[Today: Going down that lost highway...]
![Hank Williams | The Complete Hank Williams [box set]](http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/731453607729.jpg?w=450 "Hank Williams | The Complete Hank Williams [box set]")
In the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 1953, Hank Williams died in the back of a long black Cadillac during an overnight drive from Knoxville, TN to a show in Canton, OH. His 17-year old chauffeur discovered his rigid body during a stop at a gas station in Oak Hill, WV – drawing the curtain on one of the most influential careers in all of music. Fittingly, his death at age 29 was as dark, epic, and legendary as the songs that made him famous.
The Complete Hank Williams collects 225 songs over 10 discs. 53 of these tracks were previously unreleased, and the wealth of great music included here is simply astounding. However, this set also proves that Williams wasn’t a bulletproof artist – his duets with his first wife Audrey are dreadful, and there are plenty of them. The woman couldn’t sing a lick and bullied her way into his act, but that doesn’t make it right. Also curious was his decision to release songs under the pseudonym ‘Luke The Drifter’ – a singing, story-telling cowboy who sounded a lot like… Hank Williams! But regardless of a few odd artistic moves, Hiram King Williams’ case for the title of World’s Greatest Songwriter is a good one, and all the evidence is compiled here.
Songs such as ‘Lost Highway’ ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ and ‘(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle’ drew upon the troubles of his own life. Unhappily married and in constant back pain, he abused alcohol and pills, and transmuted his experiences into the songs that formed the foundation of modern country music. Of his songwriting method, Williams famously said “If a song can’t be written in 20 minutes, it ain’t worth writing.” While his music was often haunted, Williams could also cut loose with good time, honky tonk boogie like ‘Settin’ The Woods On Fire’ or ‘Hey Good Lookin”. Even material like ‘Jambalaya’ – which might have been reduced to novelty in lesser hands – was a perfectly executed, three-minute slice of down-home fun.
But Williams’ signature tune might be the last song he ever recorded – ‘I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive’. Using his Jimmie Rodgers-influenced quaver, he lets loose a desperate cry from the edge of the grave. He may have inspired legions of country musicians, but in this one tune it’s easy to see his connection to others who have turned chaos and anguish into high art, and artists such as John Lennon, Johnny Rotten, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Jim Morrison owe more than a passing debt to this country legend.
Listen: Lost Highway
Listen: (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle
Listen: Settin’ The Woods On Fire
Listen: I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
Tags: Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Jim Morrison, Jimmie Rodgers, John Lennon, Johnny Rotten, Luke The Drifter, The Complete Hank Williams
31 July 2009 at 12:38 pm |
This is one of my favorite box sets. And to think, he did all that by 29. I read somewhere that he likely had spina bifida and that was the source of his chronic pain. His was definitely a tragic tale.
10 August 2009 at 6:35 am |
[...] but Manuel’s voice was a big part of what gave them their centuries’ old sound. Like Hank Williams, Manuel’s fragile, haunted voice belonged to a man with never-ending heartache, someone [...]