Читать книгу A Haven For Songs - Martin Wimmer - Страница 8

In January 2018, Ethan Hawke presented his fourth film at the Sundance Film Festival: "Blaze." At the same time, couple Carmen and Kai Nees from Roedermark, Germany published their book "Blaze Foley. From Misfit To Legend." Who is this singer-songwriter everyone is talking about now?

Blaze Foley (1949-1989), born Michael David Fuller in Arkansas, shot and buried in Texas, where he had spent much of his life, was a completely unsuccessful and unknown songwriter during his lifetime.

He did not release an album until his early death at the age of 39 and much of the posthumously published material is only accessible to specialists today. His songs oscillate between biting political satire and hippieesque love songs, without ever reaching the originality, quality or radicalism of many of his contemporaries - even if the very die-hard fans may of course see it differently.

There are hardly a handful of relevant cover versions, only "If I Could Only Fly" by Merle Haggard and "Clay Pigeons" by John Prine are worth mentioning from a commercial point of view. Then there are two songs about him better known to fans of Texas songwriters, "Blaze's Blues" by Townes Van Zandt and "Drunken Angel" by Lucinda Williams. That's about it.

The story of Michael David Fuller

So why the hype? What, almost thirty years after the death of an unknown musician, drives one of the most famous men in Hollywood and a married couple from the Rhine-Main region in Germany to occupy themselves so intensively with him of all people?

I don't want to tell the whole story of Michael David Fuller here, just a handful of snapshots should give an idea of how colorful this life was: He was born in a town in Arkansas but grew up in Texas. At 12, he was performing with his family at gospel concerts in churches. By 22, he was a chubby supermarket clerk with a side parting and tie. By his mid-30s, he was living as a hippie in a tree house, subsisting on drugs and alcohol, refusing to shower and sleeping in garbage cans. He did not live to see his 42nd birthday. In 1989 he was shot by the son of a good friend under unexplained circumstances.

BFI is the name of a garbage disposal company in Austin, TX, which was printed large on the containers that offered the homeless more shelter from the rain and the thugs than the street. Blaze Foley Inside, Fuller reinterpreted the abbreviation for himself when he spent another night drunk off his ass on the trash bags.

Absolutely unique, however, was a passion that earned him the nickname "The Duct Tape Messiah." Over the years, Foley developed a fetish for silver duct tape, which he used to "decorate" - or rather, hold together - clothes, utensils and stage equipment. Symbolically, Duct Tape probably best expresses what Foley stands for: a radical affirmation of art combined with an equally radical attitude of refusal towards social constraints. Foley was a punk aesthetically and politically, but musically rooted in the realities of his country & folk friends. He was a plastic punk in a honky-tonk.

Living In The Woods In A Tree

Hawke's biopic is the second film about Foley. The autobiography Living in the Woods In A Tree by Foley's friend Sybil Rosen served as a model. It was also followed in many places by Kevin Triplett's documentary Blaze Foley. Duct Tape Messiah from 2011, which can be viewed in its entirety on the Internet.

The book of the Nees' is well done, extremely informative, with many rare photos and background information on Foley's closest confidants. The couple's worldwide contacts in the songwriting scene pay off. Virtually every article of relevance about Foley published in the last 30 years, every interview, whether from music magazines or blogs, is reproduced. Frankfurt music journalist Thomas Waldherr has contributed a comprehensive and accurate discography.

It is a work of love. The accompanying website and Facebook account update the Nees' deep knowledge of the Foley universe with links to videos, cover versions and new releases. It's all-around great stuff. The fact that the book and online presence were celebrated by the worldwide Foley community immediately after publication as the new gold standard is no surprise.

Maybe y'all should listen more intensively to the music of the Texan. Here are some lines from Foley's song Oval Room. Doesn't it sound like it was written about Donald Trump last week?

He's a businessman, he got business ties He got dollar signs in both his eyes Everywhere he goes, make the people mad Makes the poor man beg, and the rich man glad He's the president, but I don't care