Townes van Zandt

Inhalt

Biopic über den Songwriter Townes van Zandt (1944 - 1997)

German
Townes van Zandt wurde endlos von Künstlern wie Emmylou Harris oder The Meat Puppets gecovert, konnte selbst aber nie einen Hit landen. Sein größter Erfolg „Pancho and Lefty", gesungen von Merle Haggard und Willie Nelson, schaffte es 1983 auf den ersten Platz der amerikanischen Country-Hitparade. Sein Leben glich dem eines Penners, der zwischen drei gescheiterten Ehen und Unmengen von Alkohol und Drogen eine Reihe von großartigen, bittersüssen Melodien schrieb. Die Fülle an Archivfilmmaterial, seltenen Konzertaufnahmen, Videos, Interviews und Tonfragmenten machen den Film zu einer reichen und persönlichen Dokumentation.

English
Steve Earle offered to "stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots" to declare him the world's greatest songwriter. In concert, Lucinda Williams often dedicates "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten" to him. Artists, as diverse as Emmylou Harris and The Meat Puppets, have recorded his songs. The late Townes Van Zandt was the kind of artist who is always more famous dead than alive. Born into wealth, Townes was an outsider from the get-go. Clinical depression steered the ragged course as did his appetite for drugs and alcohol. Determined to be a success, Townes eventually had a hit. The royalty checks were welcome, but this mainstream cameo seems to have been awkward for him, and there's tangible discomfort and detachment from it all.