Happy weekend!
Long gone are the days when I could sleep in late. I fell asleep sitting in my recliner last night, crawled into bed around 3:30 am, and then woke up with restless legs around 5:30 am with this song in my head. Stella T. Dog is up with me and she's resting her head on my leg as I type this, begging me to just pay attention to her instead of writing about some dumb song.
This is a song that is as beautiful as it is sad and it's written by a man that some people say is the best songwriter who ever lived. Personally, I say that's subjective and there's really no way to gauge who is the "best" at art. Experts can try, but experts usually know too much for their own good.
This song, much like the life of the songwriter who wrote it, starts off sort of hopeful and ends with a sad death. In the beginning of the song, Townes sings about a woman who goes by the name of Caroline, that's she's the daughter of a miner, and that it seemed like sunshine walked beside her. That sounds pretty hopeful and normal.
By the middle of the song, things weren't going well, and she'd turned the prostitution. By the end, she was dead beneath some stairs with a note in her hand.
In her hand when she died was a note that cried "fare thee well, Tecumseh Valley."
Early in Townes Van Zandt's career, he was an exceptionally good guitar player and his voice was pretty strong. Later in his career, his guitar playing was hit-or-miss, as he struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction. It's a sad story, but I think everyone has their place in this world, and his may have been to live a short, sad life and turn it into beautiful music to be enjoyed by those of us stuck on this rock after he left it. He basically slowly drank himself to death and died on New Years Day in 1997. I do remember hearing the news on MTV, which was something I actually watched in 1997.
There are many recordings of this song and it was hard to pick which one to use for this post, but I went with this one because it's got more instrumentation and might be more interesting to someone who doesn't like this kind of music than just a performance of only guitar and vocals. Those are good as well, though.
Actually, fuck it. Here's another great one:
Let's just go nuts now. This is a performance I watched a while back that stuck with me. This guy is good:
Lately, I've been on a bit of a Townes Van Zandt kick, so it is not at all surprising that I woke up with this song in my head. It's kind of always hanging around back there. I'm always whistling his song "Pancho and Lefty" while I'm walking around at work.
This post is part of an ongoing series in which I document the songs which are in my head immediately upon waking. I've been making them for a long time now.
Do you wake up with songs in your head on a regular basis? What song was in your head this morning? Comment below, I'd love to hear from you!
The list so far
| # | Artist | Song |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auli'i Cravalho | How Far I'll Go |
| 2 | Huey Lewis and the News | The Power of Love |
| 3 | Metallica | Sad But True |
| 4 | Metallica | Nothing Else Matters |
| 5 | Metallica | Wherever I May Roam |
| 6 | the pAper chAse | I Did a Terrible Thing |
| 7 | Metallica | Sad But True (Repeat) |
| 8 | Limbeck | Honk + Wave |
| 9 | AC/DC | Back in Black |
| 10 | Patsy Cline | Back in Baby's Arms |
| 11 | The Heligoats | Florida Panther |
| 12 | Patsy Cline | Walkin' After Midnight |
| 13 | Lord Huron | Until the Night Turns |
| 14 | Richard Edwards | Gene |
| 15 | Built to Spill | You Were Right |
| 16 | Richard Edwards | Olive Oyl |
| 17 | Frank Ocean | Sierra Leon |
| 18 | The Thermals | Back to Gray |
| 19 | Pedro The Lion | When They Really Get to Know You, They Will Run |
| 20 | Limbeck | Trouble |
| 21 | All Them Witches | Internet |
| 22 | Pedro The Lion | Keep Swinging |
| 22 | Father John Misty | Please Don't Die |
| 23 | Black Sabbath | Fairies Wear Boots |
| 24 | Father John Misty | Total Entertainment Forever |
| 25 | Cardi B | Best Life |
| 26 | All Them Witches | Call Me Star |
| 27 | Black Sabbath | Sabbath Bloody Sabbath |
| 28 | The Doors | Light My Fire |
| 29 | Al Green | Can't Get Next To You |
| 30 | Guns n' Roses | Civil War |
| 31 | Atlanta Rhythm Section | Spooky |
| 32 | Against Me! | Sink Florida Sink |
| 33 | Paula Abdul | Straight Up |
| 34 | Seals and Croft | Get Closer |
| 35 | Black Mountain | Mothers of the Sun |
| 36 | Hum | The Scientists |
| 37 | The Black Angels | Currency |
| 38 | Spiritualized | Here It Comes (The Road) Let's Go |
| 39 | Guns n' Roses | November Rain |
| 40 | Chris Staples | Times Square |
| 41 | The Get Up Kids | Ten Minutes |
| 42 | Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats | Death's Door |
| 43 | The Roots featuring Erykah Badu | You Got Me |
| 44 | Daryl Hall & John Oates | Rich Girl |
| 45 | The Lemonheads | It's All True |
| 46 | The Snake The Cross The Crown | The Great American Smokeout |
| 47 | Every Time I Die | Map Change |
| 48 | Iron Maiden | The Number of the Beast |
| 49 | Kevin DeVine | Heaven Bound and Glory Be |
| 50 | Wilco | Random Name Generator |
| 51 | Kanye West | All of the Lights |
| 52 | Terrence and Phillip (South Park) | Uncle Fucker |
| 53 | Alice in Chains | Angry Chair |
| 54 | Sturgill Simpson | Keep It Between The Lines |
| 55 | The War on Drugs | Holding On |
| 56 | Nine Inch Nails | Head Like a Hole |
| 57 | Jawbox | Empire of One |
| 58 | Alice in Chains | Rain When I Die |
| 59 | The Snake The Cross The Crown | Cotton Teeth |
| 60 | Crumb | Locket |
| 61 | Chad VanGaalen | Monster |
| 62 | Pedro The Lion | Clean up |
| 63 | The Mars Volta | The Widow |
| 64 | Magnolia Electric Company | Montgomery |
| 65 | The National | Runaway |
| 66 | Mac Miller | Circles |
| 67 | Bright Eyes | Make War |
| 68 | Mac Miller | Good News |
| 69 | Ryan Adams | Chains of Love |
| 70 | Oasis | Don't Look Back in Anger |
| 71 | R. Kelly | Ignition (Remix) |
| 72 | Ryan Adams | Rocks |
| 73 | Mount Eerie | Real Death |
| 74 | Better Living Community Center | Service Road |
| 75 | Lucy Dacus | Strange Torpedo |
| 76 | Wilco | Wishful Thinking |
| 77 | Limbeck | Making the Rounds |
| 78 | The Get Up Kids | Second Place |
| 79 | Shiner | Spinning |
| 80 | Shiner | Glass Jaw Test |
| 81 | Bright Eyes | Hot Knives |
| 82 | Satan (South Park) | I Want to Live Up There |
| 83 | R.E.M. | It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) |
| 84 | Owen | I'm Not Going Anywhere Tonight |
| 85 | The Posies | Solar Sister |
| 86 | The Gloria Record | Good Morning, Providence |
| 87 | Pulp | Pencil Skirt |
| 88 | Phoebe Bridgers | Kyoto |
| 89 | Baroness | Kerosene |
| 90 | Okkervil River | No Key, No Plan |
| 91 | Johnny Cash | Give My Love to Rose |
| 92 | Sierra Ferrell | In Dreams |
| 93 | Clem Snide | Exercise |
| 94 | Townes Van Zandt | Tecumseh Valley |