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Has anybody else read the Bill Buford article on Lu? I read somewhere she wasn’t at all keen on it, but after reading it myself recently it didn’t seem too harsh. She came across as the person we all like – kind, insecure at times, devoted to her craft and moody (a bit like most of us, I’d say). So I wonder what she found so objectionable?
I think maybe she objected to his portrayal of her mother, who was alive at the time, and it seems to me that Lucinda was pretty fiercely protective of her mother and her mother’s privacy. Of course, now that her mom is gone, she’s talked some about the mental illness that plagued her throughout her life. IIRC, that was one of the things I heard at the time of the article’s publication. He also got a few facts wrong–he said that she and Richard Price had broken up, which they hadn’t. They did later, but when the article came out, they were still together. I’m sure there are other things that we haven’t heard, but those are what I can remember.
I thought that this New Yorker profile was a great piece of journalism — deserving of all the accolades it received from everyone except, unfortunately, Lucinda. 🙁 I shared it with a lot of friends because I felt it was sympathetic and it placed her in the rarefied category of great, tortured artists. I also thought it was respectful of her, even admiring of her, at the same time capturing Lucinda’s lovable neuroses; it made her more endearing, as we all like to say around here.
But then, of course, as a reader I have no idea of what Buford led her to believe or what she told him.
After the profile came out i remember reading that Lucinda was offended that Buford had quoted close friends and family — and she thought he was talking to them off the record. She trusted him, and felt deceived. Rachel may be right about the mention of her mother.
It was written 10 years ago — at a different time in her life. Perhaps at the time she was still trying to find her way personally and as an artist — as the success of Car Wheels was quickly taking her out of obscurity. Maybe she felt Buford took advantage of her vulnerabilities at the time. Lucinda seems quite happy today. Who knows — maybe she has mellowed on this profile by now. She is pretty open today about everything from her mother and mental illness, to the pain and loss that inspired some of her greatest songs, to her own perfectionism and neuroses. (Witness last year’s tour and the free-flowing chat with her audiences.)
Only she and maybe Buford know why she was sour on it. She’s certainly entitled to be hurt and pissed — it’s her life, after all. But as a simple fan, and a reader, I can only say it made me admire her more.
You know, maybe if the article had been written later than it was, it would’ve been different to her–but I agree with you, Ray, about the fact that she was rapidly being pulled out of near-obscurity with the success of Car Wheels, and as fans, we have no idea what the heck was going on in her mind about all of that. If the article had been written after Essence came out, or before WWT, maybe she would’ve had a different reaction. Who knows? She certainly seems to be more willing to be open about more areas of her life–I’m not sure she would’ve shared with her fans that she went through an abusive relationship if it had happened back during that time, which it unfortunately did later on. Just from my perspective as a fan, having read copious amounts of interviews, she just seems more comfortable in her own skin now. As far as whether he talked to family and friends and then used that in the article when he said it was off-the-record, that was pretty low. I can recall her saying that her mother didn’t want her to put the song “Bus to Baton Rouge” on Essence, because she (her mother) wasn’t ready to deal with it, and unless I read between the lines pretty heavily, I can’t see too much more that a woman going back to a house years later and remembering the way it was when she was a child, since she never directly referenced her mother in that song. I’ve always wondered about the line “Sometimes the doors, they’d be locked/’Cause there were precious things that I couldn’t touch”…was she meaning that her mother was locked in one of the rooms because she was in the midst of her illness?
Sorry–that post veered off into rambling.
Rachel — wow — pretty incisive read of those lyrics! With that thought, the song has an even more powerful ghostly feel to it…
….Like after I read the Buford story, and then I heard “Pineola” again — the context of that song sent a wave of emotion over me.
(Not a ramble at all!) 8)
I heard an early, early version of ‘Pineola’ from about 1985 or thereabouts, and there’s a verse she left out of the version we all know, which really blew my mind when I heard it. By now, the general consensus is that she was, in fact, dating Frank Stafford at the time he took his life, and he was messing around on his wife with several women, including Lucinda, while telling all of them that he wanted to be with them, so none of them actually thought they were doing anything wrong, since he was telling the women on the side that he was divorcing his wife, while telling his wife that he only loved her:
With a wife and a lover and another on the side
His world fell apart around him
On the last day before he died
They all three threatened to leave him
Some say he lied himself to death
How was I to know it?
He was a fool to pull that trigger
But he sure was a damn good poet.Rachel, I think you should write the next New Yorker profile. Thanks for giving us those lost lyrics…. Wow, again. Sure would love to hear that early version….
is there any chance someone could post the article? this discussion has got me intrigued and I’d like to read it.
cheers
I’m glad everyone seemed to find the article as interesting and, as a whole, as sympathetic as I did. However, if Buford, quoted members of her family without her consent then I agree she had a reason to be bummed about the article. Maybe she was just a bit too trusting overall. I didn’t know much about her mother’s problems before, but having heard more now, and having depresion myself, I can feel only more connected to Lucinda’s music.
Big up to Rachel for the ‘lost’ verse as that illuminated the song even more than I already knew.
I hadn’t heard about that article before, but it doesn’t seem to be easily available online. A shame, because it sounds intriguing even if Buford crossed the line.
As for the extra verse to Pineola…I’ve heard it too (I think it’s on a radio show bootleg from 1985) and it’s interesting, but I think in the end the song is stronger without it. It’s too personal, maybe, and something about the specificity of it takes away from the rest of the song. As it is on Sweet Old World and the way she performs it now, it’s just about a perfect song…not a wasted or superfluous lyric to be found. I think it’s a great example of the uniqueness of Lucinda’s songwriting, and one I point to when I’m telling someone why she’s one of my favorite artists.I agree with you, Stu–she went from being almost an observer of what was going on to being part of it. The whole time I hear Pineola, I always sort of imagine her just a little apart from everything, which it seems like she truly was, given accounts of the events I’ve read different places, and with the verse that she ultimately left out, she tells just a fraction too much about herself, maybe. We have no idea her relationship to the dead man in the song if we don’t know the backstory, and if she’d have left the song as it was originally on that radio show, it would’ve just been too quick (and short) a jump. I do like the verse in and of itself, but, and speaking solely for myself, I think she was right to leave it out.
“The best stories are never completely told.”
– AnonymousThought I had the New Yorker issue that the Buford story appeared in – driving myself batty trying to locate it. 😡 The memory is foggy, but I thought I came away more intrigued by Lu & her music after reading it.
was hoping to get back in on this conversation earlier, but high tides, high winds knocked out the power all day… jeez you really miss the modern world sometimes….
anyway, i don’t have a copy of that new yorker (note: i stand corrected– it appeared in june 2000, not quite 10 years ago), but I read it in an anthology (DeCapo best music writing) loaned it to others, and it was never returned. But, if i had it I don”t know if i’d want to post the offending story on her official website…?!! 🙄 (However if anyone wants to post a link to the early version of Pineola, I’d be much obliged.)
if you google variations of “bill buford + lucinda williams + new yorker” there is interesting commentary to be found….
Lefty’s quote (“The best stories are never completely told.”) says everything about great writing. It is all about what you decide to leave out.
Maybe that’s part of what bothered Lucinda about the story — she couldn’t edit out any of it. I think many of us want to leave part of ourselves unknown, secret, mysterious, guessed at….
Lucinda has followed the less is more approach with each album with a purity that kills. eg: “Mama you sweet.”
i’ll say one more thing about that article — and also about Lucinda’s songs from that time: For me –a yankee — it coincided with and kind of fueled a growing interest in all things Southern — music, literature, culture, geography. Lucinda has left those subjects behind in her recent songs, as we know. But I think those Car Wheels songs certainly belong in the pantheon of great Southern writing (though they’re not limited to that genre). The article and the music also helped to change some of my mistaken stereotypes and to embrace the deep south. I’ve had Lucinda’s music and that article pop into my head many times south of the mason-dixon line. Now i consider myself a Yankee with a Southern Soul.
i have had a serious look around online for a copy of the article, including some of the online databases for back copies of the new yorker (i’m a uni student), but they seem to only have from 2001 onwards.
ithe discussion about pineola has been great. it is one of my favourite lucinda songs and I agree with you stu, it is a great example of her songwriting style and it is a song I play to people when i’m trying to introduce them to her music.
i’m new to the board, but i’d love to hear more informed discussion like this happening. it’s great.
cheers, pete
darkhorse wrote:is there any chance someone could post the article?For anyone interested in reading a copy of this article, I’d try Amazon for a copy of Da Capo Best Music Writing 2001. Mine cost virtually nothing but I had to pay about 12 US dollars postage for it to be delivered to the UK. I too struggled to find it on the New Yorker website; or anywhere else, for that matter.
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