Vital power is needed when you only sing a song. You can have all kinds of songs, and sad ones and gloomy ones should be sung because you have some vital power. Although they are not strictly the blues, why do they exist in this world when you call them the blues? Because songs are originally not to be heard from others but to utter by yourself, I guess. Like your mind getting a little brighter after shedding tears, it's the art of vital power to expose your own feelings when you are sad and in a hard time, and it should have been a means of keeping you alive. However, in all these days and especially after this great earthquake, I think there's no place for the blues to stay. Diffrent from in the age of singing your own song even if it is others', today's songs are the things to be given, it seems to me. The difference between them is not clearly divided, however, I dare say it's the difference between songs for expressing yourself and to approach you. So the blues might come home to your heart too much. Now you had better get more spirits, but you might get strained and exhausted. Then it might be the blues' turn to be needed.I have listened to Townes Van Zandt songbook for the past month, and I have found him rarely singing ones like "I'm gonna hold on today". That's why I'm more depressed by his tunes after depressed at the news on TV. Despite it, I don't feel them given by others. He cannot sing so well, but he can make a delicate and warm delivery which synchronizes with one's mind. Since his lyrics are sometimes difficult and tunes are a little monotonous, in Japan his songs have not been heard so often. However, I think he can be compared to those who sang introspective ones in the Japanese folk music scene in '60s and '70s. (Is it off the point that I compare him to the early Shigeru Izumiya or Yosui Inoue?)
The 4-disc box set "Texas Troubadour" contains all of Van Zandt's first seven albums and detailed liner notes. And most of his lyrics can be searched in the internet. These should be a key to the reason why he is called as Texas Troubadour. His formal debut was "For the Sake of the Song" from a small label Poppy in '68. This was recorded in Nashville and was produced by ones including Jack Clement who did his works since in the '50s of the Sun Records, on which thicker treatments were put with the help of first-rated musicians. It's true that many on his debut album were so important that they decided his musical direction, but they were later re-recorded by himself because he seemed to dislike these early productions. The first tune For the Sake of the Song symbolizes his lyrical difficulty on many of his songs. Usually one phrase is applyed to with words which say all what they means, however, this title tune gives so much priority to rhyming that words are suspended on the phrase and continued on the next phrase. This eloquent, philosophic and lonely tune is not like country music which neatly told a story nor like rock music which often told under the influence of liquer or drugs. Tecumseh Valley or I'll be Here in the Morning is relatively clear, but the disposition of words on Quicksiver Daydreams of Maria or Sad Cinderella is idiosyncratic and fantastic. Waitin' Around to Die , it seems to me, was done against Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee and depicts sort of the life of Van Zandt. The next "Our Mother the Mountain", also co-produced by Jack Clement, contains twisted love songs like Be Here to Love Me and quietly heart-aching stories like Why She's Acting This Way. After his third "Townes Van Zandt" he restarted with the simple acoustic backings cheifly under the production of Kevin Eggers. Not only he re-played ones from the debut album, but also he brought us sparkles like light and lyrical Don't Take It Too Bad and heavy and lyrical Lungs. "Deta Mama Blues" recorded in New York got less difficulty in lyrics and got more folk blues, sch as Delta Mama Blues and Brand New Companion. I think Tower Song has the most beautiful melody among his songs. "High, Low and Between" in Los Angeles has a gospel like Two Hands, and unsettled hobo tune like To Live is to Fly (which was said to be dedicated to Janis Joplin). The title of "The Late Great Townes Van Zandt", including Pancho and Lefty, tells quite an irony. I have searched but not found clearly what the basis of the story is; Who is Pancho? Talking about Mexico's revolutionist (or a bandit) Pancho Villa? Is Lefty the model of betrayers for Pancho Villa? Its lyrics, having the theme of freedom and escape and the lapse of time, are so interesting. Although he was appreciated by well-informed persons, his works weren't sold well. When Poppy label closed down, Van Zandt's recordings were interrupted a while in 1973.
Since Emmylou Harris picked up his Pancho and Lefty and so on, Van Zandt's luck gradually got to be in. His live album from Tomato label, "Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas", was released in '77. It was, recorded in '73, sort of his best compiled with songs from his former six albums, and it was a good one when you find about 100 folks at most listened to him and valued how he plays (some of them should knew him actually), and when you find they were involved in his world only by his guitar and voice and sometimes ironical humor. "Flyin' Shoes", his Nashville recordings produced by Chips Moman, has a thicker sound of chorus and backings for fear they should interfere with his voice and guitar, and has a tinge of country music such as Loretta. His next studio works came near 10 years later. Meanwhile, Pancho and Lefty got a considerable hit by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Its video clip reproduces the world somewhat depicted in its lyric, and you can find in it Van Zandt himself again and again. He was from a distinguished family some of whose ancestors were politicians, however, he was influenced by Hank Williams or Lightnin'Hopkins or Woody Guthrie and left his home and got to be a musician., and finally he could settle down by the royalty of this version. Since he was fond of journey and lonesomeness and was drenched with alchohol and drug, his voice got hoarse but he kept on do many gigs. If you see him singing Pancho and Lefty at a TV program American Music Shop in '93 when he was careless of his health and in his last days, you should find his hoarse voice poor but alive in his song.
Since in the late 80's Van Zandt finally cut his new songs in the studio at a label called Sugar Hill. "At My Window", teamed again with Jack Clement in '87, sounds almost acoustic in the '70s. After some live albums came "No Deeper Blue" in '94, riding on the reverberated rhythms which were in vogue. For some relationship with a alternative country rock group, Cowboy Junkies, his album contains a song called Cowboy Junkies Lament. Steve Earle is a fanatic of Van Zandt and finally did a cover album "Townes". There are also some more individual musicians who say apparently they are his fans. Even if you cannot hear his lyrics clearly, his voice is nothing but the blues. You need energies more than you think when you listen to the blues. When such music once comes home to your heart and dyes to your body, you cannot forget its taste. It's like hard-liquor whiskey or bourbon. Such straight drinks have got to be done less in Japan, and the blues has got no place to stay. That's not a mere coincidence. (2011/05/11)