The Hammock Papers: Darrell Scott, "Hank Williams' Ghost"

14 October 2011

Darrell Scott, "Hank Williams' Ghost"

IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
JUST BEFORE YOU’RE WIDE AWAKE
BEFORE YOU SUMMONS ALL YOUR POWERS
TO COVER UP YOUR BIG MISTAKE

WHEN ALL THE COULDA WOULDA BEENS
COLLIDE WITH SHOULDA KNOWNS
AND ALL YOUR RAGE AND ANGST HILLBILLY SINS
HAVE AN ODOR ALL THEIR OWN

AW, BUT IT’S ALL RIGHT, IT’S OK
YOU’LL LEARN TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY
LIFE IS SHORT, LIFE IS LONG HEY!
GET YOUR GUITAR AND SING THIS SONG:
LA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA…

NOW YOU’RE KICKIN BACK THE COVERS
NOW YOU’RE READY TO MAKE YOUR STAND
YOU NEVER THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE QUITE LIKE ALL THE OTHERS
NO, YOU HAD PROMISE IN YOUR HANDS

& YOU STUDIED TRUTH AND HONOR
OH, BUT YOU DID NOT PASS THE TEST
UP IN HEAVEN YOU’RE A GONER
SEEMS YOU’RE AS HUMAN AS THE REST

YEAH, BUT IT’S ALL RIGHT, IT’S OK
YOU’LL LEARN TO STAND SOME OTHER WAY
LIKE ON YOUR KNEES OR ON YOUR BACK HEY!
TAKE ONE LAST BREATH AND FADE TO BLACK
LA-DA-DA DA-DIE-DIE-DIE…

NOBODY SAID IT WOULD BE EASY
AND NOBODY SAID IT HAD TO BE THIS HARD

AND WHEN YOU’RE FLOATING O’ER THE MOUNTAIN
WITH THE LIVING WORLD BELOW
THEY’RE SO FULL OF HOPE AND SO FULL OF WANTING
MOST OF WHICH THEY’LL NEVER KNOW

BUT YOU HAVE HEARD THE ANGELS SINGING
HELL, THEY’RE SINGING TO YOU YET
TAKE THE GIFTS THAT THEY ARE BRINGING
THEY MAY BE ALL THAT YOU GET

OH BUT IT’S ALL RIGHT, IT’S OK
YOU’LL BE A SAINT SOME OTHER DAY
FARE THEE WELL, ADIOS
AND WE BLAME IT ON HANK WILLIAMS’ GHOST

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL