Townes Van Zandt - S/T LP

Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues” is a difficult song to write for a friend. “If it rained an ocean I’d drink it dry/ and lay me down dissatisfied.” Much of it seems too personal to share, and the author’s insistence that Bell – a bass player – never accompany him on “Rex’s Blues” is telling. Like Merle Travis’ “Nine Pound Hammer,” which Van Zandt covers on Live at the Old Quarter, the song is a tentative goodbye. In Van Zandt’s lyrics, the best are personal, told in the first person. He wrote testimonials of frailty and helplessness that instantly identify them with their author: “Livin’s mostly wastin’ time/ and I waste my share of mine/ but it never feels too good/ so let’s don’t take too long.” He called them sky songs, borrowing from Bukka White before him. “Songs one simply pulled from the sky.” The New York Times includes in its online archives a review in passing by Janet Maslin of Heartworn Highways, a documentary on country music filmed by James Szalapski and featuring, among