Back in the Tin Pan Alley (and Brill Building) days there were song-pluggers, and there were vocalists, and never the twain met, but this symbiotic relationship formed the successful division of labor for the great American capitalist record business. Whether they be based in NY, LA, or Nashville successful songwriters rarely had hits recording their own material. Hard to believe that it took Willie Nelson so many years to be recognized as his own best interpreter. Of course, that now seems ludicrous, given Willie’s status as “national treasure”. Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and the like had their go-to writers and arrangers, Phil Spector, Don Kirschner and others kept their stable of regular creatives like Carole King and Gerry Goffin in little cubicles laboring to churn out dozens of standards weekly for their employer’s contracted recording artists. But, just like any actor worth his salt in Hollywood will tell you: “without good writing, you ain’t got shit”
Two of Country Music’s most covered songwriters are being honored here today, singing for you in their own voices: Guy Clark, doing “That Old Time Feeling”, and Harlan Howard performing “Heartaches by the Number.” These are craftsmen, whose practical, raw boned approach to their art yielded glittering treasures.
HARLAND HOWARD (1927-2002)
Harland Howard wrote over 4000 songs, 100 of which made the top ten Country charts. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters and Country Music Halls of Fame. There are tribute albums of his songs by Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings and Wille Nelson. He wrote I Fall to Pieces for Patsy Cline, Busted, made famous by Ray Charles, and the monster hit - I got a Tiger by the Tail for Buck Owens.
Here he is singing Heartaches by the Number, which a cursory dip into YouTube reveals covers by Ray Price, Dwight Yoakam, Guy Mitchell, Leon Russell, Paul Carrack and Kitty Wells, among others. There are no frills here, but I contend that hearing the voice of the man who created the song is a more personal experience, like someone reading you their diary.
GUY CLARK (1941-2016)
The ultimate example of an unsung (pun intended) man of influence is “Old No. 1,” the luthier’s luthier, Guy Clark. His Texas home-workshop was the Austin epicenter of the Outlaw Country Movement that transformed Country Music. Watch the scene from the documentary Heartworn HIghway with Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell sitting around Guy’s kitchen table, trading songs. Townes Van Zandt may have been the most elusive doomed romantic poet of that group, but it was Guy they studied with and trusted - the one they could depend on, the Zen Master of song.
And, what songs! They are like short stories, full of vivid characters, evocative dialogue, and carefully observed detail. Songs like Desperadoes Waiting for a Train, L.A. Freeway, My Favorite Picture of You (for his late wife Susanna - the magnetic beauty patiently putting up with the Outlaw’s shenanigans). Today, he favors us with That Old Time Feeling, a tune that insinuates itself into your consciousness through a stream of unforgettable images.
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