Townes Van Zandt took a conflicted dirty road in this sad lonesome cold world to desperately chase the shadows of a quicksilver daydream. Van Zandt re-recorded four songs from his first album 'For the Sake of the Song'
Milton Glaser did the design for the album cover: "Some of the photography we used at Poppy was very amateurish...That wonderful picture of Townes with his eyes shut at the table that we used for his third album was shot in my kitchen in Woodstock by Sol Mednick. Sol told Townes to just sit down and close his eyes for a while."
As with his second album 'Our Mother the Mountain' "Townes had a lot of girlfriends because he couldn't maintain a relationship. All of his songs are very autobiographical. A lot of times he sang about himself in those love songs."
Van Zandt would consider: "Human's can't live in the present as animals do; they just live in the present. But human's are always thinking about the future or the past...What I do is between me and the Lord, to examine and possibly alter the state of grace in which I live, and thereby the state of grace of anybody who listens."
http://townesvanzandt.com/ Waiting Around to Die https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFh4DebJAfs VIDEO
(Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria
Van Zandt: "It's a song about everyman's everywoman...Caddo Parish Studdard III and I were spending a leisurely afternoon at the [now defunct Austin club] 11th Door. Caddo invented a card game you play with coasters and I wrote this."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkAwARWBlEU Well, the diamonds fades quickly when matched to the face of Maria
All the harps they sound empty when she lifts her lips to the sky
The brown of her skin makes her hair seem a soft golden rainfall
That spills from the mountains to the bottomless depths of her eyes
Well, she stands all around me her hands slowly sifting the sunshine
All the laughter that linger down deep 'neath her smilin' is free
Well, it spins and it twirls like a hummingbird lost in the morning
And caresses the south wind and silently sails to the sea
Ah, the sculptor stands stricken and the artist he throws away his brushes
When her image comes dancin' the sun she turns sullen with shame
And the birds they go silent the wind stops his sad mournful singing
When the trees of the forest start gently to whisperin' her name
So as softly she wanders I'll desperately follow her footsteps
And I'll chase after shadows that offer a trace of her sight
Ah, they promise eternally that she lays hidden within them
But I find they've deceived me and sadly I bid them goodbye
So the serpent slide softly away with these moments of laughter
And the the old washy woman has finish her cleanin' and gone
But the bamboo hang heavy in the bondage of quicksilver daydreams
And a lonely child longingly looks for a place to belong
Townes Van Zandt full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hrfjSaW8TQ 1 For the Sake of the Song 5:22
2 Columbine 2:34
3 Waiting Around to Die 2:45
4 Don't You Take It Too Bad 2:54
5 Colorado Girl 3:18
6 Lungs 2:29
7 I'll Be Here in the Morning 3:00
8 Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel 5:22
9 (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria 4:45
10 None But the Rain 2:23
Townes Van Zandt sought conclusion in all the confusion to stop the pain of dreams denied to the false and the fair in the natural wonder and simple truth of this serious folk poetry. After the release of his debut 'For the Sake of the Song' , Van Zandt hit the road with his friend Bob Myrick and his new manager Kevin Eggers on a cross country vision quest from New York to Malibu.
Van Zandt would look back on his wanderlust: “Just wild times and a disregard for things, crazy stuff, wild chances...Lots of booze and gambling as the song says, Wild Living...Like a lot of folks I was a person who couldn’t do things halfway. Now I can play guitar better and I’m not crazy all the time. I used to go right to the edge and I’m not sure where all that came from...Now I know how to handle the blues a lot better, but because of all that travelling and this and that you can get real alone. I’m just not as alone now. Maybe that was just a phase and this is a more comfortable one...I guess I’m more optimistic because of my son Will, but to me it doesn’t make any difference. I’m still not...run-of-the-mill...you know? I’m kind of joyfully pessimistic and I don’t have real severe attacks of manic depression any more...I’ve always loved the mountains and I’d still be doing that, but I have responsibilities now...It’s not the same but I did that [riding into the mountains] for years and years and I’d keep a horse somewhere around and just take off."
As with his debut, 'Our Mother the Mountain' Jim Malloy and Cowboy Jack Clement with the addition of Kevin Eggers. Basic tracks were recorded at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles with strings added later in Nashville. The album credits Ben Bennay on harmonica; James Burton on guitar and dobro; John Clauder and Donald Frost on drums; Jack Clement, David Cohen, and Mike Deasy Sr. on guitar; Chuck Domanico, Harvey Newmark, and Lyle Ritz on bass and guitar; Jules Jacob on flute; Charlie McCoy on bass, guitar, harmonica, and keyboards; Don Randi on keyboards; and Townes Van Zandt on vocals and guitar. Also similarly to 'For the Sake of the Song', 'Our Mother the Mountain' never charted.
Van Zandt would consider: “For a folk singer, which I consider myself, I've done well. I’ve never i tried to be a straight country singer and never had a country band. Back when I was deciding I figured I wasn't the sort to dress up and play country fairs, but for a folk singer it was a whole different circuit...It’s nice my songs fit into country music and that's where I’ve been classified. The records are classified like that too, everything has to be classified I guess."
http://townesvanzandt.com/ "Be Here to Love Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6NPj9M_p20 "Kathleen"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIi4cAK1vik "She Came and She Touched Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ntAnGSeeCE "Like A Summer Thursday"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qadKIvx3mc "Our Mother The Mountain"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW4XgQvcDsQ My lover comes to me with a rose on her bosom
The moon's dancin' purple
All through her black hair
And a ladies-in-waiting she stands 'neath my window
And the sun will rise soon
On the false and the fair
She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain
Her skin fits her tightly
And her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it
In front of my eyes
I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
The satin she's wearin'
Is shimmering blue
Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
My dogs have gone hunting
The howling is through
So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
And her hair turns to splinters,
And her flesh turns to brine
She leaps cross the room, she stands in the window
And screams that my first-born
Will surely be blind
She throws herself out to the black of the nightfall
She's parted her lips
But she makes not a sound
I fly down the stairway, and I run to the garden
No trace of my true love
Is there to be found
So walk these hills lightly, and watch who you're lovin'
By mother the mountain
I swear that it's true
Love not a woman with hair black as midnight
And her dress made of satin
All shimmering blue
"Second Lovers Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuyP_yP-Rbo "St. John The Gambler"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUnoTTjx9dY Tecumseh was a remake of "Tecumseh Valley" from the debut, which had been edited in attempt to make it more radio friendly. Van Zandt revealed: “A lot of times you can write songs and they come true. There have been songs I didn‘t write because I was afraid they might come true, kind of sad songs that I didn't want to hear. I have a couple of songs about my wife written way before I met her. I believe that can happen. I don’t believe you can sit down like voodoo and conjure up thing -- but you could write a song that set a path that something would take to happen and people near the song and started thinking about it and so that path was taken. You might write something like that...but I barely understand this world much less the next...I found out later that ['Tecumseh Valley'] was all true down to where the town was and where the mountains were. The only difference was I though it would be in West Virginia but it was in Oklahoma."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDSPPzfECvU The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
She came from Spencer
Across the hill
She said her pa had sent her
'cause the coal was low
And soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter
She said she'd come
To look for work
She was not seeking favors
And for a dime a day
And a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor
But the times were hard, Lord,
The jobs were few
All through Tecumseh valley
But she asked around
And a job she found
Tending bar at Gypsy Sally's
She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied
Her pa had died
The word come down from Spencer
So she turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
And it was many a man
Returned again
To lay himself beside her
They found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sally's
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well
Tecumseh valley
The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7_oQU2vuUQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rq5GsZHd0Y
"Snake Mountain Blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytpX_v2dPq4 "My Proud Mountains"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3C8Nm9aYq4 "Why She's Acting This Way"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFxv0gc5Mc
Townes Van Zandt made his debut as a singular songwriter with these straightforward stories of despair and regret. He developed his craft playing in clubs around Houston, Texas until songwriter Mickey Newbury convinced him to move to Nashville, where he got a recording contract. 'For the Sake of the Song' was produced by Jack Clement and Jim Malloy for Poppy Records. They experimented with different sounds and styles that sometimes distract from the timeless songs. His voice is reminiscent of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Van Zandt recounted his journey: "I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where I lived till I was 8; Midland till 9; Billings, Montana, till I was 12; Boulder, Colorado, till I was 14; Chicago till 15; Minnesota till 17; then back to Colorado till 9; Houston till 21 and then I started traveling! Simply nobody wanted me, nobody would have me. Well, my mother had me, but not for very long, five or ten minutes! No, that's not true -- my father was in the oil business, that's why we travelled around so much. I got out of high school in Minnesota -- I went to a private military school for two years, which I think has a lot to do with my somewhat multifrantic behaviour. Then I went to the University of Colorado for awhile, then finally dropped out of school and became a folk singer. College was, well, I sorta went off the deep end at the University of Colorado. I was apparently not stable enough to go there. I hit that place like a saddle bronc hits the arena -- coming right out of military school and all. No way it could last, and it didn't. So I went to Houston and started singing. Got into town about a year after the folk boom had died down, like in 1966, and the first place I played was a club on Westheimer called the Jester Lounge. That was the first place I ever got paid real money for singing. This guy, who turned out to be Don Sanders, came up to me in there and said I also oughta try this place called Sand Mountain. I went over there with him and we did a little short set...That was the beginning. I just started getting more and more gigs and then I ran into a guy who wanted me to make a record. That was all because of Mickey Newbury. To tell you the truth, I hadn't even thought about recording up to then. Jack Clement produced it and it was sold to Poppy Records, and I've been playing gigs and making records ever since. My musical influences were Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and the Everly Brothers .....it started off with country, then Elvis and those guys, then a little jazz, then blues further into high school, Lightnin' Hopkins mostly, and Bob Dylan around the time of 'Times They Are A' Changin'' 'The Ed Sullivan Show' http://www.townesvanzandt.com/
"(Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnEVgPghYs "Waiting 'Round to Die" "My first serious song was "Waitin' Around to Die." I talked to this old man for a while and he kinda put out these vibrations. I was sitting at the bar of the Jester Lounge one afternoon drinking beer, thinking about him, and just wrote it down .....Sometimes I don't know where this dirty road is taking me/Sometimes I can't see the reason why/But I guess I'll keep rambling/Lots of booze and lots of gambling/Well, it's easier than waitin' round to die." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emHZ2oj8wDk "I'll Be Here in the Morning" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHVhcr-2y78 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjGOxo0KDMs "Sad Cinderella" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1XcxqawXM "The Velvet Voices" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOapVF94r4A "All Your Young Servants" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYVhM7qFNts "Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5X3tuloOwU
'For the Sake of the Song' full album:
VIDEO All tracks written by Townes Van Zandt.
"For the Sake of the Song"
"Tecumseh Valley"
"Many a Fine Lady"
"(Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria"
"Waiting 'Round to Die"
"I'll Be There in the Morning"
"Sad Cinderella"
"The Velvet Voices"
"Talkin' Karate Blues"
"All Your Young Servants"
"Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls"
