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7. For the Sake of the Song
- University of North Texas Press
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7 For the Sake of the Song S TRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED IN the annals of the record business, but the story of Townes Van Zandt’s first record deal is bizarre even by industry standards. Mickey Newbury , a native of Houston, was at this time one of Nashville’s most prolific and successful songwriters and one of the artists who was breaking away from the staid, straight “Nashville Sound” and paving the way for the more progressive music of Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and others. Newbury had been writing songs for Nashville’s most prominent publishing company, Acuff-Rose, since 1963, and had had his songs recorded by Elvis Presley, Eddy Arnold, Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Joan Baez, and dozens of others, as well as recording his own albums, first for RCA, then for Mercury, and finally for Elektra. Newbury’s success as a songwriter peaked in 1968 with a song not at all characteristic of his work, but one that remains one of his best known: “Just Dropped In (To See What Condi72 For the Sake of the Song 73 tion My Condition Is In),” recorded by Kenny Rogers & the First Edition. With his wide experience in the business and a strong artistic ear, Newbury knew a good song when he heard it, and during this period he had the clout to do something about it. In addition to writing and recording, he was producing records with his partner Jay Boyett in Houston at a small facility called Jones Studio. As Newbury recalls, Van Zandt came to Jones Studio to record a demo record at the beginning of 1968, a step that he decided he needed to take if he were to advance his career beyond small clubs. Newbury recalls, “Jay brought me [Townes’] stuff and asked me if I thought we could do anything with him. I said, ‘Hell, I don’t know, but he sure deserves it.’ When I heard it, it just knocked me totally down. I can remember ‘Tecumseh Valley’ was one of them…. It seems like, if I’m not mistaken, even that far back, I want to say ‘Our Mother the Mountain’ was one of them. I know that within that first year or two, he wrote ‘Quick Silver Daydreams of Maria,’ ‘St. John the Gambler,’ ‘Our Mother the Mountain.’ I know those were all written in those early, first years. “Jay didn’t think too much of him, because he was listening to his voice and he didn’t think that Townes’ singing was very good. I was just the opposite,” says Newbury. “I was coming from a completely different place. You know, I liked Bob Dylan’s singing. To me, it was the way the song was interpreted, the phrasing and the interpretation. Townes had kind of a sleepy kind of a delivery that really was appealing to me.”1 Newbury and Townes quickly became friends, and within weeks, Newbury says, “we signed him to a management contract , although Townes never actually knew I was his manager, because I was a silent partner with Jay Boyett. It’s hard to maintain a friendship with somebody that you’re managing, and I valued our friendship.” Newbury says that he told Townes that he should go to Nashville. “I just said ‘Sure,’ Van Zandt later recalled. “I was a real seriously rambling folksinger in the old sense of the word, you know, guitar over your shoulder. I wasn’t [54.210.83.20] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:25 GMT) 74 A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt even thinking about records or publishing deals. I was just kind of, ‘Sure, I’ll go anywhere.’”2 “I took him to Acuff-Rose first,” Newbury explains, “because I felt an obligation to them. It was exactly as I figured it would be; it went right over their heads. I took Kristofferson over to Acuff-Rose, too, and it went right over their heads. So I took him to Bill Hall, who was a really good friend of mine. He was Jack Clement’s partner, at Hall-Clement.” Jack Clement was already something of a legend in the recording business. A Tennessee native, he had started out playing bluegrass music as a Marine stationed in Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s. He ended up in Memphis in 1954, where he served as master of ceremonies and sometime-singer with a big band that played at the Eagle...