Description
Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas is a double live album by Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. The recording captures Van Zandt in a series of July 1973 performances in an intimate venue and there is a strong critical consensus that this recording is among the most exemplary of Van Zandt’s career.
Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues” is a difficult song to write for a friend. “If it rained an ocean I’d drink it dry/ and lay me down dissatisfied.” Much of it seems too personal to share, and the author’s insistence that Bell – a bass player – never accompany him on “Rex’s Blues” is telling. Like Merle Travis’ “Nine Pound Hammer,” which Van Zandt covers on Live at the Old Quarter, the song is a tentative goodbye.
In Van Zandt’s lyrics, the best are personal, told in the first person. He wrote testimonials of frailty and helplessness that instantly identify them with their author: “Livin’s mostly wastin’ time/ and I waste my share of mine/ but it never feels too good/ so let’s don’t take too long.” He called them sky songs, borrowing from Bukka White before him. “Songs one simply pulled from the sky.”
Tracklist:
Side A:
Announcement
Pancho & Lefty
Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold
Don’t You Take It Too Bad
Two Girls
Fraternity Blues
If I Needed You
Side B:
Brand New Companion
White Freight Liner Blues
To Live Is to Fly
She Came and She Touched Me
Talking Thunderbird Blues
Rex’s Blues
Nine Pound Hammer
Side C:
For the Sake of the Song
Chauffeur’s Blues
No Place to Fall
Loretta
Kathleen
Why She’s Acting This Way
Side D:
Cocaine Blues
Who Do You Love?
Tower Song
Waiting ‘Round to Die
Tecumseh Valley
Lungs
Only Him or Me
