Chords for Townes Van Zandt, 2012 Texas Heritage Songwriters' Association Hall of Fame Inductee

[N] _ [Ab] I'd like to [Db] introduce myself.
_ [Gb] _
I'm _ _ [F] Townes Van Zant [D]
and this [Ab] is my dog [G] Geraldine here. _ _
Geraldine, come here.
Paul Loretta, she's my barroom girl, _ wears them _ sevens on her sleeve,
dances like a diamond shines, _ tells me lies I love to believe.
_ [D] Townes' father bought him a [Ab] guitar when he was a young boy,
[Am] with the condition that he learned Fraulein, _ [Ab] an old German folk song.
[Bb]
And I think the desire to get a guitar came about [Ab] after Townes saw Elvis [A] on the Ed Sullivan [G] show _
and saw all the [A] girls going crazy.
[G] _
He wanted [Ab] to learn to guitar and sing.
He was like, that's what I [G] want to do.
_ _ _ [A] And then after some time of really serious practice and got good with [Bb] finger picking, _
he started _ realizing, I think through Bob Dylan's [Ab] first album,
that you could write songs _ about [G] human emotion from just about any perspective you wanted to.
Well, won't you lend your lungs to [Em] me?
Mine are collapsing.
Townes approached the song with a very serious _ [B] sort of work ethic about him.
[Bb] He would [B] sit down determined to write [A] a song and he wouldn't get up until he [Abm] completed that [A] task.
My _ [Bb] mom [A] tells stories that he would go in the closet, literally, [Bb] he had a little closet he [A] treated like an office
that was only about [Bb] four feet by two feet.
[A] And he had a little desk built in one side [Bb] and he would go in there and one day he was in there [D] for,
_ you know, [A] over a couple days solid before he came [G] out and he wrote [A] _ Waiting Around to Die.
And a couple others actually in the closet. _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Well, sometimes I don't know where this dirty [G] road is taking me.
_ [D] Sometimes I can't even see the reason [Am] why. _ _ _ _
I guess [D] I'll keep a gambling.
_ Lots of [G] booze and lots of rambling.
_ It's easier than just a waiting around [Dm] to die. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] I would say this year is [Gbm] justice _ with him being inducted.
When I [Ab] first moved to Austin, [G] I went into the Soap Creek Saloon on [Gb] South Congress _ [G] and I heard Townes Van Zandt.
There maybe were [Ab] 30, 40 people there.
[D] _ _ I walked out of there different than when I walked in.
He was just a real treasure as [Gb] a guy.
And _ there's so many [Ab] elements to what Townes did that people didn't always see.
And I remember [G] one time we did a [D] writer's night with Guy, Billy Joe, Townes [Gb] and myself at the Bluebird.
And _ we were playing blues and _ Townes busted into _ playing the [B] blues and he sounded just like Lightnin' [D] Hopkins.
I was like, wow, how'd he do that?
[B] It was great.
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ I think he carried it with him.
[Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ Back then in Texas [A] you learned your manners. _
Yes ma'am, no ma'am, _ when to talk, when to be [C] quiet.
[B] But from a kind, gentle perspective, _ it [A] was rough and rugged but also _ _ tenderness towards animals and [Ab] the environment.
_ _ _ _ [Bb] I think it always carried with him.
Wherever he went, people [A] would tell me, he's got really good manners.
I'm like, yeah, if you don't know him [B] well.
_ _ _ The big stories are always about [A] how he fell off stage or [Ab] how he _ went up on something, [G] bought a saxophone or something like [C] that.
I saw [Bb] really, truly great shows that Townes [G]
played.
I mean, really great, [B] sober shows, a real window into great [G] songwriting and getting to see it right first [F] hand.
Maybe she gave us [Bb] _ _ _ [F] Caroline.
I think Townes' ability to [Bb] put himself into the specific [Ab] emotion that he was writing about, _ _ _ it [Abm] was such an inseparable sort of _
[A] _ meditation that he [D] really arrived at [C] _ [Bb] central human [G] emotion _ _ approach.
And I [Ab] think that that's what [F] _ _ [Ab] _
[A] _ [G] makes him so [C] special.
_ If _ _ I [Db] needed [C] you, would you come to me? _
Would you _ come to [F] me and [D] ease my _ [C] pain? _ _
_ If you needed me, I would come to you.
The way Townes put _ words together [F] _ _
[Cm] is unlike anyone else, at least for me.
[C] It changed everything about the way I viewed writing.
He's got like _ [G]
42 _ words [Cm] and tells an entire [B] novel.
[Gm] Townes is just an important, _ [G] _
important songwriter [C] who helped to teach [Abm] me _ [Ab] what a [A] song could be in the same way that Guy [G] Clark, in his writing, [Ab] _ helped teach [Gb] me what a song could [C] be.
Songs could _ [G] be _ descriptive [Gb] and they could [F] be _ _ [A] poetic _ _ and didn't have [G] to just be _ one catchy line or phrase after another.
[C] He had a rare talent, [B] but he also worked very, very [A] hard to write those songs and [Abm] to put himself in a place to [A] _ create the music that he did.
So focus on Townes' music and _ the achievement [Bb] of what _ his work, [D] _ [Bb] the impact that it's [A] had on society and especially on Texas.
[Bb] I think that's a much [A] better place to think of [Ab] Townes _ than any stories that may or may not even be true.
[A] So just love [Ab] the music.
And if you haven't [A] heard it, go and buy it and listen to it.
I think it'll [Ab] definitely have a positive [G] impact on your life.
[D] Well, shake the dust off [A] of your wings [G] and the tears out of your [D] eyes. _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _