Hank Williams led, others followed Michael Commins 
HANK Williams would be 85 if he was alive today. The legendary country singer and songwriter was born in Alabama on September 17, 1923. He died on New Year’s Day, 1953 at the age of 29.
All those years later, Hank remains an icon of the music industry. He wrote ‘heart’ songs that have spanned the decades and have been covered in pop and other fields of music by numerous singers outside the country circuit. That he should have the ability to look into the depths of the heart and espouse such an understanding of the human spirit at such a relatively young age is truly a reflection of the genius of the man.
His personal life was often a shambles for the man who gave the world such a legacy of songs. Between alcohol and pill-popping, a broken marriage and a catalogue of personal problems, Williams tried to find some form of comfort in writing songs. Many reflected the tortured nature of his soul, lonesome, bordering on despair, and yet all part of life in every generation.
Among his classics are ‘You Win Again’, ‘Take These Chains From My Heart’, ‘Lovesick Blues’, ‘Cold Cold Heart’, ‘Hey Good Lookin’‘, ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’, ‘When God Comes and Gathers His Jewels’, and the ever evocative ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’.
Sometimes in the mood of the long night you can tune into the emotion of the songs of Hank Williams and endorse the sentiments of the tribute song recorded by Moe Bandy … ‘Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life’. There’s a little bit of Hank in all of us.
The funeral of Hank Williams attracted in the region of 25,000 people to Montgomery. In The Reporter newspaper at the time, it was described as ‘the greatest emotional orgy in the city’s history since the inauguration of Jefferson Davis’.
Hank once commented about his songs: “A good song is a good song, and if I’m lucky enough to write it, well....! I get more kick out of writing than I do singing. I reckon I’ve written a thousand songs and had over 300 published.”
Leonard Cohen, who gave one of the finest concerts of the year in Dublin last summer, had this to say about the singer he honoured in one of his own songs: “When I wrote about Hank Williams ‘A hundred floors above me in the tower of song’, it’s not some kind of inverse modesty. I know where Hank Williams stands in the history of popular song. ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’, songs like that, are sublime, in his own tradition, and I feel myself a very minor writer.”
Down the ages, many writers and performers continue to be fascinated by the legacy of Hank Williams. Modern day writers even wonder if Hank Williams would have any chance at all of making such a lasting impact if he was around today … such is the trend of ‘modern’ country music. However, all of that will remain in the realms of speculation.
Rick Marschall, an authority on country music, had this to say about Hank and his place in the world of music. “Hank’s singing was as mournful as his lyrics and, like Jimmie Rodgers, he employed a yodel as a blues device. In fact Hank choked and whined through his heartache songs, emoting almost more than singing.
“To listeners, the records of Hank Williams almost became vicarious glimpses into his tortured life and restless soul. Between his hope-filled gospel songs and the rambling, despair songs were the blues – and once again, it is only Jimmie Rodgers among country artists who so closely identified himself with the blues in lyric and theme.
“Hank’s music was derived from the white gospel sound, never more complex than country’s basic three-chord structure. Those who knew him say Hank embodied mood swings between offensive egomania and poetic sensitivity; he died at 29 but had lived a life so filled with heartache, physical pain, depression, disappointment and resentment that he was an old man riding in that Cadillac.
“In a sense everyone else in country music since has been an imitator. Many indeed have imitated his style, for years afterwards, but no one quite sounded like him or wrote songs like him. And in his life – recalling the self-destructiveness of so many rock singers, the honky-tonk lifestyles of country singers, and the hope echoed by gospel singers - no one quite lived like Hank Williams, either.”
You could say he summed it all up pretty well.
