In 1983, six years after Emmylou Harris had first popularized it, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered his song "Pancho and Lefty", reaching number one on the Billboard country music chart. Much of Van Zandt’s life was spent touring various dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms and backwoods cabins. For much of the 1970s, he lived in a simple shack without electricity or a phone.
His influence has been cited by countless artists across multiple genres, and his music has been recorded or performed by numerous artists, including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, The Counting Crows, Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen Jr., Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Wade Bowen, Gillian Welch, Pat Green and Natalie Maines.
He suffered from a series of drug addictions, alcoholism, and was given a psychiatric diagnosis of bipolar disorder. When he was young, the now-discredited insulin shock therapy erased much of his long-term memory.
Van Zandt died on New Years Day 1997 from cardiac arrythmia caused by health problems stemming from years of substance abuse. A revival of interest in Van Zandt occurred in the 2000s. During the decade, two books, a documentary film (Be Here to Love Me), and numerous magazine articles about the singer were written.
Born in Fort Worth into a wealthy family, Van Zandt was a third-great-grandson of Isaac Van Zandt (a prominent leader of the Republic of Texas) and a second great-nephew of Khleber Miller Van Zandt (a major in the Confederate army and one of the founders of Fort Worth). Van Zandt County in east Texas was named after his family in 1848.
Townes's parents were Harris Williams Van Zandt (1913–1966) and Dorothy Townes (1919–1983). He had two siblings, Bill and Donna (1941–2011). Harris was a corporate lawyer, and his career required the family to move several times during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1952, the family transplanted from Fort Worth to Midland, Texas, for six months before moving to Billings, Montana.
At Christmas in 1956, Townes's father gave him a guitar, which he practiced while wandering the countryside. He would later tell an interviewer that "watching Elvis Presley's October 28, 1956, performance on The Ed Sullivan Show was the starting point for me becoming a guitar player... I just thought that Elvis had all the money in the world, all the Cadillacs and all the girls, and all he did was play the guitar and sing. That made a big impression on me." In 1958 the family moved to Boulder, Colorado. Van Zandt would remember his time in Colorado fondly and would often visit it as an adult. He would later refer to Colorado in "My Proud Mountains", "Colorado Girl", and "Snowin' on Raton". Townes was a good student and active in team sports. In grade school, he received a high IQ score, and his parents began grooming him to become a lawyer or senator. Fearing that his family would move again, he willingly decided to attend the Shattuck School, in Faribault, Minnesota. He received a score of 1170 when he took the SAT in January 1962. His family soon moved to Houston, Texas.
The University of Colorado at Boulder accepted Van Zandt as a student in 1962. In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, apparently worried about his binge drinking and episodes of depression. They admitted him to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he was diagnosed with manic depression. He received three months of insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory. Afterwards, his mother claimed her "biggest regret in life was that she had allowed that treatment to occur". In 1965, he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program. Soon after he attempted to join the Air Force, but was rejected because of a doctor's diagnosis that labelled him "an acute manic-depressive who has made minimal adjustments to life". He quit school around 1967, having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music.
Van Zandt was addicted to heroin and alcohol throughout his adult life. At times he would become drunk on stage and forget the lyrics to his songs. At one point, his heroin habit was so intense that he offered Kevin Eggers the publishing rights to all of the songs on each of his first four albums for $20. At various points, his friends saw him shoot up not just heroin, but also cocaine, vodka, as well as a mixture of rum and Coke. On at least one occasion, he shot up heroin in the presence of his son J.T., who was only eight years old at the time.
As a result of Van Zandt's constant drinking, Harold Eggers, Kevin's brother, was hired on as his tour manager and 24-hour caretaker in 1976, a partnership that would last for the rest of the singer's life. Although the musician was many years older than he was, Eggers would later say that Van Zandt was his "first child." His battles with addiction led him to be admitted to rehab almost a dozen times throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Medical records from his time in recovery centers show that he believed his drinking had become a problem around 1973, and by 1982 he was drinking at least a pint of vodka daily. Doctors' notes reported: "He admits to hearing voices, mostly musical voices", and "Affect is blunted and mood is sad. Judgment and insight is impaired." At various points in his life, he was prescribed to take the antidepressant Zoloft and the mood stabilizer lithium. His final and longest period of sobriety during his adult life was a period of about a year in 1989 and 1990.
Van Zandt has been referred to as a cult musician and "a songwriter's songwriter." Musician Steve Earle, who met him in 1978 and considered Van Zandt a mentor, once called Van Zandt "the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that." The quote was printed on a sticker featured on the packing of At My Window, much to Van Zandt's displeasure. In the years following, the quote was often cited by the press, much to Van Zandt and Earle's embarrassment; in 2009, Earle told the New York Times, "Did I ever believe that Townes was better than Bob Dylan? No." But he concluded at the end of the same article that, "As a songwriter, you won't find anybody better." Earle has championed the songwriter on a number of occasions: his eldest son, Justin Townes Earle, also a musician, is named after Van Zandt. Earle wrote the song "Fort Worth Blues" as a tribute to the singer in the late 1990s, and in 2009 released an album titled Townes, which featured all covers of Van Zandt songs.
His Texas-grounded impact stretched farther than country. He has been cited as a source of inspiration by such notable artists as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Guthrie Thomas, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Chelsea Wolfe, Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, Cowboy Junkies, Vetiver, Guy Clark, Devendra Banhart, Norah Jones, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, The Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland, Rowland S. Howard, Michael Weston King, Josh Ritter, Gillian Welch, Garth Brooks, Simon Joyner, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon, Laura Marling, Andrew Adkins and Frank Turner. Folk musician Shakey Graves has credited his fast-paced, rhythmic style of finger picked guitar playing partially to Van Zandt's influence.
In 1994, Israeli singer David Broza performed with Van Zandt during a Writers in the Round concert in Houston. When Van Zandt died, he left a shoe box full of unreleased poems and lyrics with a request that Broza set them to music. The resulting album was Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt.
In 2012, Van Zandt was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In July 2012, Neurot Recordings released a three-way split album in tribute to Van Zandt, featuring Neurosis singer/guitarists Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till and doom/stoner metal legend Scott "Wino" Weinrich.
On June 18, 2015, Van Zandt was inducted into the second year's ceremony of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, along with Asleep at the Wheel, Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark and Flaco Jimenez. Gillian Welch inducted Van Zandt by telling stories about how he had come to her early gigs in Nashville and how he had bolstered her confidence in writing sad songs.
Sad Cinderella
Townes Van Zandt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
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?
In "Sad Cinderella" by Townes Van Zandt, the lyrics are a melancholic reflection on life and its challenges. The song paints a picture of a woman who seems to have it all, but her riches and lovers are not enough to fill the void inside her. The song begins with an image of a princess whose jewelry has been stolen, and the people who have promised to love her have turned out to be clowns. The princess is left alone and vulnerable, and a cross is being built to burn her.
As the song progresses, the lyrics become more introspective, delving into the emotional turmoil that the princess experiences. The cheerful facade that she has put on crumbles, and she is left with a sense of emptiness. The chorus of the song asks the princess if she will stop and decide that it's all over when her bright scarlet turns slowly to blue. The song ends with a plea to the princess to come home and find solace in the person singing.
The song is a reflection of the darker side of human emotions and the struggles that people go through in their lives. The lyrics of the song are thought-provoking, and they resonate with people who feel like they are lost or alone. It's an introspective look at the human psyche, its fragility, and the hope for redemption.
Line by Line Meaning
When the bandits have stolen your jewelry and gone
Once everything you thought of value has been taken from you, what will you do?
and your crippled young gypsy, he's grown tall and strong
Despite your past hardships, things have changed for the better and those who suffered in the past have gained strength.
and your dead misconceptions have proven you wrong
Your previous beliefs have all come crashing down and you've realized how wrong you were.
well then, princess, where you plannin' to turn to?
With everything you believed in falling apart, where will you seek guidance going forward?
when your magazine memory has spun you around
When your perception of your past experiences feels distorted like memories in an old magazine.
and you realize your lovers were just painted clowns
Your past relationships were shallow and artificial – like clowns painted to appear happy and fun on the surface.
and outside your window you start hearing sounds
You become aware of the real world and its dangers that you were previously ignorant of.
where they're building a cross for to burn you
You become aware of the danger you face and the consequences you could suffer for your mistakes.
when all your bright scarlet turn slowly to blue
As things start to go wrong and your life begins to unravel, your once bright and hopeful outlook slowly starts to fade.
will you stop and decide that it's over?
You will face a moment of reckoning to decide if you give up and accept defeat or keep fighting to regain control of your life.
When your teardrops go sour and no longer fall
When you become so numb to your emotions that you can no longer cry, even in sadness.
the splash cross the virgin that lives down your hall
The embodiment of purity and innocence nearby who you can no longer connect with due to the darkness you feel within.
and spends all her nights with an ear to your wall
Someone who is trying to understand and support you even though you feel alone and isolated.
well then, what will you have you can offer?
If you have nothing to give or offer in return, how can you expect to receive support from those around you?
When the firedancers finish and leave you alone
When those who once entertained you leave and you are left with nothing but emptiness and silence.
with nothing but embers and sacks full of stone
You are left with only memories – some that still burn with passion, while others weigh you down like stones.
that hang round your neck, slicing through to the bone
The weight of your past mistakes and regrets is heavy and painful to bear.
will there still be place for your laughter?
Is there still room in your life for joy and happiness, or have you become so consumed by darkness that it has consumed you completely?
As your shattered illusions come a-tumblin' home
The realization that your previous beliefs and hopes were all illusions, and that they are now coming crashing down around you.
and all of the butchers you've nourished have grown
Those you helped and supported before are now flourishing, while you are left behind struggling.
and they are suddenly able to leave you alone
Those who once needed your help no longer require it and have moved on, leaving you to pick up the pieces.
and they run like slaves that are set free
Those who you once helped and provided for are now free to leave and explore their own opportunities, much like slaves who gain freedom.
when your questions are answered and your pleading is done
Once you have found the answers to your questions and no longer need to beg for help from others.
and your mind starts to screaming that you ain't the one
You begin to feel like an imposter and that you don't deserve the help or opportunities the world has given you.
that once dwelled within you, will you turn, will you run
Will you abandon your old self and start anew, or will you fall back into the same patterns and mistakes?
Then princess, will you come home and get me?
Finally, the singer reaches out to someone they care about, asking them to come back and help them through a difficult time.
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Written by: John Townes Van Zandt
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@meowmeow-cr5sn
This is the most beautiful song
@etbase1293
Hehe kitty meow meow
@michaelwilliamson7276
@@etbase1293 meow is the Thai word for cat.