Hank Williams died in January, 1953 at 29 years of age. The cause of death was alcohol and morphine. Williams was an alcoholic, and had been given morphine to deal with pain resulting from a back injury he suffered in 1951. He took too much of both, and died in the back seat of his car while being driven to a performance.
Among the possessions found Williams' car was a notebook filled with Williams' lyrics and notes for songs he had not yet recorded. That notebook disappeared until 2006, when it was found in a dumpster by a janitor employed by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. After lawsuits and threats of arrest, the janitor's story was found to be true, and in 2008, Sony turned the notebooks over to Bob Dylan to complete the songs for a new album.
That album (a CD, but I hate that name) is called The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams and was released in October 2011.
It sucks.
Dylan recruited Jack White to work with him on the lyrics and the music. Dylan may have been stoned when he made that decision. We can't rule that out. Dylan and his label then lined up other singers to record tracks of Williams' lost songs on the Lost Notebooks CD. That included Jack White, Alan Jackson, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Levon Helm, Holly Williams, Jacob Dylan and Merle Haggard.
All of those are good, perhaps great, performers, but in my opinion, they didn't belong on Lost Notebooks. They ruined the songs Williams wrote. The songs should have been performed by performers who have Williams' voice, timing and tone; as nearly as possible. They could all have been performed by Willie Nelson, or Merle Haggard, or even Hank Williams, Jr. or maybe John Anderson.
Decide for yourself. Here's ol' Hank:
And here's Norah Jones singing How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart.
This link to a Wiki article includes all of the tracks on the Lost Notebooks CD down at the bottom of the linked page. You can click on any or all of them and hear the entire CD without having to buy it.
I kept thinking the same thought as I listened to the recordings: I don't think ol' Hank would have done it this way.
8 comments:
And here's Norah Jones singing How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart.
I like her rendition. No glitz and no showboating.
I'd have more respect for Hankus if he'd made it to 69. But that's just me.
I like the sound of the woman more than the sound of Hank Williams.
Based on what you wrote here, I'd bet you don't care for Two Rooms (available for 1¢)
Two Rooms looks interesting, Chip. I think I'd like it. And I like the new CD of duets by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.
I think that Hank Williams is such an icon, though, that his unrecorded songs should have been first recorded by singers of the same genre, and then perhaps by others.
They gave it to the wrong guy. Should've waited for Hank III to come along.
They gave it to Bob Dylan? WTH.
Should have given it to Obama, who sings "I'm so loathesome I could cry".
Like EMD said, Hank III.
Post a Comment