Dearly Departed Townes Van Zandt and the DNA of Music…

Can anyone confirm that the original recording of this song on the 1968 LP ‘For the Sake of the Song’ has our heroine Caroline ‘walking down the road’ and not ‘whoring on the streets’? These guys in the comment section don’t believe me, but I remember the lyrics clearly even though I haven’t spun the LP in decades–can’t, since I have no record player, and the LP is in Thailand adorning a bookshelf! I bought it in the bargain rack for $.49 (or was it $.99?) in the Walgreen store of the original Jackson Mall out on Hwy. 49, one of my prouder purchases, as I spun the grooves off over time.

So imagine my surprise while staying in Austin in 1976 that not only was the ‘Late Great TVZ’ alive and well, but he was the house band at some coffee-house on the UT campus that I was too lazy to navigate, had to content myself with Paul Ray and the Cobras at the nearby Hole in the Wall, featuring a young unknown guitarist named SRV, trying to show support for new emerging talent, you never know who might be the next Clapton…

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