reconsidering Townes Van Zandt and the past year

[Guest guest]

For me, the two best Texas songwriters are Guy and Townes Van

Zandt. Townes passed away on January 1, 1997; he was fifty-two years old.

After

midnight, this morning I listened to an Austin City Limits show that was a

tribute to him. The show was helmed by Guy . If anyone ever has a chance

to see it, I highly recommend it.

2004 has had its zenith and nadir. na , Guy's wife, told a

story about Townes trying to talk a person out of drinking, eventually telling

him, " If nothing else, you'll have cleaner heartbreaks. "

He said there were basically two types of songs, the blues and

zippity-do-dah. Here are three songs which I think are great (a word that has

been

diminished by everyone brandishing it about):

" Don't You Take It Too Bad "

Don't you take it too bad

If you're feeling unloving

If you're feeling unfeeling

If you're feeling alone, don't take it too bad

'Cause it ain't you to blame babe

It's some kind of game made

Out of all this living

That we got left to do

If you go searching

For rhyme or for reason

You won't have the time

That it takes just for talking

'Bout the places you've been, babe

'Bout the places you've seen, babe

And how soft the time flies

Past your window at night

And we just can't have that, girl

It's a hard lonesome cold world

And a man needs a woman

To stand by his side, and whisper sweet words

In his ears, about daydreams

And roses and playthings

And the sweetness of springtime

And the sound of the rain

" Highway Kind "

My days they are the highway kind

They only come to leave

But the leavin' I don't mind

It's the comin' that I crave

Pour the sun upon the ground

Stand to throw a shadow

Watch it grow into a night

And fill a spinnin' sky

Time among the pine trees

Felt like a breath of air

Usually I just walk these streets

And tell myself to care

Sometimes I believe me

Sometimes I don't hear

Sometimes the shape I'm in

Just won't let me go

I don't know too much for true

But my heart knows how to pound

My legs know how to love someone

My voice knows how to sound

It's a shame that it's not enough

It's a shame that it is a shame

But follow the circle down

And where would you be

You're the only one I want

But I've never heard your name

So let's hope we meet some day

And if we don't it's all the same

'Cause I'll meet the ones between us

And be talking about you

All the places I have seen

And why you were not there

" To Live Is To Fly "

Won't say I love you babe

Won't say I need you babe

But I'm gonna get you babe

And I will not do you wrong,

Living's mostly wasting time

I waste my share of mine

But it never feels to good

So let's don't take too long

You're soft as glass

And I'm a gentle man

We got the sky to talk about

And the world to lie upon.

Days up and down they come

Like rain on a conga drum

Forget most remember some

But don't turn none away,

Everything is not enough

And nothing is too much to bear

Where you been is good and gone

All you keep is the getting there,

To live is to fly

Low and high

So shake the dust off of your wings

And the sleep out of your eyes.

It's goodbye to all my friends

It's time to go again

Think of all the poetry

And the pickin' down the line,

I'll miss the system here

The bottom's low and the treble's clear

But it don't pay to think too much

On things you leave behind,

I may be gone

But it won't be long

I'll be abringing back the melody

And the rhythm that I find.

We all got holes to fill

And them holes are all that's real

Some fall on you like a storm

Sometimes you dig your own,

But the choice is yours to make

Time is yours to take

Some dive into the sea

Some toil upon the stone,

To live is to fly

Low and high

So shake the dust off of your wings

And the sleep out of your eyes

Well, shake the dust off of your wings

And the tears out of your eyes