It is such a fun song to play, it flows so easily, the lyrics spill out (if you know them well) like some type of musical iambic pentameter. His voice is the truest you could ever hope to hear recorded, frank with clarity, sans hindsight.
About two years ago I wrote a post about "Marie", another Townes song. I stated that it might well be the most depressing song I have ever heard. This song is the exact opposite. It is an acid trip of love and beauty melting into the pores with Polaroid SpecrtaVision behind rainbows, children holding hands dancing while you watch yourself dance naked in a field of tan skin.
I can't think of a more honest and pure song that has ever been written. I listen to it frequently and it touches me every time. The first time I heard it was in the heat of the south sweating booze on a friend's front porch fending off the impending hangover drinking Bud heavies and smoking Marlboro Reds while his mutt sat at my feet and he told me of his idea for a song he composed while flying up north to a wedding staring at the empty seat next to him days after she was supposed to be there, days after she left him.
My friend has since moved onto another love, actually weeks after that session he met the woman he would marry which put an end to such sessions, another man stepped out of my life and into the life of someone else. I have since went from his current life to the one he was in when we sat on that porch, but the song has never blurred or strayed. It has remained as true as it was when it first came from Townes' mouth, uttered purely.
So I'll just post the lyrics and let you look up the song on YouTube or something, you have to be a little proactive to be rewarded with this level of sincere beauty. It makes you wonder how a man who can write such a song could aggressively kill himself with poison leaving his loved ones behind.
She came and she touched me
With hands made of heaven
Reflections sent spinnin’
Through a face laced in mist
Now I stand where she left me
Buried deep ’neath her shadow
And the mirror plead sadly
Does it all come to this
And I wonder: will she call my name?
The wind careens madly
Through wide windows paneless
Fragrances mingle
In a room full of shade
The peons pick partners
And waltz cross the ceilings
But the violins whisper
That I’ve been betrayed
Tryin not to look ashamed
The drunkards drink deeply
From cups full of nothingness
Ghost lovers laugh
At the games that they play
The moments do somersaults
Into eternity
Cling to their coattails
And beg them to stay
Saying I got nothing to hide
Illusions projected
On walls made of tiffany
Mad minuetts to
A sad satin song
A harlequin mandolins
Harmonize helplessly
Hoping that endlessly
Won’t last for long
Praying that their God ain’t dying
Then I turn and I see her
In a dress made of moonlight
Teardrops like diamonds
Run slow down her face
Her arms surround me
Like chains made of velvet
And the demons fall faithfully
Into their place
And the rivers run with jewels
Now the morning lies open
The night went quite quickly
Memory harmlessly
Fractures and fades
All the poets do push-ups
On carpets of rubber foam
Loudly they laugh
At some joke that’s been made
And the wise men speak like fools
