Townes van Zandt (1944 – 1997)
Townes van Zandt is 21 when he bids his parents and the career they had in mind for him farewell. He settles down in Houston as a starting folk singer and listens to Lightnin’ Hopkins and Hank Williams. He decides to write a song and retreats to the bathroom. After a week he comes out, with a song. It is not the love song his wife had hoped for, but Waiting ‘round to die . Meaning it is easier to wander than to sit here and wait for death (this song can be found on Youtube and includes the listener shedding tears). Shortly after this first song, Townes chooses to go on the road. Because you can’t sing about something you haven’t gone through, is his explanation.
Townes is genuine and authentic. He is too good for this world. Money is of no importance to him, he gives it to the first beggar asking. He only owns that what fits into a suitcase. He evens gives away the suitcase sometimes. He cannot stand dishonesty and injustice. He can cry about a lame bird. At the same time, he struggles with his own pain. It had already become clear that Townes deviates from the norm. Certainly the norms of his aristocratic oil family, which stems from the Dutch immigrant Jacob van Zandt, one of the founding fathers . With this background it is not strange that the highly talented Townes was seen as future governor of Texas. But, Townes joins the Peace Corps (1) and that is not done for a patriot. He makes himself unpopular with the students’ corps and becomes the talk of the town.
At a party he leans back over the balcony on the fourth floor, knowing it cannot be done, yet leaning more and more backwards until he falls over. He lands on his back on the grass and .no harm done. For his parents a cause to have him committed into a psychiatric clinic, where he gets insulin shock therapy (a way to stimulate attacks with an overdoses of insulin, as bad as the electro shock.) The therapy erases a large part of his long term memory (2). He has no recollection of his childhood. Some see this as explanation of the desolation in his songs. Diagnose: Manic depressive with schizophrenic streaks. With this “helpful” identification, his guitar and a head full of melodies, Townes travels into the wide world: on the road . As he writes Pancho and Lefty , he speaks from his experience:
Living on the road my friend Was gonna keep you free and clean Now you wear your skin like an iron And your breath’s hard as kerosene
For Townes reducing pain is key. Booze is needed. Lots of it. And cocaine, heroine and much more. He kick off lots of drugs but not the alcohol. In between, he writes beautiful songs. About loneliness, sadness, pain, death and the fear of becoming insane:
It’s plain to see, the sun won’t shine today But I ain’t in the mood for sunshine anyway Maybe I’ll go insane, I got to stop the pain Or maybe I’ll go down to see Kathleen.
This song makes me shiver. Who is Kathleen? It is the psychiatrist from the clinic? Is he his heroine dealer? Or is Kathleen already in heaven? Why are all your songs so sad, asks an interviewer. “They are not sad, they are hopeless” , is his answer.
Kathleen is one of the few songs in which the echo effect enhances the atmosphere. In nearly all other recordings the sound is plain : guitar and singing, perhaps with a few accompanying instruments. Townes supervises the production and decides on how it must be. A disaster for the producer and a disaster for sales. Between 1968 and 1997 a dozen records come out, but Townes hardly makes any money. Others cover him: Willy Nelson scores a number 1 hit with Pancho and Lefty . And Emmylou Harris reaches a third place with If I needed you .
Townes refuses compromises, he sings from his heart and does not let himself be corrupted by marketing. He is not out for profit and effect. This is exactly why his songs are not tear jerkers, even if they are about grief. Townes knows his life will be short and that his work will outlive him: “I’ve designed it that way”, is what he literally says. After his death he is rediscovered by singers like Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, Nancy Griffith, Alison Kraus and Robert Plant. Dozens of CD’s with unknown recordings and concerts come out, of which “Together ” with Steve Earle and Guy Clark is climax.
Townes’ soul mate Jeanene found a new song text in his papers that deeply moved her: “ Townes, this is the most wonderful song you ever wrote”, she said. “This is no song, this is a suicide note ” he answered. Eventually it becomes a song (probably not the first time suicide notes became lyrics ). In it he describes how his powers are diminishing, that he despairs and that his work means nothing. In other songs one can doubt the autobiographic level, but this is really about him. The last recording Townes makes, a few weeks before his death, is a renewed version of A song for . His voice breaks, the melody is flat, the pain almost tangible. This recording circulates on Youtube, as a requiem. Shortly after this Townes dies of long embolism, but mainly due to his intense life, of course.
In December 1991 Townes performs at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. On the DVD of this concert, I see a shy schlemiel, showing pain, making jokes through his anguish. Who retrieves into his music, misses arrangements and even sings plain, yet knows how to bind the audience and to move them with his honest poetry.
“Should you be listening to this if you’re depressed”, asked Truus de Jong, secretary to the editors of Deviant . Yes, you should! Townes has looked into the deep abyss. And has seen that there is no bottom. He has come back to sing about it. He had the courage to face his pain. Without false afterthought, without deranged therapeutic analysis. And when he sings about death, he also sings about life. After all, the two belong together. “ The magic of his songs is that they never leave you alone ”. (3)
Mark Janssen
(1) The Peace Corps was a way for young Americans to escape duty and the war in Vietnam. (2) Son John Townes van Zandt is currently activist against electro shock therapy ( www.endofshock.nl ) (3) Quote Kurt Wolff (All Music Guide). For discography and further information: www.townesvanzandt.com
Vertaling Lisette Boer.