A few weeks ago, DZ brought our attention to the terrific keynote speech given by Bruce Springsteen at this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX this past March, in which he basically spent an hour going over his musical influences. It’s really great. At about the 37 minute-mark, he begins to talk about country music and (one of my heroes) Hank Williams. Says The Boss:
I remember sitting in my little apartment, listening to Hank Williams Greatest Hits over and over. And I was trying to crack his code because at first it just didn’t sound good to me. It just sounded cranky and old-fashioned…with that hard country voice. With that austere instrumentation. But slowly, slowly my ears became accustomed to its beautiful simplicity and its darkness and depth. And Hank Williams went from archival to alive for me before my, before my very eyes. And I lived, I lived on that for awhile in the late ’70s.
One thing it rarely was…it was rarely politically angry, it was rarely politically critical. And I realized that fatalism had a toxic element. If rock ‘n roll was a seven-day weekend, country was Saturday night hell-raising, followed by heavy Sunday coming down. Guilt, guilt, guilt. I [fracked] up, oh my God. But, as the song says, would you take another chance on me? That was country. Country seemed not to question why, it seemed like it was about doing then dying, screwing then crying, boozing then trying. And as Jerry Lee Lewis, the living, breathing personification of both rock and country, said, “I’ve fallen to the bottom and I’m working my way down.”
And then Bruce said something that caught my attention:
What country never accounted for was why things happened — I wanted to know why Hank Williams Sr.’s bucket had a hole in it.
Bruce was looking for a political answer to the troubles that ail us in this world. Maybe something from without that mars the goodness within. I would have to say, with deep respect for Bruce and love for his work, that Hank Williams does pinpoint the source of his woes EXACTLY. It comes directly from his heart. His own recidivistic condition and bondage. That explanation never has received a happy hearing. Take a look at some of these Hank Williams lyrics:
You thought she’d care for you and so you acted smart
Go on and break, you crazy heart
You lived on promises I knew would fall apart
Go on and break you crazy heart.You never would admit you were mistaken
You didn’t even know, the chances you were takin’
I knew you couldn’t win, I told you from the start
Go on and break you crazy heart.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD0riwgKq8w&w=600]
From Our Lord in Mark 7:
“Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” … And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Hank Williams was steeped enough in the Christian tradition to have heard and understood this portion of Scripture. And he clearly connected it with his own failures and “the hole in his bucket”. So, with all due respect to The Boss, Hank was clear and he got it right.
COMMENTS
11 responses to “Who Put That Hole in My Bucket? The Difference Between Bruce Springsteen and Hank Williams”
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David, have you ever heard Hanks songs that he takes from scripture? I am not sure of the name but it starts out “In the great book of John.” Hank is one my favorites as well.
It is called “The Angel of Death”. Awesome song.
In the great book of John you’re warned of the day
When you’ll be laid beneath the cold clay
The angel of death will come from the sky
And claim your poor soul when the time comes to die.
Chorus:
When the angel of death comes down after you
Can you smile and say that you have been true
Can you truthfully say with your dying breath
That you’re ready to meet the angel of death?
When the lights all grow dim and the dark shadows creep
And then your loved ones are gathered to weep
Can you face them and say with your dying breath
That you’re ready to meet the angel of death.
Such an eerie song! But, I love Hank Williams. He sings several other songs dealing with scripture. I guess his most famous is “I Saw the Light.”
It is a very eerie song, as are “Alone and Forsaken” and others. Hank Williams’s work (like Shakespeare and Dostoevsky and others) is absolutely inundated with Scripture. It’s difficult to imagine that he died at age 29!
David, I grew up in Hank Williams’ hometown of Georgiana in south Alabama. I’ve got connections. (Call me!) A few years ago at the annual festival, the Baptist church’s sign there said, “I SAW THE LIGHT WHEN GOD CHANGED MY CHEATIN’ HEART.” I thought it was brilliant! Here’s the link to a photo. Best wishes to you. Missed you in New York.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=224699774215098&set=a.224697290882013.63416.224680994216976&type=3&theater
Morris, I currently live fairly close to Georgiana. I am in Enterprise. When does this festival take place?
The 2012 Hank Williams Festival in Georgiana will be June 1 and 2, Robin. Here’s a link. Hope you’ll be able to come. I’ll be in town from Birmingham. Best wishes. http://hankwilliamsfestival.com/
Wow! I would love to go to the festival. I wish I had done it when I lived in Alabama but I kept putting it off. Now I can’t!
Morris, my father actually grew up in Lowndesboro which is close to Georgiana. I spent many a month in your neck of the woods. I’ll hit you up!
Look for more Hank Williams on MBird soon!
David, with our Lowndesboro/LA roots (“Lower Alabama” to the uninitiated), we are brothers for sure — on several planes. The Hank Williams festival developed after I left Georgiana for college, and I’m happy for our little village’s prominence as his hometown. Several years back, a NashVegas artist of second-magnitude took ill on the eve of his performance in Georgiana and some third-tier unknown by the name of Loretta Lynn bused into town as his replacement. Nashvillians are thick as thieves, apparently — as loyal a bunch of comrades as Mockingbirders. A dear friend runs the Hank Williams Sr. (isn’t it a shame one must distinguish?) Boyhood Home and Museum there as a volunteer and she says the sign pulls people off I-65 from as far away as Asia.* As far as hitting me up goes, I’ll refer you to her and she’ll provide you all the HankInfo you can handle for your future MBird posts.
*Speaking of faraway prominence, I attended an Anglican church in Tokyo last summer and at the service’s end the priest asked, Baptist-style, that visitors announce where they were from. When I stood and said, “Birmingham, Alabama” there came resonating from back in the pews a hearty “Roll Tide!” I’d have really been impressed if he’d sung the chorus of, “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” but surely that would have been too much!