“Sorrow and solitude, these are the precious things
And the only words that are worth remembering.”
~ Townes Van Zandt
*
“I don’t envision a long life for myself.
Like, I think my life will run out before my work does, y’know?
I’ve designed it that way.”
~ Townes Van Zandt
Townes started out like many children, wearing tiny cowboy outfits
and getting pulled by ponies in carts. OK I guess he didn’t
start out like many children. He was the child of rich
oil parents. He led a normal childhood through
school, until sent to boarding school far away
from home for 2 years. Pre-law at college
until guitar lifestyle won. Townes was
carted away to a place where his
brain was fried like an egg.
In later years his mother
lamented giving her
son scrambled eggs.
Townes never returned home.
Instead he beat the trails of hooch, coke,
and horse on the music circuit. Compulsive
penury his companion. He was loved by a passel
of women. Songs sprouted like spores from his lungs.
He got sick and fell into codeine-induced dreams where he sang
a masterpiece and wrote it down*. The magic came again when he
was stranded 60 miles out of a Texas town for 3 days, when followers of
Billy Graham and The Maharishi took all the hotel rooms**. Another
time he was given songs out in the woods by a Tennessee river.***
Townes, holy man, on a journey of solitude in the crowd. He
gave up home, family, comforts, worldly goods. He traded
them for a portal to magical music. He never became
famous; walked among the most ordinary of people.
He knew he wasn’t long for this world. He could
have been a star. He didn’t want that.
Townes wanted to be real, and that
he was. At 52, he put on his
Flyin Shoes. Goodnight.
Peace. See you.
*”If I Needed You”
**”Pancho & Lefty”
***Flyin Shoes
Word of the Day Challenge is masterpiece.
Fandango One-Word Challenge is magical
Tao Talk 
Sad to say that I’d never heard of him before.
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I can’t remember where I first heard of him.
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hey there Ms Jadeli, great taste in singer/songwriter. i luvs me some vanzandt as well. kindest regards bg 🙂😎🙂
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glad that you know him and love him. he’s someone once known never forgotten. i’ve watched a few documentaries on him, listened to radio interviews, read essays on him, listened to so much of his music, and i honestly believe he knew exactly what he was doing. either that or he was completely nuts after his electroshock treatments. maybe we’ll never know. i tend to believe the first theory.
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i’d go with both theories 🙂 but i believe we are all nuts it’s just how deep we bury our nutty ness the varies. 🙂😎🙂
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100% in agreement with you there. mine has just a bare dusting of earth on it :) have a good night
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TownesVZ: A genuine voice and relevant song writing !
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I had not heard of him either but I really enjoyed your post and poem. Thanks for sharing 🙂💕💕
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I’m glad you know now :) Thank you Christine.
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Hey Li,
Hope you are well, l have tagged you for 321 Quote Me – Topic – Communication
https://aguycalledbloke.blog/2018/12/14/321-quote-me-communication/
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Thank you, Rory, I’ll check it out :)
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I just heard one of his songs yesterday for the first time… Someone commented on YouTube that the tallest man on earth sold cover one of his songs (he was covering nick drake) so I went and listened to a few of his tracks. An authentic artist I would say
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not sure what you mean in the first part of what you are saying. Yes, he marched to the beat of a different drummer that’s for sure.
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Oh just that an artist called the ‘tallest man on earth’ was asked to cover one of Townes Van Zandt’s songs. So I went and had a listen to his music..
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Next time we get together. Pete and I will let ya know. You are in the club. Good stuff TT
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Okey Dokey!
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