Its the birthday of one of the great Texas troubadours and a legend in songwriting circles, Townes Van Zandt, born in Fort Worth (1944). He was born into a wealthy oil family, and they moved around quite a bit when he was a young kid — to Minnesota, Colorado, and Illinois — but he abandoned wealth for poetry and singing and living couch to couch. His focus was the words and the story. Though he never had a hit of his own, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard took his song Pancho and Lefty all the way to No. 1 in 1983. Others recorded him too — Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, The Cowboy Junkies. His friend Steve Earle famously said he was the best songwriter in the whole world, adding, Ill stand on Bob Dylans coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that. To which Van Zandt was said to have replied: Ive met Bob Dylan and his bodyguards, and I dont think Steve could get anywhere near his coffee table. Years later, Earle recanted. He said, When somebodys as good as Townes Van Zandt was and more people dont know about it, its Towness fault. Part of him didnt consider himself worthy of anything. Van Zandt died in 1997, at age 53.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:19:19 +0000