Townes Van Zandt non ha mai inventato nulla.
E' il miniatore che porta avanti lievemente il lavoro di stirpi di suoi confratelli, il cercatore d'oro che insiste nello strappare alla terra gli ultimi brandelli di estinti metalli preziosi.
Ma è anche un miniatore eretico, votato a quel dio demoniaco che vende canzoni eterne comprate a prezzo della vita stessa. E, come cercatore d'oro, non ha il pragmatismo di chi non ha trovato la ricchezza ma non ha perduto la possibilità di sorridere e camminare sulla terra; reso cieco e quasi folle, abbandonato nella sua capanna, continua a sognare fiumi le cui sabbie sono d'oro, piombo, sangue, teschi e tibie sofferenti.
Gli attrezzi del mestiere sono sempre quelli consueti: un fiume di ispirazione dalla cui sorgente si distingue, nella bruma, la foce; un piccone a sei corde con cui estrarre sogni perduti, amori bruciati troppo in fretta o lasciati troppo a lungo ad infettare l'anima; e pianoforti con denti sani e denti tartarei, chitarre slide semi ubriache che scivolano piangenti come narratori degli spiriti di amanti lontani, fiddles discreti e solitari o riuniti in violenti eserciti.
Le canzoni di Townes hanno la capacità rara di consolare gli afflitti, pur nella loro assoluta assenza di speranza ("Well, many of the songs, they aren't sad, they're hopeless"); la loro forza è la stessa delle valli all'iniziare dell'inverno: la ricerca di una forma di bellezza difficile da vedere, sepolta tra foglie che si rincorrono tra i crepacci e nascosta nelle ossa di cerbiatti che riposano dopo la sventura, può solo portare a voler limare via il superfluo, a lavorare l'anima come una selce e privarla della troppa pietra, della troppa difficoltà di amare, della troppa ignobile miseria spirituale.
Con "The Late Great Townes Van Zandt" Townes ha lasciato almeno tre canzoni immense. "Snow Don't Fall", ballata sulla morte di una donna amata, intrisa di lacrime nella sua sincerità straziante; "Pancho and Lefty", dove all'antica amicizia tra due fuorilegge si mescola il tradimento, narrato però con pietà e delicatezza, senza l'arroganza del feroce inquisitore moralista; si intravede, discosto ma ben chiaro, il rapporto di asimmetrica amicizia tra Townes e Steve Earle e le due strade che poi si trovarono a percorrere: successo e fama per Earle, disperazione, povertà, alcolismo, solitudine ed intransigente dedizione alla musica per Townes.
Ed infine "Silver Ships Of Andilar", contraltare perfetto di "Snow Don't Fall": mentre quest'ultima, intima poesia, è basata su poche parole e sul rapporto tra due amanti separati dalla tomba, "Silver Ships Of Andilar" è una canzone di epico respiro collettivo, simile a "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" nell'impianto letterale e alle epopee sovietiche di Mario Rigoni Stern per quanto riguarda l'argomento.
"Her eyes did laugh
Her lips did sing
Her legs did roll
My soul to bring
Her hair did curl
And her thoughts unfurled
Like birds upon
The wings of spring"
( da Snow Don't Fall)
Un poeta dalle mani trafitte, un artigiano con l'anima sparsa di schegge di doloroso legno, un minatore che paga con la vita il tentativo di riportarsi in vita: Townes Van Zandt.
Fort Worth, 7 marzo 1944 - 1 gennaio 1997
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 No Lonesome Tune (04:21)
I ain't gonna sing no lonesome tune
Ah, babe, I'm a-commin' soon
I cannot believe I stayed so long away
But a man must look around
And you're the sweetest thing I've found
Your lost high roller's rollin' home today
My daddy said to me
son, it's hard as you will see
To find someone upon whom to rely
In the kitchen mama sneezed
And he grinned big as you please
Said bless you and a tear come to his eye
I did decide that very day
That I would like to live that way
And now I know I just been wastin' time
It's with you that I should be
If you feel the same 'bout me
I'm headed home along the straightest line
02 Sad Cinderella (04:15)
By townes van zandt
When the bandits have stolen your jewelry and gone
And your crippled young gypsy, he's grown tall and strong
And your dead misconceptions have proven you wrong
Well then, princess, where you plannin' to turn to?
When your magazine memory has spun you around
And you realize your lovers were just painted clowns
And outside your window you start hearing sounds
Where they're building a cross for to burn you
When all your bright scarlet turn slowly to blue
Will you stop and decide that it's over?
When your teardrops go sour and no longer fall
The splash cross the virgin that lives down your hall
And spends all her nights with an ear to your wall
Well then, what will you have you can offer?
When the firedancers finish and leave you alone
With nothing but embers and sacks full of stone
That hang round your neck, slicing through to the bone
Will there still be place for your laughter?
As your shattered illusions come a-tumblin' home
And all of the butchers you've nourished have grown
And they are suddenly able to leave you alone
And they run like slaves that are set free
When your questions are answered and your pleading is done
And your mind starts to screaming that you ain't the one
That once dwelled within you, will you turn, will you run
Then princess, will you come home and get me?
05 Honky Tonkin' (03:44)
Well if your baby leaves you,
And you got no place to go,
Come and see me darlin',
And bring along some dough.
(Chorus)
And we'll go honky tonkin, honky tonkin
Honky tonkin, honky tonkin
We'll go honkin tonkin 'round this town.
If you and your old man,
Have a fallin' out,
Well you come and see me darlin,
And we'll go steppin' out.
(chorus)
I'm headin' out to the city,
To the city fair,
If you wanna do the boogie babe,
You can meet me there.
(chorus) x2
06 Snow Don't Fall (02:27)
By townes van zandt
Snow don't fall
On summers time
Wind don't blow
Below the sea
My loves lies
'neath frozen skies
And waits in sweet
Repose for me
Her eyes did laugh
Her lips did sing
Her legs did roll
My soul to bring
Her hair did curl
And her thoughts unfurled
Like birds upon
The wings of spring
My love I need not see
To know she cast her glance at me
Snow don't fall
On summers time
Wind don't blow
Below the sea
My loves lies
'neath frozen skies
And waits in sweet
Repose for me
07 Fraulein (02:42)
Far across the blue water lives an old german's daughter
By the banks of the old river rhine
Where i loved her and left her but i can't forget her
I miss my pretty fraulein
Fraulein, fraulein, look up toward the heavens
Each night when the starts start to shine
By the same stars above you, i swear that i love you
You are my pretty fraulein
<instrumental interlude-"country fiddle">
When my memories wander a-way over yonder
To the sweetheart that i left behind
In a moment of glory a face comes before me
The face of my pretty fraulein
Fraulein, fraulein, walk down by the river
Pretend that your hand's holdin' mine
By the same stars above you i swear that i love you
You are my pretty fraulein
08 Pancho & Lefty (03:40)
Living on the road my friend,
Is gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron,
Your breath as hard as kerosene.
You weren't your mama's only boy,
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye,
And sank into your dreams.
Pancho was a bandit boy,
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel.
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words,
Ah but that's the way it goes.
All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose.
Lefty, he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to.
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low,
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go,
There ain't nobody knows
The poets tell how Pancho fell,
And Lefty's living in cheap hotels
The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold,
And so the story ends we're told
Pancho needs your prayers it's true,
But save a few for lefty too
He only did what he had to do,
And now he's growing old
09 If I Needed You (03:44)
By townes van zandt
If I needed you
Would you come to me,
Would you come to me,
And ease my pain?
If you needed me
I would come to you
I'd swim the seas
For to ease your pain
In the night forlorn
The morning's born
And the morning shines
With the lights of love
You will miss sunrise
If you close your eyes
That would break
My heart in two
The lady's with me now
Since I showed her how
To lay her lily
Hand in mine
Loop and Lil agree
She's a sight to see
And a treasure for
The poor to find
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