There are some people who become type specimens. They’re the folks who define the characteristics of the category of folks to whom they belong. Guy Clark was — or rather, given what remains — continues to be the type specimen of the singer-songwriter.
Charles Pierce has already written his remembrance of this artist, who died today of what sounds like complications of a hard-lived, powerfully felt life:
He was a craftsman in all the best senses of the word–in the way he created his songs, and in the way he told his stories, and in the places the music took you…
That’s exactly right. And yeah, go read the rest, and listen to Charlie’s picks of the Guy Clark songs that resonate for him.
For me? Well, the first number I recall was his biggest mainstream hit, “L. A. Freeway” — which holds up OK, but isn’t what drew me back to Clark when I started listening to him with intent a few years ago. This is the one that got me started, at a time (as I face again this year, dammit) when too many people that mattered in my life were dying on me:
This one got me next, and still does:*
And this is the one I think of on the day Guy Clark left us; he’s taken his place in the room he sings us into:
All of which is to say that Clark couldn’t have a good time. He loved a party** — just ask him:
The list goes on. The Hon. Pierce has it right: Clark was a meticulous song writer and a brilliant one (the two modifiers don’t describe the same quality). Dive in anywhere, and the worst you’ll get is fine fun. At his best….
Dammit — it’s been a crap year for musicians here in these United States.
I’ll leave you with one more favorite, one that captures the heart of what I love most about Clark — the way his music inhabits a story and vice versa:
Rest in peace, Guy Clark.
*And here’s a lagniappe. Check out this tune, the one Clark sends us to in an homage and something of a statement — a recognition of the league in which Guy himself could play.
**In the old days, when it was Clark and Townes Van Zandt and some more bad boys and girls, I don’t think I could have come close to keeping up, had I had the amazing fortune to be in the right bar at the right time. But that’s another story. If you want to read up on Mr. Clark — this is a fine and recent profile.
sunny raines
got to give a mention to “Coat from The Cold”
cintibud
RIP Guy. I’ve been playing every song I have of his at work today.
Randall Knife – gets me every time as I think of my Dad. Now thinking of Guy as well.
moonbat
Well, damn. This year has really sucked.
Catherine D.
Grandfather’s Emigrant Eyes
oldster
Just listened to “The Guitar”. That was a lot of fun.
His picking style reminds me a bit of J. J. Cale–both fluid and laconic at the same time. Wry, and doubtless rye too.
Mike J
@oldster: Crusty, yet benign.
fedwithhypocrisy
nooooooooo!!!!!!!! :-(
mdblanche
@moonbat: Auntie says you’re not imagining it, it really has been a bad year for celebrity deaths, and it’s the new normal.
realbtl
RIP and thanks.
aarrgghh
not a jane hamsher of the left …
Raphael Kearns
I moved to Dallas Texas in 1987 as a Navy Recruiter and had not heard of Guy Clark but someone told me I had to see him in concert. I went to see him at Poor David’s Pub on Greenville Ave. in late 1987 and was hooked for life. I saw him numerous time after that and always was spellbound by his ability to sing about life.
Maybe the high point was in around 1991 or so I was privileged to see a concert at the Arcadia in Dallas with Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Robert Earl Keen, Jr. It was a magical evening and I will always remember it. Sadly, now only Mr. Keen is left. It’s a sad time here in Texas, Guy Clark was a god to songwriters and his passing will truly be felt.
Raphael Kearns
@cintibud: I saw the news of his death on the front page of the Dallas Morning News website at around 8:30 am and was crushed. I’ve had tears in my eyes and an ache in my chest all day. This passing has really hit me hard.
This is one of my most favorites:
She Ain’t Goin Nowhere
debbie
He gave great interviews.
NotMax
Scores of men named Guy.
Nary a woman named Gal.
/random brain burp
NotMax
No topically related classical painting?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I had a feeling it was coming soon – I’ve been hearing Desperadoes Waiting for a Train in my head for the last 10 days, and singing it to Layla on our walks or weeding trips. I had a feeling it might be because “that son of a bitch is coming.”
The Texas Music Office announced the sad news on twitter. The photo was the famous one of Guy, Susanna, Townes and Daniel on the porch of Guy and Susanna’s house. Which in those days, was pretty much TVZ’s house too.
My Favorite Picture of You makes me cry sometimes.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Last year’s ACL Hall of Fame – Jason Isbell does a fine job I think.
Davebo
A Texas legend. And while we have our share of wackos Texas produces some damn fine songwriter/musicians.
MomSense
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
What a good song.
Guy Clark will be missed.
MomSense
@Raphael Kearns:
Robert Earl Keen is one of my favorites. That must have be an amazing concert.
Davebo
@MomSense:
Davebo
By far my favorite Guy Clark song. Randall Knife.
So simple yet so moving.
divF
When Madame divF and I were courting, we would go out dancing every week at a club where a band fronted by Bill Kirchen would play. One of the songs I remember most vividly is “Desperados Waiting for a Train”, which led me to find more of Guy Clark’s work.
“To me he’s one of the heroes of this country”.
burnspbesq
This hurts in a way that the losses of Prince and Bowie didn’t.
I learned to play “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train” from a Tom Rush album, even before Old No. 1 came out. I had Guy Clark songs in my set lists all through college. He’s been a role model and advocate for so many songwriters (there are especially poignant tributes from Rosanne Cash and Lyle Lovett floating around the net).
Damn. Just damn.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@MomSense: There was a commenter at LGM who was at a concert with Robert Earl Keen, John Prine and TVZ that sounded pretty cool, but Guy with the other two is at the top of my list of Texas “wish I’d heard at the same show.”
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@burnspbesq: I’m another one – as I suspect you may have guessed – that this hits harder than Bowie or Prince.
Was it Steve Earle who said something to the effect that “Guy really taught you the craft of songwriting – how to do it. Townes was more like go read “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee.” It sounds like the kind of thing he’d say and no doubt is exactly true.
divF
@divF:
I didn’t check this link until after I posted the message above. “Columbus Stockade Blues” was the other song I remember vividly from those nights out. They were both a challenge to dance to*, because of the tempo changes (at least the way Kirchen performed them).
*for me, at least. Madame is an excellent dancer.
Hungry Joe
What IS it about Texas, anyway? I mean, Buddy Holly, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Joe Ely (a personal fave), Lyle Lovett, and on and etc. and then some. Makes it hard to hate the place.
oldster
@NotMax:
You’re forgetting Gal Gadot, actress who plays wonder woman.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Hungry Joe: Joe Ely – I’m a fan! Stevie Ray Vaughn,Townes, and Rodney Crowell. And of course, Ronald Crosby from New York state – the native Texan Jerry Jeff Walker. I think Jerry Jeff really should count as Texas, because that’s where his music happened.
divF
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m a fan, too. I once interviewed Joe Ely on the radio around 1980.
He really did keep his fingernails long.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Hungry Joe: @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): And how could I forget James McMurty? I am ashamed.
Zinsky
I am a y-y-yuge Guy Clark fan. I may have the best Guy Clark true story – I was in Nashville in the 1982-83 timeframe and I was walking near Commerce Street on a Sunday afternoon and there was Guy Clark, playing guitar and singing under what amounted to an old railroad trestle. There was maybe a dozen people listening. It was magical. I asked who he was and have been a big follower ever since. I think Guy, like Bob Dylan and Steve Earle, is a great songwriter but I don’t think his voice is the best. Here is the always smooth Lyle Lovett covering Guy’s Step Into This House. (The song doesn’t get going until about 2:48.). Enjoy and RIP Guy Clark!
PhoenixRising
Rosanne Cash covered LA Freeway last spring. Decoration Day was the theme. It’s a download that does what she does so well…makes a great song different than the songwriter ever thought to. Go search that one out & cry along if you are so moved.
Guy Clark, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rodney Crowell & Emmylou the songbird herself gave a damn fine concert in Santa Fe about 15 years ago, fundraising for Bobby Muller’s organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War’s landmine clearing work in SE Asia.
Fine people, all of them. Bobby is the man whose experience ‘Born on the 4th of July’ was based on. He’s better looking than Tom Cruise on the inside, he says, and that seems true.
Raphael Kearns
It was really great. I have seen REK numerous times at Poor Davids Pub and at the Sons of Hermann Hall. That was early in REK’s career.
I saw him once at the Majestic in Dallas not long after The Road Goes on Forever and there were a couple of Aggies who came on stage and “signed” the song. It was epic and hilarious.
BTW Townes was relatively sober and put on a great performance. I did see Guy Clark at a show in Marietta OK in the early 90’s and he was so drunk that he nearly fell off the stage a couple of times but I still love him.
Raphael Kearns
@MomSense: It was really great. I have seen REK numerous times at Poor Davids Pub and at the Sons of Hermann Hall. That was early in REK’s career.
I saw him once at the Majestic in Dallas not long after The Road Goes on Forever and there were a couple of Aggies who came on stage and “signed” the song. It was epic and hilarious.
BTW Townes was relatively sober and put on a great performance. I did see Guy Clark at a show in Marietta OK in the early 90’s and he was so drunk that he nearly fell off the stage a couple of times but I still love him.
Raphael Kearns
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): This show at the Arcadia is on my list of “greats I sat live.” I also saw Elvis in 1974 in Mobile Alabama and one of the highlights of my life was Joan Baez at The Greek Theatre at Berkeley in 1977.
I’m a folk aficionado from the 60’s. My I wish I had seen them is primarily Pete Seeger.
Raphael Kearns
@burnspbesq: The first time I ever saw Guy Clark was at Poor Davids Pub in Dallas in 1987. I didn’t know who he was but I was a fan of Gary P Nunn and someone told me I had to see Guy. I purchased tickets and went to Poor Davids, which at that time was a pretty small venue. We were seated in a table in a back corner which was only about 15 feet from the stage. This big tall guy wearing jeans, white shirt and black blazer came walking in through the front door carrying his guitar in his hand and went up on the stage and proceeded to mesmerize the small crowd for a couple of hours. I was addicted from that moment on.
One time we saw him and there was this singer who opened for him that quite a number of us in the audience were unfamiliar with. He was a tall thin fella with long cascading shoulder length greying hair. He proceeded to sing around 15 number 1 hits that were recorded by George Strait. This singer was the songwriter for those hits named Dean Dillon. Two of the greatest songwriters in history stood on that stage. What an evening.
Zinsky
@PhoenixRising: Sounds like a great concert in Phoenix! I am in love with Emmylou Harris! (Don’t tell my wife!). What a beautiful woman! I have seen her four times in concert and loved her more each time. I imagine that the choirs of angels in heaven must have voices like Emmylou!
moderateindy
What an astounding conclave of talent all coming at basically the same time, and the same place, Clark, Townes, Steve Earle, Crowell, Robert Earl Keen, Emmy Lou, all basically a circle of friends coming up together. The sheer amount of songs written by that set of artists is truly dumbfounding. The fact that only Emmy Lou, is a “household name” (to a lesser extent Sreve Earle as well) is disgraceful.
Favorite Guy Clark tune, TheCape, although the one I play most often is Black Diamond Strings. (cause it’s simple to remember)