A Deeper Blue (42 page)

18. Quoted in Hall, “The Great, Late Townes Van Zandt.”

19. Luke Sharpe interview.

20. Academic transcripts and records for Townes Van Zandt, Shattuck School, 1960–61 and 1961–1962.

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A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt
21. Bill Van Zandt, author’s interview. According to Townes’ Student Activity Record at Shattuck, the name of the play where he made his one and only dramatic appearance was “Down in the Valley,” part of the Winter Carnival Folk Opera.

22. What Froker remembers as “Train I Ride” was probably “Mystery Train,” which Townes would have known from Elvis’s recording on Sun Records.

23. Townes told this story to a doctor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where it was reported in the Discharge Summary for Mr.

Townes Van Zandt, 1964.

Chapter 4

1. Quoted in
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15.

2. Townes recounted this story of his “false start” to his doctor in 1964, who recorded it in his records: Medical records for Mr. Townes Van Zandt, University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals (UTMB).

3. William Hedgepeth, “Townes Van Zandt—Messages from the Outside,”
Hittin’ the Note
, May 1977.

4. All quotes from Bob Myrick are from the author’s interview, February 12, 2001.

5. Academic transcripts for John Townes Van Zandt, University of Colorado, Spring Semester 1962–1963.

6. Luke Sharpe, author’s interview.

7. All quotes from Fran (Petters) Lohr in this chapter are from the author’s interviews, March 29, 2000; January 5, 2001; and January 12, 2002.

8. Some of Townes’ other early talking blues songs were “Talking Karate Blues,” “Talking Birth Control Blues,” “Talking Thunderbird Blues,”

and the unrecorded “Talking Burial Blues” and “Talking Eight Day Beauty Plan.” Similar, although not in the “talking” blues form, was his early “Mustang Blues.”

9. Bill Van Zandt, author’s interview.

10. Tom Barrow, a fascinating character, died in 2000 after a long battle with cancer. A native of Billings, Montana, he had a long career as a world-class balloonist. “I like the idea of going where the wind takes you,” Barrow said in an interview in
Balloon Life
, 1997.

11. Donna Spence, author’s interview.

12. Medical records for Mr. Townes Van Zandt, UTMB.

Chapter 5

1. Grace K. Jameson, M.D., “A Brief History, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,” UTMB, 2001.

2. Quotes from Dr. Grace Jameson are from the author’s interview, January 3, 2002, and from a transcript of Dr. Jameson’s speech, “A Brief History, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,” UTMB, 2001.

Endnotes

275

3. Dr. Charles Gaston, Psychological Reports for Mr. Townes Van Zandt, March 23, 1964, UTMB medical records.

4. A diagnosis of “acute schizophrenia and manic-depression” has been widely reported as the reason for Townes’ hospitalization; this is the diagnosis recalled by Fran Lohr in the author’s interviews. The diagnosis has been reported elsewhere as “manic-depression with schizophrenic tendencies,” which is most likely a later interpretation of Ms. Lohr’s recollection of the diagnosis.

5. Frank “Chito” Greer, interview by the author, September 1, 2001.

6. Sources for the discussion of manic-depressive illness, alcoholism, and the relation of both to creativity include Kay Redfield Jamison,
Touched
with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
(New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1993); Charles L. Bowden, MD, “Update on Bipolar Disorder: Epidemiology, Etiology, Diagnosis, and Prognosis”

(University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio); www.nimh.

nih.gov/publicat/bipolar.cfm; www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcoholism/

DS00340; and
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 1994) (DSM-IV).

7. University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals Discharge Summary for Mr. Townes Van Zandt, 1964.

Chapter 6

1. All quotes from Fran Lohr are from the author’s interviews, March 29, 2000; January 5, 2001; and January 12, 2002.

2. All quotes from Dr. Grace Jameson are from the author’s interview, January 3, 2002.

3. Academic transcript for John Townes Van Zandt, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, spring 1965 – fall 1966.

4. Bianca DeLeon, author’s interview, April 20, 2000.

5. All quotes from Bob Myrick are from the author’s interview, February 12, 2001.

6. The practice of assigning a different order of call based on marital status ended in 1973.

7. All quotes from John Carrick are from the author’s interview, August 17, 2000.

8. “Townes Van Zandt,”
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15.

9. Ibid.

10. All quotes from John Lomax III are from the author’s interview, April 21, 2001.

11. Larry Monroe, prod.,
Documentary: Townes Van Zandt
.

12. All quotes from Rex Bell are from the author’s interview, January 2, 2002.

13. All quotes from Guy Clark are from the author’s interview, January 8, 2000.

14. Darryl Harris, interview by the author, January 7, 2002.

15. “Townes Van Zandt,”
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15.

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A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt
16. Available for years as a bootleg, this recording was released in 2004

on the German label Normal Records as
Live at the Jester Lounge: Houston, Texas 1966.
For some reason, the order of the songs on this release was altered from the original performance; the original order is cited here. The 1966 date cited on the Normal release is almost certainly incorrect.

17. In Hall,
Texas Monthly,
March 1998, Fran recalls the doctors “calling him ‘an acute manic-depressive who has made minimal adjustments to life.’”

Chapter 7

1. All quotes from Mickey Newbury are from the author’s interviews, May 4, 2000, and July 10, 2000.

2. Townes Van Zandt, interview with Larry Monroe, KUT radio, March 1990.

3. All quotes from Jack Clement are from the author’s interview, June 19, 2002.

4. From Tomato Records press release, March 2002.

5. Mickey Newbury, liner notes,
For the Sake of the Song
(Poppy, 1968).

6. Townes Van Zandt, quoted in “Space Cowboy: Townes Van Zandt,”

by Robert Greenfield,
Fusion
, no. 30, April 3, 1970.

7. Bianca DeLeon, author’s interviews, April 20, 2000, and January 10, 2001.

8. Townes Van Zandt, quoted in Greenfield, “Space Cowboy.”

9. Emmylou Harris was in the audience at Gerde’s one of these nights.

“I had never really seen anything like that before,” she said during the 1998
Austin City Limits
tribute to Van Zandt; “I thought he was the ghost of Hank Williams, with a twist.”

10. Quoted in Greenfield, “Space Cowboy.”

11. Van Zandt’s other co-writes include “Gone, Gone Blues” with Mickey White, “Heavenly Houseboat Blues” and a song called “Sapphire”

with Susanna Clark, “German Mustard” and a song called “Blood-stream” with Rocky Hill, a song called “The Pining I Keep for You”

with Royann Calvin, and four songs with Eric Andersen, written in the late eighties and beautifully recorded by Andersen on
You Can’t
Relive the Past
in 2000: “The Meadowlark,” “The Road,” “Night Train,”

and “The Blue March.”

12. All quotes from Rex Bell are from the author’s interview, January 2, 2002.

13. Vince Bell, “Remembering the Old Quarter,”
Vince Bell’s Journals:
Out Here on the Edge of the Desert
, no. 4, March 17, 1997, www.mind spring.com/~vincebell/edge04.htm.

14. Vince Bell, interview by the author, February 14, 2001.

15. Dale Soffar, interview by the author, January 5, 2002.

16. A recording of Townes’ performance at Carnegie Hall was released in 2002 on the Dualtone label as
A Gentle Evening with Townes Van
Zandt
.

Endnotes

277

17. According to Bob Myrick, Townes appeared once on Steve Allen’s TV

show and felt that Allen had been cavalier and somewhat abusive, joking dismissively after Townes mentioned that his music received airplay mostly on “underground” radio stations.

Chapter 8

1. All quotes from Susanna Clark are from the author’s interview, March 28, 2002.

2. All quotes from Fran Lohr are from the author’s interviews, March 29, 2000; January 5, 2001; and January 12, 2002.

3. Bianca DeLeon, author’s interviews.

4. Lyse Moore, interview by the author, April 23, 2001.

5. Jack Clement, author’s interview.

6. All quotes from Mickey White are from the author’s interview, August 12, 2001.

7. All quotes from Rex Bell are from the author’s interview, January 2, 2002.

8. Bob Fass radio show, WBAI-FM, New York City, October 20, 1970.

9. Bob Myrick, author’s interview.

Chapter 9

1. Zollo,
Songwriters on Songwriting
.

2. All quotes from Rex Bell are from the author’s interview, January 2, 2002.

3. All quotes from Mickey White are from the author’s interview, August 12, 2001.

4. All quotes from Dale Soffar are from the author’s interview, January 5, 2002.

5. All quotes from Susanna Clark are from the author’s interview, March 28, 2002.

6. Zollo,
Songwriters on Songwriting
.

7. Ibid.

8. All quotes from Bianca DeLeon are from the author’s interviews.

9. Richard Dobson, interview by the author, May 10, 2000.

10. “Townes Van Zandt,”
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15.

11. Zollo,
Songwriters on Songwriting
.

12. From “Gibby Haynes vs Willie Nelson”: http://ngro_obsrvr.tripod.

com/articles/gibbyvswillie.html.

13. “Townes Van Zandt,”
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15.

14. Richard Dobson,
The Gulf Coast Boys
(Bryan, Texas: Greater Texas Publishing Company, 1998).

15.
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Townes Van Zandt, interview with Larry Monroe, KUT radio, December 1993.

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A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt
19. The source for this discussion of “Pancho and Lefty” is Paul Zollo’s interview with Townes in
Songwriters on Songwriting
.

20. Paul Zollo,
Songwriters on Songwriting
.

21. All quotes from Peggy Underwood are from the author’s interview, January 9, 2002.

22. All quotes from Earl Willis are from the author’s interview, January 5, 2002.

23. All quotes from Cindy Van Zandt Lindgram are from the author’s interview, January 11, 2002.

Chapter 10

1. Frank “Chito” Greer, author’s interview. Chito also made the following cogent observations:

Oh shit, the son of a bitch could walk into a bar, twelve sheets to the wind, be the biggest, most obnoxious asshole there, but still, that son of a bitch could pick up the best-looking chick in the bar. Every time.

There was just something about him … women wanted to take care of him. He brought out the mother instinct in them. Big time.

And how do you think he gets them girls out of them bars? Just like that.… Just like that! The son of a bitch is the
best
at conning. And that’s okay, because it’s an art. Now,
that
’s an art; because he’s a liar and a cheat; and it’s the art of
creating
the whole deal.

2. All quotes from Mickey White are from the author’s interview, August 12, 2001.

3. Bob Myrick, author’s interview.

4. Cindy Van Zandt Lindgram, author’s interview.

5. Earl Willis, author’s interview.

6. John Lomax wrote before the record was released that the record was “tentatively titled
Deader Now Than Ever
by yours truly.” (John Lomax, “No Place to Fall,”
Picking Up the Tempo
no. 17, no date, but estimated late 1977)

7. Jack Clement, author’s interview.

8. All quotes from John Lomax III are from the author’s interview, April 21, 2001.

9. Rex Bell, author’s interview.

10. The source of the discussion of the Rocky Mountains tour is Richard Dobson,
Gulf Coast Boys
.

11. Ibid.

12. The Texas State Historical Association ,“Clarksville,”
Handbook of Texas
Online
, www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/hpc1.html.

13. All quotes from Peggy Underwood are from the author’s interview, January 9, 2002.

14. Chito’s girlfriend, Mary Ann, contributed insights and reminiscences during the author’s interview with Frank “Chito” Greer, September 1, 2001. All quotes from Mary Ann are from the author’s interview with Chito.

Endnotes

279

15. William Hedgepeth, “Townes Van Zandt—Messages From the Outside,”
Hittin’ the Note
, May 1977.

16. Ibid.

17. Brackenridge, the oldest public hospital in Texas, is also the only hospital in Austin that accepts uninsured patients in the emergency room.

18.
Heartworn Highways
, DVD, directed by James Szalapski (1977, 2005).

19. Townes Van Zandt, interview with Larry Monroe, KUT radio, March 1990.

20. Darryl Harris believes that this is Kathy Tennel, not Ivy, but others are certain that it is Ivy.

21. Townes’ performance of “Pancho and Lefty” was cut from the film, but it appears as a special feature in the DVD version released in 2005. Interestingly, Townes gives one of his best “explanations” of how the song came to be written. Introducing it as “a medley of my hit,” he says he wrote the song “about two Mexican bandits I saw on TV two weeks after I wrote the song.”

22. Townes Van Zandt, quoted in “Townes Van Zandt,”
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15, December 1977.

Chapter 11

1. Townes Van Zandt, quoted in “Townes Van Zandt,”
Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15, December 1977.