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I plan to keep pushing politely for this, Rachel. There’s no hurry, but I’d like to see it done sooner than later. Thanks for the support.
FAST AND LUCINDA
By BILLY HELLER (NY POST)September 27, 2007 — “Did you only want me for those three days? Did you only need me for those three days? Did you love me forever just for those three days?”
Typical lyrics from Lucinda Williams, the modern missionary of traditional country (and much more), who laments lost love on her 2003 album “World Without Tears.”That’s the album Williams will play in its entirety at the opening show of a five-night N.Y.C. stand, which begins Saturday at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza and moves to Town Hall on Tuesday. Each night, she’ll play a different album for the first set.
Williams is known for her stories of soul-scarring relationships, suicidal boys and long-gone wistfulness.
But now she’s engaged to be married, and passionate fans of the “Passionate Kisses” songwriter fear her dark muse will go missing.
Will she start writing happy songs about her guy?
“I’ll let her take that one – because she has,” says the lucky man, Tom Overby, who is also Williams’ manager. But he doesn’t mind that she writes about him, adding, “It’s very sweet.”
“I wrote ‘Honey Bee’ about Tom and me,” says Williams about a song she hasn’t yet recorded. “And it’s funky and sexy and rootsy. It’s all about -” and she breaks into song: “Doin’ my little honey bee/ I’m so glad you stung me . . . Honey bee it’s heaven, 24/7 . . .” You could practically see the smile through the phone line.
“Every song doesn’t have to be about unrequited love,” the Louisiana native says. “It makes it a lot more interesting.
“The bottom line is you either feel like writing or you don’t.” Williams, 54, says she hates the question about her personal happiness adversely affecting her songwriting.
First, she declares: “I’m here to destroy that myth.” But in her next Southern-drawl breath she admits, “I used to think that, too.”
But Williams’ fans needn’t worry. “Now, I’m living with someone who’s the right person, and I’m writing like crazy. But the thing is, I can also still write about other stuff that’s troublesome. It doesn’t have to necessarily be about my personal love life.”
Although Williams can’t claim the most fans of any popular singer, she might claim the most devoted.
“She’s special,” says Rita Houston, the music director of WFUV, a big Lucinda booster. “On a Lucinda tune, you know what the kitchen smells like, what color the car is, what’s playing on the radio. And she does it in 3½ minutes. With that attention to detail, she’s in her own league.”
As intimate as her songs are, she rarely writes about her politics, claiming it’s “easier to write personal.” Although she might talk about Iraq at a show, she leaves topical tunes to masters like Steve Earle and Bob Dylan, who she says is “king of that.”
She proceeds to tell of the time she first met Dylan, in New York in the late 1970s one night when she was playing at Folk City and he was in the bar to hear another artist. The owner introduced the two musicians.
“I was real nervous,” she admits. “When I first met Bob Dylan, I just felt this energy, kind of around him.”
Williams, who was just starting out then, says, “I think there was a little connection there. He was real low-key. He was just sitting at the bar trying to blend in with the crowd. He shook my hand and said, ‘Stay in touch. We’re gonna be going on the road soon.’ “
Later, Williams stood by the door “because I knew he was gonna be leaving,” she laughs. “He gave me a kiss on the cheek as he left.”
Williams and her personal passionate kisser, Overby, first met, fleetingly, in Minnesota in 1991 at a “meet and greet.” Overby was in the music division of Best Buy there. About 15 years later, both had moved to Los Angeles.
“I was at a hair salon in Hollywood; he came in to get his hair cut. It was a guy and a girl place, like one of those hipster hair places,” she explains, setting the scene, as if in a song.
“He walked in. I was single. Then I said, ‘Wow. This guy’s tall and slim. He’s got a nice smile and beautiful eyes.’ So we ended up hanging out that night and, you know, here we are.”
If she had to pick a favorite album of the ones she’s playing during her New York dates, Williams says it would be “Essence” (2001). And if she were a Lucinda fan?
“If I could muster up the money and had the energy, I’d go to all five shows,” she says.
Fillmore: Saturday, “World Without Tears”… Sunday, “Essence”… Town Hall: Oct. 2, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”… Oct. 3, “Sweet Old World”… Oct. 4, “Lucinda”
Yep…boring and important.
Btw, that snoozer Dylan just added 3 shows at the Chicago Theatre on Oct 27,28,29. He’s bound to play “MoW” on at least one of those nights… 8)
Yes, NC Reb, God bless those men & women; keep them safe.
Masters of War
First Release: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masksYou that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets flyLike Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drainYou fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mudYou’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veinsHow much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you doLet me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soulAnd I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re deadhttp://www.al.com/entertainment/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1190622303139840.xml&coll=2
Keep the faith, Ripley.
I think Lu’s got it in her to deliver the goods for a while yet.
When you least expect it, she just might cold-cock you with her best ever.
(Float like a butterfly, sting like a Honey Bee 😉 )Wipers – “Is This Real?” (1980) Very real 8)
To quote mastermind Greg Sage:
“We weren’t even really a punk band. See, we were even farther out in left field than the punk movement because we didn’t even wish to be classified, and that was kind of a new territory…When we put out “Is This Real?”, it definitely did not fit in; none of our records did. Then nine, ten years later people are saying, “Yeah, it’s the punk classic of the ’80s.”
