For the Sake of a Song

By: Greg Mitchell Steve Earle once said he would jump on Bob Dylan's "coffee table" and proclaim that Townes Van Zandt was the greatest American songwriter of our age. Since Bob no doubt has armed bodyguards constantly on call, Steve might risk taking a bullet in his cowboy boots if he actually tried to do that (imagine how much Dylan can afford to spend on a coffee table), but I can appreciate the sentiment.

Louis Black, longtime editor of The Austin (Texas) Chronicle feels much the same way about Townes, but he has taken a safer and more productive path than the one proposed by Steve Earle, serving as a producer of an acclaimed new documentary about Van Zandt, and then putting a story about it on the cover of his newspaper, written by his wife.

Now, before we go any further, you may well be asking, who the hell is Townes Van Zandt?

The nutshell explanation: Cult, Texas songwriter who emerged in the late 1960s and passed away from too much "hard living" (don't ask) in 1997. Best known songs: "Pancho and Lefty," "If You Needed Me," "Be Here to Love Me," but author of a dozen even better ones, such as "For the Sake of a Song."

Sample lyric: "Won't you lend your lungs to me?/Mine are collapsing." Revered as a "songwriter's songwriter," his own records sold almost zilch. Electric shock therapy as a young man wiped out all of his childhood memories. Another sample lyric: "As brothers our troubles are/Locked in each other's arms."

To give you an idea of TVZ's standing (if in the shadows): When Lyle Lovett recorded his two-CD tribute to Texas songwriters, "Step Inside This House," a few years ago, the best four songs all belonged to Townes.

Given his low profile, it would be an understatement to say that the world was not exactly clamoring for a feature-length Townes Van Zandt film. Nevertheless, a young director and TVZ fan named Margaret Brown (her father wrote songs for Clint Eastwood movies, including the theme to "Every Which Way But Loose") took that gamble. Louis Black helped make it pay off.

Black, who hails from New Jersey, came to Austin more than 30 years ago, arriving in the heyday of the Cosmic Cowboy, Willie Nelson pot picnics, and the Armadillo World Headquarters. He'd never been all that impressed with Townes on vinyl (his records, indeed, are spotty and often poorly produced) but was blown away by his emotional intensity live, and was hooked for life. With his partner, Nick Barbaro, Black started the Austin Chronicle alt-weekly in 1981. Later they founded the still-influential SXSW (South by Southwest) music festival as well as the Austin Music Awards. Black is listed as editor and Barbaro publisher of the Chronicle but they do a lot of cross-work.

During this period Black got to know Townes a little bit, and had a typical reaction: "He was usually pretty fucked up but very friendly." He also "never saw him do a bad show, and I saw many amazing ones." One of his favorites songs was "Marie," called by Willie Nelson the saddest song he's ever heard. It includes the indelible line, "Maybe me and Marie can find a burned-out
van/and do a little settlin' down."

Black was also involved as a board member of the Austin Film Society, then headed by Richard Linklater, who first gained notice with "Slacker" and has gone on to make "Before Sunset" and other fine films. With Linklater, Black helped start the Texas Filmmakers Fund, which has since donated as much as half a million dollars to film makers and film teachers, among others.

About three years ago, Margaret Brown, now living in Austin, showed Black five minutes of footage she'd assembled from early interviews for her TVZ film. "I was knocked out by the film," Black tells me over the phone from Austin. He knew someone who wanted to fund a quality documentary. When Brown got a nice chunk of change from this fellow, she made Black executive producer, often a ceremonial position. But Black reports, "I've worked on the film every day since."

Now, for any of you who may want to follow the same path, Black testifies that he found that "every skill I had developed as an editor and publisher helped me." He knew a lot of people and the Chronicle, like most indy films, "never had a business plan or profit target." To this day he can't quite recall, or certainly explain, what he did for Brown, beyond fixing problems, breaking logjams, and pulling strings (producer/publisher stuff). He does remember looking at "innumerable" versions of the film and offering feedback.

Linklater's usual cinematographer Lee Daniels (now Brown's boyfriend) shot most of the flick. Among the interviewees: Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Emmylou Harris.

When the film, titled "Be Here to Love Me," was accepted at the Toronto Film Festival, Black called a friend who ran the alt-weekly there, which boosted the film. He had contacts in plenty of other places, too. One problem, however, was: "Some writers and reviewers felt awkward not knowing more about Townes already."

Black is now working on a book about the films of Jonathan Demme (who, like me, lives in Nyack, N.Y.) and is helping him with his current project about Neil Young. Shown a cut of the film, Demme flipped, blurbing it as a "triumph on the contemporary film front" and sponsoring a screening in New York attended by, among others, Steve (No Relation) Van Zandt and Suzanne Vega. Two other Black film friends, director John Sayles and his producer-wife Maggie Renzi, were also floored.

Talk about word of mouth! But as Black says, "relationships wouldn't have meant anything if the film hadn't been great and on a great topic."

The documentary debuted in Austin in early December with the Flatlanders playing the party. One attendee, Lyle Lovett, reportedly was amazed at how close the film -- which is more impressionistic than biographical -- reflected TVZ's bipolar ways and means. (It's Townes without pity.) The film opened in New York two weeks ago, has been hailed by The New York Times and The New Yorker among others, and last I looked was still getting a rare 100% "fresh" at Rottentomatoes.com.

If "Be here to Love Me" doesn't come to your town soon -- a good bet! -- look for the features-laden DVD coming in March.

As for the conflict of interest in Black using his paper to promote the film: "It wasn't me who suggested putting it on the cover. If the staff felt it was a conflict of interest, believe me, I would have heard about it. I felt that the fact I helped produce the film, which we were very open about, should not deprive it of the coverage we would have given it anyway -- as a local film that has gotten big national attention."

Back in the 1970s, Townes Van Zandt helped put my magazine, Crawdaddy, out of business. What I mean is, it was our devotion to oddball genius-obscurities like Townes that eventually doomed us in the marketplace. A couple of years ago, I was among a handful of New York fans who attended a night for Townes, in a club aptly located on the Bowery. Among those who played was Patti Smith's guitarist (and former Crawdaddy writer) Lenny Kaye. I got to meet Townes' wife, and both of his sons -- all featured in the film.

The evening was billed as a tribute to a poet, and indeed, TVZ is one of the few songwriters who may deserve the title. So, to close, a few lines from "High Low and In-Between," which appears in full at the close of the film. It's a song that captures TVZ's spirit achingly well with the lines, "The gold's no good for spending/and the poison's hungry...waiting":

All things in our life
Are brothers in the soil
And in the sky
I believe it with my blood
If not my eyes

I don?t know why
We can be brothers here
I know we should be
Answers don't seem easy
I'm wondering if they could be