# Townes Van Zandt - Wow! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726 "2009-08-08T05:18:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MaryLiz55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MaryLiz55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryLiz55)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726/21 "2009-08-09T19:20:34Z")
Welcome to Townes Leaffan. I love Townes Van Zandt. The first songs I heard from Townes was on his My Mother the Mountain and Flyin’ Shoes way back in the early 70’s. I have now heard every thing he’s done. He’s the best songwriter ever. And I don’t understand what they mean when they say his voice isn’t good. I like his voice. It makes him Townes. Unique. Its like saying Willie or Dylan can’t sing. Anyway, ’ Live at the Old Quarter’, ‘Rear View mirror’, or the DVD Townes’ Live In Amsterdam’ will give you a large spectrum of his music. ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726/22 "2009-08-09T20:31:05Z")
I remember first hearing Townes (recorded) in about 1970-71, courtesy of a man I later married. It was like being hit by happy lightning. A year or so later, I met him for the first time at somebody’s house and a bunch of us went out to drink and check out topless bars, and my by-then husband was not pleased. I never missed a chance to hear him live, and was never disappointed. I think I still have every album he released, definitely everything on vinyl and a number of CDs since then. Wonderful to hear the magic is still alive! Welcome, **leaffan**. There are years of good music waiting! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726/23 "2009-08-09T20:41:29Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > There’s a name from the past. > > I’m a native Houstonian. In the mid-60s, there was a place on Richmond called Sand Mountain Coffeehouse. They had a small stage and on some nights, they had open-mike. That was my first exposure to public performance, at the age of 16. > > One night, this scraggly looking guy got up there and played for about a half hour. No one really paid much attention to him at the start, but at the end, we were applauding and beating on the tables. After he got off the stage, he wound up with a group of us jamming in the back room for a little while. Dude was talented and funny as hell. Yep. It was Townes. And, one night at the Mountain, I remember Townes singing the first “serious” song he’d written: “Waitin’ Round To Die.” Townes did have some serious problems with depression. Quite young, his family had him committed because he was dropping classes & playing music; hardly the correct behavior for the scion of a pioneer Texas family. I think chemical shock treatment followed. Later, he said he’d probably had a happy childhood–he just couldn’t remember it. So he self-medicated–with heroin, codeine & that old favorite, alchohol. Far too many of his young followers thought they, too could write excellent songs if they engaged in various excesses. Here’s [John Nova Lomax on Townes](http://www.houstonpress.com/2005-05-05/music/codeine-country/)… > [@](#): > > …before Van Zandt, our local folksingers were like those everywhere else: Kingston Trio knock-offs or rote copiers of hoary old tunes from the British, Irish, Scottish and Appalachian songbooks. After Van Zandt, local folksingers wrote original tunes about their own lives and the lives of others around them, or hell, whatever else took their fancy. What’s more, Van Zandt raised the bar exponentially for original songwriters, and his tough love for his contemporaries separated the wheat – people like Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and Steve Earle – from the forgotten chaff. John Nova’s dad held a Birthday Party for Townes when he finally outlived one of his idols, Hank Williams. (They both died on New Years’ Day–a fact that did not escape our notice.) Another idol was Lightnin’ Hopkins; Townes played pretty good acoustic blues guitar in his earlier days. And he had a wicked sense of humor–which he showed onstage, if not in his songs. He’d introduce one of his dark masterpieces with “This is a song about living in Pasadena & commuting to Beaumont.” (A pretty dark concept, for those who know the Gulf Coast.) If anybody has not yet met Townes, I’d recommend they start with [Live At The Old Quarter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_at_the_Old_Quarter,_Houston,_Texas). The earlier studio albums were overproduced, although the songs remain wonderful. After his death, releases by people who’d tried to help him, people who’d tried to rip him off & his last ex-wife include quite a bit of chaff among the wheat… ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726/24 "2009-08-10T05:15:59Z")
Just a follow-up note to state my appreciation for the recommendations. I think I have a few hours of “new” music to appreciate now. Cheers. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726/25 "2009-08-11T17:06:16Z")
> [@elelle](#): > > **To Live Is To Fly** is one of the most beautiful songs ever sung on up . I was going to mention how much I love this song! but was afraid it might be too poppy to mention, since I am most familiar with Cowboy Junkies’ version. ---
**Author:** ![Buford\_was\_no\_angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Buford\_was\_no\_angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buford_was_no_angel)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726/26 "2009-08-11T21:05:23Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > And I’ve said it here before, but [Marie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXJPVRw3hmk) is maybe the most depressing song ever written. Especially this part, which brings me to tears every time: She’s got some pain and she thinks it’s a baby, says we gotta wait and see in my heart I know it’s a little boy hope he don’t end up like me. And I concur on the recommendation of “Be Here to Love Me”. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726/27 "2009-08-11T21:15:09Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Well said. Same with Steve Earle… Lyle Lovett also. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/townes-van-zandt-wow/505726.md?page=1)