Proving once again that old age and treachery beats youth and skill every time, grizzled Texas singer-songwriter emeritus Guy Clark has knocked Jay-Z & Kanye West’s Watch the Throne from the top MP3 albums sales spot on Amazon.com.
Employing the same budget-pricing strategy that helped Lady Gaga’s Born This Way sell more than 1.1 million copies its first week, most of which were priced at 99 cents through a controversial promotion, Clark’s live album Songs and Stories was offered at $3.99 all day Monday, and sold enough to temporarily bounce Watch the Throne from the No. 1 position.
Rocks Off doubts that Clark, who turns 70 in two months, will sell as many copies as Gaga (or even 1/20th), or that Jay-Z and Kanye will much mind this brief interruption of their dominance. But as both of them would be the first to admit, No. 1 is No. 1.
In case any of you whippersnappers out there are wondering who the hell Guy Clark is, the former Anderson Fair regular and mentor to Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith and Emmylou Harris (among many others) has a way with a lyric that puts Hova and Kanye to shame, and goes harder than either one. Allow us to demonstrate.
“Dublin Blues”
I wish I was in Austin
In the Chili Parlour Bar
Drinkin’ Mad Dog margaritas
And not carin’ where you are
But here I sit in Dublin
Just rollin’ cigarettes
Holdin’ back and chokin’ back
The shakes with every breath
“L.A. Freeway”
And you put the pink card in the mailbox
Leave the key in the old front door lock
They will find it likely as not
I’m sure there’s somethin’ we have forgot
Oh Susanna, don’t you cry, babe
Love’s a gift that’s surely handmade
We’ve got something to believe in
Dontcha’ think it’s time we’re leavin’
“The Randall Knife”
My father was a good man
A lawyer by his trade
And only once did I ever see
Him misuse the blade
It almost cut his thumb off
When he took it for a tool
The knife was made for darker things
And you could not bend the rules
“Desperados Waiting For a Train”
From the time that I could walk he’d take me with him
To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe
And there was old men with beer guts and dominoes
Lyin’ ’bout their lives while they’d play
“Rita Ballou”
She’s a rawhide rope and velvet mixture
Walkin’ talkin Texas texture
High-timin’ barroom fixture kind of a girl
She’s the queen of the cowboys
Look at old Willard grinnin’ now boys
You’d have thought there’s less fools in this world
Songs & Stories is also available at Cactus Music.
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This article appears in Aug 11-17, 2011.
