TOWNES VAN ZANDT - SUNSHINE BOY

SUNSHINE BOY

TOWNES VAN ZANDT

Songwriter: TOWNES VAN ZANDT

Country: u.s.a.

Album: SUNSHINE BOY: THE UNHEARD STUDIO SESSIONS & DEMOS 1971-1972

Label: omnivore records

Genre: folk

Year: 2013

John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997), best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American songwriter. He is widely regarded for his poetic, often heroically sad songs. In 1983, six years after Emmylou Harris had first popularized it, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered his song "Pancho and Lefty", scoring a number one hit on the Billboard country music charts. Much of his life was spent touring various dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms and backwoods cabins. For much of the 1970s, he lived in a simple shack without electricity or a phone.

He suffered from a series of drug addictions, alcoholism, and bipolar disorder. When he was young, the now discredited insulin shock therapy erased much of his long-term memory.

Van Zandt died on New Year's Day 1997 from cardiac arrythmia caused by health problems stemming from years of substance abuse. The 2000s saw a resurgence of interest in Van Zandt. During the decade, two books, a documentary film titled Be Here to Love Me, and a number of magazine articles about the singer were written.

You won't learn nothing from the sunshine, boy

Except how to get away from home

You won't learn nothing from the darkness, boy

Except how to die all alone

Time will teach you hunger, boy

On the very day you're grown

It'll come to you like a daydream, boy

And it'd cost you everything you own

So, watch for birds and binders too

Move in a natural way

Follow the sidewalk with your tongue

'Cause it will try to slip away

Find you a friend like Little John

Rememberin' nothing's free

Find you a girl like Gretchen, son

But don't bring her home to me

Keep your eyes on the rhythm, boy

And let the words go by

Rhythm is pulse and breathing, boy

The words will usually lie

The sky was made to walk beneath

And the ground to walk along

Just let 'em both rub against your skin

Before you try to decide where you belong