Townes Van Zandt – Lungs

I’m learning more about Townes Van Zandt and you don’t have to search for great songwriting in his catalog. Just pull up any song and it’s usually a winner.  This is another song that makes songwriters sigh. Sunset diamonds roll across my memory and Clouds roll by and hide the tears I’m crying It’s so original and it’s like a great artist painting a masterpiece.

This song was on his self-titled 3rd album released in 1969. It was recorded at Bradley’s Barn in Nashville in July of 1969.

Townes Van Zandt 1969 Townes

Bradley’s Barn deserves its own post. It was owned by Owen Bradley and he recorded so many well-known artists such as Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Lenny Dee, and Conway Twitty to name a few.

Steve Earle points out in a quote that Townes had walking pneumonia in New York and wrote this song based on that. Some sources say he got part of it when he was younger and he went through insulin shock therapy for manic depression. In that “treatment,” you would be shocked and have injections of insulin to put you in a coma daily. He lost much of his long-term memory from this treatment.

He came out of that far from cured. He had a fatalistic view of the world and holes in his memory. It very well could have caused some of his substance abuse and depression problems afterward.

It’s also said to be about coal miners, specifically about pneumoconiosis commonly known as Black Lung Disease.

Secondhandsongs has 22 versions of the song including the original.

Steve Earle: I’ve done it for a very, very long time and it’s one of my favorite Townes songs. The story I heard was that he was in New York and he had pneumonia, literally, just got walkin’ pneumonia. He was literally sick with a respiratory ailment. It’s literal past the poetic decimal point.   He was a bad-ass. The difference between Townes and Bob Dylan is, and this makes Townes a lot more radical to me in some ways, is Dylan was really heavily influenced by the same kinds of music, but lyrically he was influenced more by modern French poets and the Beats. Whereas Townes was much more influenced by old-school, conventional lyric poets like Robert Frost and Walt Whitman. And it’s cool, it’s where a lot of the uniqueness of his voice comes from. ‘Cause it is Lightnin’ Hopkins against Robert Frost, and it’s pretty startling.

Lungs

Well, won’t you lend your lungs to me?
Mine are collapsing
Plant my feet and bitterly breathe
Up the time that’s passing.
Breath I’ll take and breath I’ll give
Pray the day ain’t poison
Stand among the ones that live
In lonely indecision.

Fingers walk the darkness down
Mind is on the midnight
Gather up the gold you’ve found
You fool, it’s only moonlight.
If you try to take it home
Your hands will turn to butter
You better leave this dream alone
Try to find another.

Salvation sat and crossed herself
Called the devil partner
Wisdom burned upon a shelf
Who’ll kill the raging cancer
Seal the river at it’s mouth
Take the water prisoner
Fill the sky with screams and cries
Bathe in fiery answers

Jesus was an only son
And love his only concept
Strangers cry in foreign tongues
And dirty up the doorstep
And I for one, and you for two
Ain’t got the time for outside
Just keep your injured looks to you
We’ll tell the world we tried

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

25 thoughts on “Townes Van Zandt – Lungs”

  1. I actually don’t know this Townes song. Very interesting background story. Insulin shock therapy?! Good lord that sounds like a horror movie. Brilliant cover, would have liked to be in that audience with the talent on stage.

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    1. Yea the sources went everywhere with this one. But yea…he did do that therapy…no wonder his life was rocky…geez. It’s really a short song for him as well. Yea I liked that cover as well.

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  2. That’s heavy stuff, especially if you know the song’s background. Townes Van Zandt is an interesting singer-songwriter to explore. I’ve barely scratched the surface myself! Lyle Lovett, another artist I’ve yet to check out, and Steve Earle did a nice job with their rendition.

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    1. What a life he led…Well we are a like again. I just told Jeff the other day that I don’t know much about Lovett either…I need to explore his stuff.

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      1. What I really need to figure out is how to focus better. I constantly feel I need to catch up on music, but the “I want it all and I want it now” approach doesn’t work very well.

        Unfortunately, the super easy access to nearly all music you want enables this and, as such, can be a double-edged sword.

        I know, what a silly self-created problem to whine about!

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      2. Yea I start going into a thousand different directions at once…and I get nowhere. I started to listen to more of Oasis the other day but got sidetracked by youtube suggestions and off I go.
        Oh the bundle of wealth does make it harder.
        First World Problems we have lol.

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      6. Lovett is a real gem. On one of his albums, “Lyle Lovett and his Large Band,” he does a Tammy Wynette cover of, “Stand by your Man” that is out of this world.

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      10. We are on our way now… sucks though… we saw a snapping turtle trying to cross the busy road. Bailey pulled over and we were too late. It sucks

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  3. When I think of the evil oil family choosing to “cure” Townes with their evil asylum treatments, oh how I wish to jump in my time machine and prevent it. You might say don’t tamper with the past as maybe Townes wouldn’t have been who he was. I’m willing to take that chance.

    His music reaches in and thumps on the heart in a painful way. I see this song as much a metaphor as a literal, as many of his songs are.

    I love his original, but I also love the Lyle & Friends video, not only for how they honored the song, but those kind of singing circles that manifest such magic. I saw one before with “5 ladies of country music” forgot the exact title on PBS years ago and never forgot it.

    Max, thank you for whenever you share Townes music and add to my bank of knowledge on him. Steve Earle has done some good covers of Townes (e.g. Tecumseh Valley) and I love him for it. I see the date on this is 2 years after his Train A Comin album, his first one out of prison and clean and sober.

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    1. I thought you would like this one. Insulin Shock Thearpy… I learned a lot from this one. That is insane.
      But…it was the song that hit me…I just loved it. The only surprising thing about it is it’s so short….but he uses every second in it to good use.
      I loved that cover of it…glad you did also.

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  4. Downbeat lyrics but given his life story, no wonder. Poor guy! What idiot thought an overdose of insulin would be good for mentally ill people?
    Likable song, probably not one I’d have on my own mixtape say, but it struck me a few seconds in it reminds me of the type of singer/songwriter who once in awhile you might stumble into at a cafe and you just want to stay and see the whole show, not take off with your coffee in hand.

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    1. That crap went on for 30 years before someone finally woke up….no pun intended…
      Oh yea…it’s a singer songwriter thing…with very good lyrics.

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      1. That’s the way to do it Max. It’s been a while since I listened to this song it was like hearing it with new ears. Your journey trough this music is sparking lots of revisits.
        By the way Lyle is good. Saw him a long time ago and it was a very cool intimate show. I really like that live cut you posted.

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