I'm so lonesome....

[Dr. J]

Just finished reading this

Great read.......

for what it says and doesn't say about Hank Williams.

[popo weenie]

Just finished reading this

Great read.......

for what it says and doesn't say about Hank Williams.

a big legend and never will die

he had a very sad life getting into the booze etc

kiled himself but i guess thats what some people choose eh depression is very sad

glad you are old enough to know about him i am a big fan of luke the drifter

[Dr. J]

a big legend and never will die

Amen to that popo.

Hank Williams killed himself only in the sense that he knew his combination of booze, drugs (morphine/pain-killers), ill-health and self-destructive lifestyle would eventually take his life ("I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive").

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

He's someone I know precious little about; in a nutshell (if that's possible), what was it that pushed him down that road?

[popo weenie]

He's someone I know precious little about; in a nutshell (if that's possible), what was it that pushed him down that road?

his wife was on his back all the time to do this and that all shit he is gone but his music lives on

[Davey Boy 2.0]

he had physical problems too- a bad back IIRC

[Dr. J]

I'm no expert on the subject, but it seems to me that Hank Williams was a very fragile person, both physically and emotionally, from a very early age. He dealt with pain on many different levels and that pain came to permeate his music.

There's no question that part of his abuse of booze and pills was to kill the physical pain that haunted him throughout his life.

As popo rightly points out, Hank had a difficult time dealing with dominant women in his life, particularly his mother (his father left shortly after he was born) and his first wife, both of whom wanted to direct his career for their own purposes and who were constantly at war with each other....with Hank caught in the middle.

Lastly, even his music was a difficult place for him to be. What Hank was trying to do musically, with his blend of honky tonk/blues/gospel etc was seen for the most part as being outside the norm by country purists who termed it "hillbilly music". Hank felt deeply, to the very end, that he was looked down upon by the very community where he so desperately sought acceptance.

That's certainly not the whole story and separating fact from fiction regarding Hank Williams is difficult, but I think that's part of it (in a nutshell).

I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?

Hank Williams hasn't answered me yet

But I hear him coughing all night long

A hundred floors above me

In the tower of song

Leonard Cohen