Love the song. Think we must have a Townes fan 'mongst the modmins since we get a van Zandt greenlight every few months or so.

A brilliant man. Somehow I believe he's up there in heaven singing for the saints and angels.

You picked a great song but you could have picked any one of a hundred, Waiting Around to Die, Cowboy Junkie's Lament or I'll be Here in the Morning...The man was a great songwriter.

I've always preferred the Willie and Merle version...

Waiting Around To Die was the first song he ever wrote, as a teenager. If the song alone doesn't give you goosebumps, then knowing that while you listen should.

/still trying figure out how to get a greenlight on a Gram Parsons post

doublesecretprobation: Crewmannumber6: Waiting Around To Die was the first song he ever wrote, as a teenager. If the song alone doesn't give you goosebumps, then knowing that while you listen should.

if you've ever seen "heartworn highways" and seen him play it in his kitchen while his neighbor crys, it'll kill you every time you hear it.

Here is the video from "Heartworn Highways"(new window). The song starts at about 4:20, but if you like Townes, I would suggest watching it in its entirety.

ZAZ: The man was a great songwriter.

Yes, but not so great a singer.

I dunno, his voice had character. It gave something to the music.

doublesecretprobation: Crewmannumber6: Waiting Around To Die was the first song he ever wrote, as a teenager. If the song alone doesn't give you goosebumps, then knowing that while you listen should.

if you've ever seen "heartworn highways" and seen him play it in his kitchen while his neighbor crys, it'll kill you every time you hear it.

I've seen it and it gets me every time. There is no songwriter his equal today. The only one I can think of worth mentioning right now is David Rawlings, who writes Gillian Welch's songs

got a puppy last week, named him pancho, so i'm getting a kick out of these replies.

Thanks, Subby. Townes is one of my favorites.

I play with this country singer from time to time, and one weekend we had to fill four hours at a local bar. Towards the end of the night, he goes up and plays Waitin Round To Die, so I counter with Tecumseh Valley, and he hits back with Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold, and we got into a Townes-Van-Zandt-off.

Depressed the hell out of the bar...not because we sucked (mostly), but because the songs were so damn perfect.

Steve Earle once said, "Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter alive and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and tell him that."

Townes Van Zandt heard that and replied, ""I've met Bob Dylan's bodyguards and if Steve Earle thinks he can stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table, he's sadly mistaken."

/I won the Zandt off
//by a hair
///but not 1% of 1% as good as the man himself

Introduced by Nanci Griffith, no less.

Thanks, subby - made my day.

uhm, that really sucked. Sorry. I don't get it. I used to hear crap like that at Chubby's, on the corner of LaSalle and Michigan in Indianapolis. It's closed now...I wonder why?

/love me some Menudo.
//the troll line is set...
///waiting...
////waiting...
//five slashies.

When you have several hours to spare check out the "Townes van Zandt Private Concert" on Youtube. Filmed in his hotel room at a Holiday Inn in Houston.

/ Loves him some Rex's Blues
// Kind of obsessed with Mr Mudd And Mr Gold at the moment...

TVZ was the greatest American songwriter. (Bob Dylan can lick my sack) That is all.

There is a documentary out on him, what a massive fark-up. very good song writer, though.

Likes me some EL Harris but her voice, high and grating, leaves something to be desired.

And this

JimmyDeGration 2009-11-06 10:22:55 AM
TVZ was the greatest American songwriter. (Bob Dylan can lick my sack) That is all.

1) You are entitled to your opinion, as weird as it is
and
2) Nice to see you come out of the closet, but hope as you might I doubt Dylan will oblige you.

ZAZ: The man was a great songwriter.

Yes, but not so great a singer.

I'm with you there brother.

douchebag/hater: There is a documentary out on him, what a massive fark-up. very good song writer, though.

Likes me some EL Harris but her voice, high and grating, leaves something to be desired.

And this

JimmyDeGration 2009-11-06 10:22:55 AM
TVZ was the greatest American songwriter. (Bob Dylan can lick my sack) That is all.

1) You are entitled to your opinion, as weird as it is
and
2) Nice to see you come out of the closet, but hope as you might I doubt Dylan will oblige you.

THe TVZ documentary is called "Be Here To Love Me" and it's so sad...On the scale of the Shane MacGowan documentary "Fall From Grace With God". TVZ drank himself to death basically.

This song always kind of makes me want to drink.

bmfderek: ZAZ: The man was a great songwriter.

Yes, but not so great a singer.

I'm with you there brother.

This was only four years before he died. His voice was pretty well shot. Earlier stuff was much better vocally.

Still, a hell of a songwriter and a true eccentric.

yelmrog: bmfderek: ZAZ: The man was a great songwriter.

Yes, but not so great a singer.

I'm with you there brother.

This was only four years before he died. His voice was pretty well shot. Earlier stuff was much better vocally.

Still, a hell of a songwriter and a true eccentric.

I disagree. For his genre he has the perfect voice. His tones send chills through me.

If you didn't know:

The song was about the death of the frontier, Pancho was a metaphor for the last of the banditos getting too old to run anymore, but not willing to give up. The Mexican government said that if they turned themselves in they would only be deported to the U.S. in the 1910s, instead of facing execution or prison.

Lefty was the last bounty hunter, always able to catch Pancho but knowing he was out of a job if he did. Since they were the last of the real plainsmen left, when Pancho was shot down Lefty had nothing left to live for - his nemesis was dead.

So he moved to Cleveland (the money came from all the bounties he had collected - hidden and stashed away for his retirement) and waited to die. There was nothing else left for him.

/There's a statue of Pancho and Lefty in Eastern Montana (Miles City, I think) explaining what the song meant. The bounty hunter in the song was a native of Montana, but I can't remember his name.

Here is a good version of To Live is to Fly. Ryan Bingham mistakes it as a Guy Clark song this night for some reason. Not sure why, but he does a good job with it.

To Live is To Fly Link (new window)

Scott Glenn should play him in a bio pic!!!!

Played "If I Needed You" for my wife at our wedding reception, Not a dry eye in the place. Saw TVZ at the Childe Harold in DC in 1980.His bass player was too drunk to continue, so Townes played the second set solo. Great show, greater songwriter.

TheBitterest: I've always preferred the Willie and Merle version...

FTW.

/I SAID, "FTW".

I listen to "Live at the Old Quarter" about twice a week. Probably in the top 3 music purchases I've ever made in my life.

Peacedog: I listen to "Live at the Old Quarter" about twice a week. Probably in the top 3 music purchases I've ever made in my life.

"Uncle Ben's Perverted Rice"

I love TVZ singing "Dead Flowers" at the end of The Big Lebowski.

Good lord, she was fine then. Now, too.

I'm with you on that one.