Townes Van Zandt: Writing in the dark

The Country and Folk Music legend Townes Van Zandt has earned constant praise from industry moguls like Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and even Bob Dylan for his unique songwriting talent, even after his death in 1997. Despite writing and performing for the better part of three decades, Townes’ lifestyle and personal choices never allowed him to fully gain status as a household name, and his popularity predominantly resided in the core of the folk music industry and other cultish music lovers. 

Although he was born in Texas, Townes' childhood was one of constant moving and unsettling, something that remained a large part of his identity throughout his writing career and adulthood. Townes was known to most as a rambler. Despite his genius with a pen and guitar and his relatively affluent upbringing, he had an undeniable infatuation with what he would describe as ‘hard livin’. This entailed intermittent couchsurfing, deep bouts with depression, a variety of unstable romantic relationships, and unrelenting cycles of addiction(namely alcohol, cocaine, and prescription medications). Despite his apparently hazardous lifestyle choices, Townes seemed to thrive as a creative in a novel way. My favorite, and a folk classic of Townes’ discography, is his 1969 album, self-titled Townes Van Zandt. On songs like Waiting Around to Die and Lungs, Townes struggles with the concept of death and being slowly weakened by the weight of life. This album delves deep into the struggles of Towne’s life, all while maintaining some of the most intricate wordplay and storytelling in folk music history. 

Quicksilver Daydreams - Townes Van Zandt

A documentary on his life highlights a story from Van Zandt’s 3rd grade classroom where the teacher was discussing stars, and told the class that all stars, including the sun, will burn out. As a curious young child, he asked the teacher, “If the sun is gonna burn out, then what are we doing here?”. Unfortunately, the teachers' various answers were insufficient in calming his troubling existential questions. To me, this sort of playful yet truly existential story perfectly encapsulates Townes’ personality and is part of what sets his writing style apart from other creatives in the industry. As an artist and in life, he seemed extremely comfortable confronting the darker questions. His son described him in a documentary as “Happiest when he was most unhappy”. His personality and writing style give his music a somber yet comforting feel and illustrate the beauty in sadness that Townes could see. He also communicates this in his fantastical approach to dark storytelling in songs like Poncho and Lefty, a made-up story about an outlaw named Lefty who betrays his closest companion Poncho. The song details Lefty’s painful life after living with his decision, and it's clear Townes sees some of himself in Lefty, who “Wears his skin like iron” and whose “Breath’s as hard as kerosene”. While very dark in subject matter, this song can evoke some of the most vivid and beautiful imagery for the listener. In the book faith, hope, and carnage artist Nick Cave seems to notice a similar relationship between beauty and sorrow and how they interact in his music in the book Faith, Hope, and Carnage. Both artists take inspiration from and often invoke very dark or haunting narratives and imagery in their songs, but they also see these as some of their most powerful works. Townes’ fandom as a whole seems to recognize that the ugly and painful in life can often produce some of the songs most worth hearing. 

During an interview, Townes emphasized the role of the subconscious in his creative process, sometimes even waking from his sleep with vivid mental images that seemed to long for explanation through song. Close friend and fellow musician Guy Clark details this sort of lucid subconscious approach to writing through a story of when Townes had a terrible case of the flu. In between fever dreams, he would wake up seemingly possessed by the idea for a new narrative, urging him to write down 4-5 verses at a time and pass back out. In psychology, we call this phenomenon insight, where an idea or connection pops into the mind seemingly out of nowhere and demands the attention of the creative. The songwriter commented about this style of idea generation in interviews, describing himself as a medium for subconscious ideas that hardly seemed like his own. This process manifested in songs like “(Quicksilver daydreams of) Maria,” which seem to transport the listener into a fantastical dreamstate while simultaneously feeling like a real story about the creator himself. 

His work, though often defined by sorrow, lives on as some of the best folk music to come from his generation.