proclivity for living out his songs of drinking,
gambling, rambling and depression.
"All that I've said/All that I've done/Means nothing to me,"
he sang on his most recent album, "No Deeper Blue." "I'd as soon
be dead/All of this world be forgotten."
Van Zandt was born March 7, 1944, in Fort Worth, into a wealthy
oil family that had been prominent in Texas for four generations.
Van Zandt County in West Texas was named for his forebears.
He spent his childhood moving around the country with his
family, and many of his teen-age years in a mental institution,
diagnosed as a manic-depressive with schizophrenic tendencies.
Influenced by the songs of Hank Williams, the guitar-playing of
Lightnin' Hopkins and the lyrics of Bob Dylan, as well as Elvis
Presley's success, he moved to Houston in the early 1960s to try a
career as a musician. Eventually he became so poor that he ate dog
food and slept on concert stages. He attempted to join the Air
Force during the Vietnam War but was rejected because of his
psychiatric history.
In 1968, Van Zandt moved to Nashville to record his first album,
"For the Sake of the Song," with the producer and song writer
Jack Clement, best known for his work with Johnny Cash. The album
mixed humorous barroom songs with the tales of poverty, desperation
and bleakness ("Waiting Round to Die," "Tecumseh Valley") that
would make him, along with his friend Guy Clark, a beacon to a
generation of up-and-coming songwriters.
He has since recorded nearly a dozen records and toured
virtually nonstop, driven, his friends said, by inner demons that
neither he nor they could account for.
Sometimes his performances, like his last show in New York City,
at the Bottom Line in 1995, movingly mixed minor-key tear-jerkers
with a fatalistic sense of humor. Sometimes his shows were
meandering, ending with him collapsing onstage.
At the time of his death, Van Zandt was working on a boxed set
of his music. He had assembled a group of well-known musicians
including Willie Nelson and Freddy Fender to record new versions of
his songs. Ms. Paul of Sugar Hill Records said it was uncertain
whether those projects would be completed.
He is survived by a sister, Donna Spence of Boulder, Colo.; a
brother, Bill, of Houston; a daughter, Katie Bell, and a son,
William Vincent, of Smyrna, both from his third marriage; and a son
from his second marriage, John Townes, of Corpus Christi, Texas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Todd Brown-Observing Tech/Staff Photographer
National Solar Observatory/Sacramento Peak
Sunspot NM 88349; PH: 505-434-7013
br...@sunspot.noao.edu
Lee McGee
<ghost> that was truly an amazing post. Thank you very much for
writing that down for us! cheers, lee
--
Lee McGee lmc...@corp.sgi.com
|
(415)933-2403 FAX (415)965-0369 GRUMMAN _|_
http://reality.sgi.com/lmcgee_corp/ AA-5B ____/___\____
"When I fly, I feel an isolation ___________[=o=]___________
extreme and radiant" - Peter Garrison TIGER e/ o \e
Olin Murrell
Cynical? Perhaps, but in this age of "drive-by" medical care, it wouldn't
surprise me a bit.
KiwiB56
someone asked <<<I am just curious as to whether he was sent home from
hospital "too soon"
because of medical cost-cutting measures. If he had been in hospital
overnight,
with a nurse regularly checking his vital signs, would it have made any
difference?>>>
I'm a nurse...the cause of death is not confirmed anywhere but I do know
that emboli (clots thrown into the system) are a complication of joint
surgery and are difficult to manage even if they happen in the
hospital...I don't know how long Townes stayed in, how fit he was for
surgery anyway (last time I saw him he seemed very frail)...hard to say if
there would have been any different outcome...
YH Mgt
Hi, Ronnie! I too worked with Eric during the Wind & Sand period, and knew
Townes both before and after. The last time I saw Townes was in 1996 when
he playewd the Iron Horse in Northampton with Guy Clark. Townes was barely
holding on, very frail and wan in the dressing room, trying not to lose
it, drinking Clausthaler (non-alcoholic) beer before the show, so that he
could at least get through the set. I prefer to remember Townes' extremely
sneaky humor and predelection for gaming (upon taking my new leather
jacket from me one time when I was visiting him in Nashville: "Nice
jacket. You a gambling man?" or one long evening in the now-defunct
Sheehan's bar in Northampton where he, Robert Earl Keen and I played
dollar-bill gambling. I quit early on when I was even; Robert kept on and
on and Townes won something like $100 in ones). A great poet, a great
soul.
-- Charlie
John M. Gamble
In article <32CDBC...@bga.com>, Olin Murrell <ol...@bga.com> wrote:
>Janet Penelope Gunn wrote:
>>
>> In article <009ADC56...@vax2.concordia.ca>,
>> mre...@vax2.concordia.ca (MIKE REGENSTREIF) wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > Townes apparently died suddenly of either a heart attack or blood clot
>> >about 5 hours after returning home from the hospital following hip surgery.
>> >The information I received indicated that he died on Wednesday evening.
>>
>> because of medical cost-cutting measures. If he had been in hospital overnight,
>> with a nurse regularly checking his vital signs, would it have made any
>> difference?
>>
>>
>
>Cynical? Perhaps, but in this age of "drive-by" medical care, it wouldn't
>surprise me a bit.
>
No, apparently he insisted on leaving as soon as possible (this
according to John Lomax III, his former manager). He had broken
his hip in "mid-December", and had to be convinced to go to the
hospital at all. Apparently he was in great pain while recording,
but didn't want to jeopardize his Geffen sessions.
Cause of death was listed as heart attack, not blood clot.
This from the Chicago Sun-Times, 3 January 1997.
--
-john
T. Endo
That's really sad news and I do not know what to say.
I have been a Townes' fan for more than 24 years. I came to know Townes
by his 5th and 6th albums that happened to be imported to Japan in very
small quantities. Since then, Townes became my most favorite singer and
song writer. I made great efforts to obtain his other 4 albums, which
had been deleted in the States even at that time (1972). I like all his
Poppy recordings (including the 7th album), but in particular, I love his
3rd and 4th albums. I also like his performance at Bob Fass Show on
WBAI-FM (NY) in 1971. I remember that I wanted to get in contact with
Townes and tried a lot. When Guy Clark visited Japan for concerts, I
asked him to hand over my letter to Townes, but unfortunately, I could
not reach him.
In Japan, there are some fanatic Townes' fans and we were all looking
forward to his first concerts in Japan. However now, this cannot come
true forever. Bye-bye, Townes.
Toshiya Endo
--
T. Endo
@ Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan