Tag Archives: tina & david meltzer


Tina & David Meltzer

Lamentation for Hank Williams

If I can’t finish writing a song in ten minutes then it ain’t worth the finishing,
   said Hank to a reporter.
A camera was busy taking pictures for LIFE magazine.

–I’ll never get out of this world alive,
wrote Hank in a song
sung for millions at The Grand Ole Opry
published by Acuff-Rose Sales Inc.
recorded by MGM records

flat-picking his D-28
backed up by The Drifting Cowboys
night after night & during the days
playing at picnics, rallies
supermarket gala openings

–There’s no dreams but bad ones,
Hank told his wife Audrey
who told her lover who told the doctor
who could not heal him

places no longer places
velocity of faces
& he burned down, died at 29 of an overdose
kindly rocked to sleep in the back seat of his Cadillac
being driven to a concert
New Year’s Day 1953

by Tina & David Meltzer (listen here)