Townes Van Zandt - "The Best Song In The World"

ElRoi

I recently discovered Townes Van Zandt and the genius that is his music through an incredible documentary titled "Be Here To Love Me" by Margaret Brown. I can't believe that it took so long for me to discover these songs and the man who created them. The story goes that Steve Earle once proclaimed that, "Townes Van Zandt is he best song writer in the world" and that he would stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say it. If you are not familiar with Townes you owe it to yourself to find everything by him that you can get your hands on.
Start here:
http://www.townesvanzandt.com/
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/AboutTownes/

Sonja_S

I saw 'Be Here To Love Me' a few weeks ago at the Vienna Intl. Filmfest. He didn't come across as the most likeable human being, but fascinating nonetheless. The next day they screened 'Neil Young: Heart of Gold' and people waiting in line to get in were still discussing Townes Van Zandt's insulin shock therapy.

AvocadoLady

That's a great documentary. I think they were showing it on IFC or Sundance pretty frequently a few months a go.

ElRoi

Sonja_S wrote:

I saw 'Be Here To Love Me' a few weeks ago at the Vienna Intl. Filmfest. He didn't come across as the most likeable human being, but fascinating nonetheless. The next day they screened 'Neil Young: Heart of Gold' and people waiting in line to get in were still discussing Townes Van Zandt's insulin shock therapy.

Actually, Jeanene, his widow, says in an interview that everybody loved Townes. That because of his Manic Depression he came off at times as a real down kind of guy. Even when he hurt people's feelings, I think they all understood that it wasn't really his true nature to do so. I have the DVD of "Be Here To Love Me" and it has a bunch of extra interview footage on it. In all of those interviews everyone spoke warmly of Townes and they all seemed to be very genuine.
Check out some of these interviews:
http://www.townesvanzandt.com/av.html
Especially the "Remembering Townes Van Zandt" the two part streaming two-hour broadcast from North State Public Radio (KCHO/KFPR California) on March 26, 2000.

ElRoi

AvocadoLady wrote:

That's a great documentary. I think they were showing it on IFC or Sundance pretty frequently a few months a go.

They still are showing it and yes, it is a really great doc. I had heard the name "Townes Van Zandt" through out the years, but really had no idea who he was until by chance late one evening I caught Margaret Brown's beautiful and sad film about him. Here's the poster artist Rob Jones did for the film:




I now own just about everything he did and I find myself starting to love almost every song, even ones that I didn't really think much of at first I have begun to appreciate upon numerous re-listenings. He is an acquired taste, much like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. You either love what they do or you don't.

Here's a mock CD cover I created using Rob Jones' art of what I think are essential Townes releases:

ElRoi

If you are a Big Lebowski fan then you have heard Townes' cover of "Dead Flowers" at the end of the film. I always loved that version, but until recently had no idea who had done it. It's on Townes' record of live covers titled "Road Songs."

Sonja_S

ElRoi wrote:

Actually, Jeanene, his widow, says in an interview that everybody loved Townes. That because of his Manic Depression he came off at times as a real down kind of guy. Even when he hurt people's feelings, I think they all understood that it wasn't really his true nature to do so. I have the DVD of "Be Here To Love Me" and it has a bunch of extra interview footage on it. In all of those interviews everyone spoke warmly of Townes and they all seemed to be very genuine.
Check out some of these interviews:
http://www.townesvanzandt.com/av.html
Especially the "Remembering Townes Van Zandt" the two part streaming two-hour broadcast from North State Public Radio (KCHO/KFPR California) on March 26, 2000.

Thanks for the link, I will definitely check out the interviews when I'm home. Could be a bit suspicious for the office I also had the impression that everyone in the documentary was serious about loving him, the ex-wife is a great example. It's just that for someone who didn't know him personally, he seemed not very likable just from the footage. On the other hand, it also showed what the so-called therapy did to him in terms of memory loss. Coming from a family of diabetics, I can imagine what else that must have screwed up.
I wanted to get the DVD anyways, thanks for letting me know about the additional footage, I will surely check that out.

Have you ever seen the Steve Earle movie? I can't remember what it was called, it was shown at NXNE a few years back when it wasn't quite finished and Steve Earle was there to explain a few things about it. I didn't know much about him or his music beforehand, but I got really interested in his stuff after watching that one.