Van Zandt Townes - Ill be here in the morning: the songwriting legacy of Townes Van Zandt

ILL BE HERE
IN THE MORNING

John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music

SPONSORED BY THE
CENTER FOR TEXAS MUSIC HISTORY

Texas State UniversitySan Marcos
Gary Hartman, General Editor

A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book.

ILL BE
HERE
IN THE
MORNING

THE SONGWRITING LEGACY OF TOWNES VAN ZANDT

BRIAN T. ATKINSON

Texas A&M University Press College Station

Copyright 2012 by Brian T. Atkinson
Manufactured in the United States of America
All rights reserved
First edition

This paper meets the requirements of
ANSI/NISO, Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Binding materials have been chosen for durability.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Atkinson, Brian T.

Ill be here in the morning : the songwriting legacy of Townes Van

Zandt / Brian T. Atkinson. 1st ed.

p. cm. (John and Robin Dickson series in Texas music)

Includes selected discography.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60344-526-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-60344-526-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-1-60344-527-6 (e-book)

ISBN-10: 1-60344-527-7 (e-book)

1. Van Zandt, Townes. 2. Van Zandt, TownesInfluence.

3. Country musiciansTexas
Biography. 4. LyricistsTexas Biography. 5. MusiciansUnited States20th century
Interviews. 6. Country musicHistory and criticism.
I. Title. II. Series: John and Robin Dickson series in
Texas music.
ML420.V248A85 2011
782.421642092dc22
2011016691

All photos by author unless credited otherwise.
On the cover: Townes Van Zandt, Nijmegen, Holland, Novembr 13, 1996.
Courtesy Paul Needham, www.mohawkvisuals.com

Title Page: Art by Sean P. Traey, Mosquito Studios; image courtesy Graham Leader

DEDICATED TO MY FATHER,
TED ATKINSON,
THE FINEST KIND

We dont care about material stuff. We want to hear the guitar ring one note correctly and your voice ring the same note correctly with the proper meaning correctly for that instant. Travel 5,000 miles all over and lose jackets and end up... looking like me, but if you hit that note, it goes around the world and maybethis is not bragging but its hopeful, kind of prayerfulmaybe somehow [it will] connect up with a baby in England or Ireland or Ethiopia and somehow make a shade of difference. Plus, it keeps us off the streets.

Townes Van Zandt, 1995

FOREWORD

COWBOY JACK CLEMENT

I met Townes around 1966. I wanted to help a friend of mine who worked for RCA make some money on the side, so I paid for a trip down to Houston and went to see a guy who owned the studio there. He kept talking about this guy named Townes Van Zandt. He played us some tapes, and we thought they were really good. We wound up signing Townes to a contract.

Townes was fun to work with, but he didnt think much of the recording process. He just wanted to have some action going. His werent ordinary songs that people were singing. I knew they wouldnt be easy to get recorded, but I knew they had merit. At My Window was my favorite album, probably his most successful record and the best that I did with him. We did that here in the studio in my house. That picture of Townes at the window was taken in my kitchen. He was more mature by then, and we got along good.

Townes was a good guy. People loved him and still do. He wasnt morbid all the time. He had a great sense of humor. He wasnt like everybody else, and I like that. I always try to be different. Townes didnt have to try. He just was.

He has gotten a lot of respect along the way. I think his career will grow, even though hes passed away. Enough of his songs got out that hes pretty well known by now, and I think his legacy will endure. Endurance is important. Townes kept writing and believed in himself, believed that they were good songs. They were. He had faith. He never had a great amount of success, but his songs are still there. People remember them.

January 2011

FOREWORD

HAROLD F. EGGERS JR.

I met Townes in 1967, the year my brother Kevin signed him to his label, Poppy Records. We worked together over a span of twenty years. I started off as his road manager in 1976 and eventually became his manager, agent, and business partner. My music education was in the school of Townes, through the eyes and thoughts of this extremely intense and overwhelming spirit who was obsessed and consumed with songwriting, performing, and traveling.

Townes believed that you cant sing the blues unless youve lived them, and he lived them to the extremes and beyond. As Steve Earle has said, Townes would go to the depths of darkness where we were all afraid to go, and then hed come back and tell us about them. Townes lived his songs right to the end. That may be what killed him.

The highway was Towness home. Normal would be the last way of describing our travels, but I got used to the extreme craziness that Townes brought along with him. We zigzagged across North America and Europe, talking about his life, his songwriting, and all the highs and lows that haunted him daily. I feel very privileged that he chose me to work and travel with him, but the truth is that he always did what he wanted to do. I just held on for dear life as the years and miles flew by. It was always about where we were off to now. It was the going, not the getting there. That was part of the beauty and mystique of touring and working with this maddening and troubled artist.

Every show was different because Towness extreme moods changed from day to day. I started recording his shows from the very beginning and continued throughout the entire time that I worked with him. We would listen to the recordings as we traveled, and his favorites were the darkest. I never got used to the intensity of his shows. His words and music rattled me every time. Towness music and lyrics still run through my mind every day, even now. You can feel lines like sorrow and solitude, these are the precious things right to the bone.

I like the title Ill Be Here in the Morning for this book. A line from that Townes songTheres no prettier sight than looking back on a town you left behindreminds me that we were always here and gone and on the road to the next show. In mid-1996, Townes recorded a duet of Ill Be Here in the Morning with Barb Donovan, who through opening many shows for Townes earned the distinction of being his favorite female singer-songwriter. While we were touring overseas later in that year, the German Rolling Stone magazine approached Townes for a unique recording to include on a CD with the publication. Townes suggested their duet. That compilation, Rare Trax, which included songs by major artists such as Sting and Sheryl Crow, was released the day that Townes died.

I think Townes would have felt honored by this book, with so many peers and younger artists recognizing him as a great songwriter. At the same time, he would say that there are many more important people to write a book about. He was very humble, shy, and unassuming. The international press called Townes one of our greatest songwriters and a living legend, but he always said a legend is someone whos dead. Townes was at peace just knowing that his words and music will go on forever.

February 2011

PREFACE

Oh, Loretta, shes my barroom girl, wears them sevens on her sleeve Dances like a diamond shines, tells me lies I love to believe

TVZ, Loretta, from