The Townes Van Zandt - ST+Our Mother The Mountain poll

This is really hard.
I guess it mainly comes down to "Be Here To Love Me" vs "Waiting Around To Die" vs "Tecumseh Valley" vs "Lungs" for me.

st john the gambler for me

...otm, and i'll add Kathleen to yr list (xpost)
"waiting around" will probably win.

almost no fillers on those 2 records.

Tecumseh Valley

"Tecumseh Valley", just edging "Waiting Around To Die". But "Tecumseh Valley" is so strong; I bawl every time I listen.

there was a great YT clip of Nanci Griffith covering "Tecumseh Valley" but it's disappeared. She's moved to tears with the "turned to whoring" line.

that's the part where I lose it too. Every time. Even writing about it...

Steve Earle's cover is terrific too.

There's a nice version of it on the Flatlanders' live album, but the audience seems a little too drunk to be feelin it.

"The name she gave ('Woooooooohoooooooooooo!') was Caroline..."

Can the next TVZ poll be for "Live @ The Old Quarter" cuz I want to talk about those talking blues some more, and their importance in a set so full of sadness.

It seems like latter-day TVZ revivalists ignore the fact that the guy had a sense of humor. The Be Here to Love Me doc (with an accompanying dirgelike soundtrack) casts him as a drunkard/electroshock victim who graced us with deeply personal, melancholic music even as his body and mind were collapsing...which is fair, I guess, but I like to think there's more to his work than the tortured artist archetype encompasses. He's no Nick Drake at any rate (unless Nick also told the joke about the drunk driver with his dick hanging out), and his albums and live sets are dotted with one-off novelty tracks that, in their own dry way, stack up well against the likes of Jerry Reed and Jim Stafford. It's a shame then that his more earnest material, however worthy, is being canonized (on tribute albums, comps, etc.) at the expense of his goofier moments.

I'd like to see a compilation of his best talking blues songs and jokes. "Talkin KKK Blues" is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, no?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i missed this poll but i'm not sure i could have chosen one anyway :/

probably "st john the gambler" or "fare thee well mrs carousel"

or "tecumseh valley" or "waitin round to die" or "our mother the mountain" eek