Better than Dylan: Steve Earle’s tribute to songwriting giant
Townes Van Zandt was a mentor and inspiration to Steve Earle, another country singer who has battled more than his fair share of demons.
The singer-songwriter, behind a string of classics such as Copperhead Road and Guitar Town, once said: “Townes is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”
He has since admitted that may have been a little hyerbolic but remains a great champion of Van Zandt’s music. He is, however, unsentimental about his failure to win mainstream success.
“When somebody’s as good as Townes Van Zandt was and more people don’t know about it, it’s Townes’ fault,” said Earle. “For whatever reasons, he shot himself in the foot every chance he got. ”
Growing up with a singer-songwriter father in Alabama, filmmaker Margaret Brown thought that she had heard it all when it came to country music but when she heard one of Van Zandt’s songs for the first time, she was blown away.
“My room-mate played me Waitin’ Around To Die. Something about Van Zandt’s music really got to me in a very core, emotional way that’s hard to put into language, which is probably why I made a film about it,” she said.
Be Here To Love Me, Brown’s highly regarded documentary, traced Van Zandt’s turbulent life through interviews with his family, friends and contemporaries.
“When I started making the film, I didn’t quite realise what it meant to be an alcoholic or to have a disease like that and how it just destroys everyone around you. It’s really hard for me to separate his personality from his disease.
“The thing that spoke to me about Townes was: to be a real artist, do you have to get caught up in the idea of artistic purity and genius at the expense of people around you? I think the answer is no.”
Brown explained what she thought was Van Zandt’s legacy: “It’s his songwriting which has been the most influential and the craft in his lyrics.
“He was someone who felt things very deeply, and that’s where the songs came from. The first time I listened to his music was revelatory. It feels really personal, like he is singing directly to you. I can’t think of anyone today who is like him, that type of ‘fall on your sword’ musician.”