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A Song Stripped Naked: The Be Good Tanyas Version of “Waiting Around to Die”

By Chris Hall
August 28, 2015
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The "Be Good Tanyas" (originally from Vancouver, BC) performing at Knox United Church in Calgary, Alberta on December 7th, 2006. They have previously played in Calgary at the Folk Fest and are much loved all over Canada, especially in Guelph. ; )

For some reason, I’ve had this song in my head for the entire week: The Be Good Tanyas version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around to Die.” I first heard it months ago, when I started watching Breaking Bad on Netflix. The song is used to excellent effect in the third episode of the second season, “Bit By a Dead Bee.”

But for some reason, it started haunting me, coming into my skull over the last week or so. I’ve always loved Van Zandt’s version, and I always will. The beauty of this version is that like most good covers, they don’t try to imitate Van Zandt. They just drill down and find the emotional core of it. It feels naked, like there’s nothing standing between you and the narrator’s fatalism.

“Waiting Around to Die” is about abuse: first in relationships, then through drugs. Van Zandt was legendary for his self-destruction through drug and alcohol abuse. I don’t know enough about his family life to speak on how much experience he had with events like the one portrayed in the second verse.

But this is about the Be Good Tanyas, not Townes Van Zandt. I can’t quite describe why it’s dug so deep into my head recently; sometime songs just do that to me. This isn’t a depression thing, although the matter-of-fact fatalism depicted in the lyrics and the music is a very real, very familiar thing to me. I’ve been mildly depressed lately, but living generally seems like something that’s both good and doable. I play music compulsively as a soundtrack to my life, and sometimes a song just grabs hold and won’t let go.

If I were forced to say why this one now, I would say it’s that naked quality that’s so compelling. There’s something really beautiful about the plainness and unobscured emotion. Unlike a lot of songs that only mimic fatalism or depression, it doesn’t wallow. It simply lays that sense of resignation out on the table like a hand of cards that aren’t even worth a bluff any more.

This may not be Townes Van Zandt’s definitive version of “Waiting Around to Die,” but it’s the first one I ever heard, and still the one that shows up in my playlists most often. Take a listen for comparison.

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Filed Under: Depression, Featured, Music Tagged With: Be Good Tanyas, Breaking Bad, country music, depression, folk music, Townes Van Zandt

Today You're Gonna Be Sick, So Sick

By Chris Hall
September 21, 2008
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“Nausea” by X. Because it feels right to me.

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Music, punk, X the band

An Armful of Boxcars, Part 2

By Chris Hall
June 5, 2006
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Untitled document

I got my mix from the second person in the Armful of Boxcars CD exchange today.  This one is from a woman named Sophi, from Seattle:

 Sophi's One-Eyed Jack
1. Sam Phillips All Night Long
2. James Blunt So Long Jimmy
3. Bettye LaVette Down To Zero
4. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Somewhere Over The Rainbow
5. Pixies La La Love You
6. NoFX Gin And Juice
7. Modest Mouse Life Like Weeds
8. Glen Phillips Thank You
9. Billy Bragg Must I Paint You A Picture
10. Ween Ocean Man
11. Beck I Guess I'm Doing Fine
12. Kaiser Chiefs I Predict A Riot
13. Maktub Just Like Murder
14. Michael Andrews & Gary Jules Mad World
15. Augtustana Stars & Boulevards
16. Cyndi Lauper & Sarah McLachlan Time After Time
17. Nine Inch Nails Right Where It Belongs
18. Johnathan Coulton Baby Got Back

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: cd-exchange, One-Eyed-Jack, Raindogs, Tom-Waits

An Armful of Boxcars, 2006

By Chris Hall
May 29, 2006
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Untitled document

I belong to Raindogs, a mailing list for Tom Waits fans.  Even though Waits is perhaps my all-time favorite muscian, I would normally have a hard time being obsessive enough to join a list about a single artist, even him.  The thing that keeps me subscribed to the list, though, is that it's a great resource for discovering other music.  It's filled with people whose tastes fill all kinds of nooks and crevices of the musical spectrum.  Bands that I've either discovered or decided to explore thanks to the Raindogs list include the Dresden Dolls , the Dead Brothers , and Gogol Bordello.

Recently, one of the members instigated a mass CD exchange project called An Armful of Boxcars.  The rules of the exchange were as follows: there were two different kinds of disks that could be sent out.  The first was called a One-Eyed Jack, the second a One-Eyed Myra.  The Jack is a regular mix of songs, much like you'd put together for any of your friends, with no restrictions other than there couldn't be any Tom Waits on it.  The Myra is the same, except that the music had to be a little more obscure, even by Raindogs standards.  I felt too intimidated to do a One-Eyed Myra, thinking that I couldn't come up with that much obscure music, but signed up to send Jacks out to nine people.  Three of the people that I was assigned to send disks to were overseas: England, Denmark, and Japan.

Yesterday I received my first package: a Jack and a Myra from a guy named Greg in Massachussets.  They're fascinating mixes, and most of the stuff on each is unknown to me.  I'm going to post the playlists as they come in.  Here's Greg's:

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Music Tagged With: cd-exchange, Gogol-Bordello, Music, One-Eyed-Jack, One-Eyed-Myra, Raindogs, Tom-Waits

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