The documentary “Without Getting Killed or Caught” does an excellent job of recounting the music and life of legendary Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark.
The recent documentary about the life and music of Guy Clark, Without Getting Killed or Caught, is now available for renting on Amazon Prime. Is it worth watching?
All fans of Guy Clark will enjoy learning more about the great Texas singer-songwriter from the documentary based on Tamara Saviano’s 2016 book of the same name and the diaries of Clark’s wife Susanna Clark. The film was produced and directed by Tamara Saviano and Paul Whitfield, it was written by Tamara Saviano and Bart Knaggs.
The film does a good job of recapping the music of Guy Clark, while also revealing more about his personal life, including the complicated relationship among him, his wife Susanna Clark, and singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Fans of Van Zandt will also find much about his life and death.
The film provides a proper place in history to the person often overlooked in the story, Susanna Clark. While understandably overshadowed by the talents of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, the film highlights how she was an important part of the lives of both men. It also gives more context to her own talents in painting and songwriting. Additionally, the film literally gives Susanna Clark a voice through home audio recordings and narration in her voice by actress Sissy Spacek.
If there is any weakness in the film, it would be that it leaves one wanting to know more about Guy Clark’s music. The movie does a good job giving space to the songs in the time it has, but it probably was inevitable that a movie about someone with such a deep catalog would leave viewers wanting more.
One also may be curious to know more about Clark’s personal life and his feelings about his complicated relationship with his wife and Townes Van Zandt. But of course one film can only cover so much ground.
The movie largely rises to the challenge of exploring the life and music of Clark. It also makes the case that Guy Clark is one of the great American singer-songwriters who is too often overlooked.
(Below is a featurette about the film, featuring Jack ingram, Lyle Lovett, Patty Griffin, Rodney Crowell and others. For more about the film, here is a link to an interesting conversation between Steve Earle and filmmaker Tamara Saviano.)
What is your favorite Guy Clark song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On more than one occasion, Townes Van Zandt made what seemed like an odd choice in performing an Elvis Presley song about a shrimp.
At more than one performance, the great singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt covered a song about a shrimp. I do not know if he ever fully explained why he chose to perform “Song of the Shrimp” (aka “Shrimp Song”). At first, the selection seems an odd choice. Elvis Presley sang the unusual song in the 1962 film Girls! Girls! Girls! Why would Van Zandt choose what seems like one of the throwaway Elvis movie songs from a lightweight musical?
Perhaps it was part of a joke to Van Zandt. He famously had a dark sense of humor that came through in his songs, many of which are about death. And “Song of the Shrimp” is funny, not just for being a sea shanty originally heard from Elvis. The song also finds humor in a shrimp’s boast that will most likely lead to his own death.
Townes Van Zandt did seem to recognize that “Song of the Shrimp” was an unusual song choice for him. He even cracks up while performing the song on the live recording Live at McCabe’s. By contrast, when he once performed another song about an animal that Elvis Presley also recorded, the song was “Old Shep.” And instead of invoking laughter the song about a dog’s death seemed to make Van Zandt choke up.
The Shrimp’s Story
“Song of the Shrimp,” written by Roy C. Bennett and Sid Tepper, tells the story of a little shrimp saying farewell to his parents. He plans to jump into a shrimp boat net to catch a ride to Louisiana where he can come out of his shell.
The song is a parable about the young leaving their parents to go off on their own adventures, facing their own dangers. The twist is that we know the shrimp’s adventure most likely will end with him being served in a restaurant in New Orleans. But the shrimp does not know that.
Goodbye mama shrimp, papa shake my hand; Here come the shrimper for to take me to Louisian’; Here come the shrimper for to take me to Louisian’.
Townes performed the song as early as October 1990, with his version of “The Shrimp Song” appearing on the live albumLive in Berlin: Rain on a Conga Drum(1991). Townes Van Zandt recorded the version below live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California on February 10, 1995.
Elvis’s Movie Song
“Song of the Shrimp” is often cited as illustrating the fact that Elvis was lost in a musical wasteland during his movie-making 1960’s. In the abstract, it is somewhat shocking that the man who contributed so much to the rebellious birth of rock and roll ended up singing a ditty about a shrimp in a film called Girls! Girls! Girls!
But on the other hand, the song fits the scene in the movie. After all, it appears in a musical film. Elvis did not choose the song for a rock and roll record.
In the film, Presley sings the song aboard a fishing boat. The sound of the song and the setting remind one of an old sea shanty. In other words, it fits the movie. And, as Townes Van Zandt knew, it is a funny song.
Other Versions
There does not appear to be a large number of covers of “Song of the Shrimp,” for understandable reasons, I suppose. Not everyone has the sense of humor that Townes Van Zandt had. A few less famous covers appear on YouTube, including one with a ukulele by German artists Preslisa And Körnel Parka Twins and one by Lowlands (feat. No Good Sister, Maurizio Gnola Glielmo).
But another well-known artist who recognized the humor in “Song of the Shrimp” was Frank Black, aka Black Francis (formerly of the Pixies). He came to the song through Van Zandt’s version, which Black described to Uncut magazine as “a really deconstructed but very entertaining version.”
Black recorded his own version of the song, which appeared on his album Honeycomb (2005). Although he originally started playing a live acoustic version of “Song of the Shrimp,” the version he ultimately recorded sounds the most modern of all of the recordings. In it, Black takes Van Zandt’s deconstruction and finds a groove beyond the song’s sea shanty origins. Check out Frank Black’s version:
Whatever happened to the little shrimp, his legendary tale has gone into history as having been recounted by some very talented musicians.
The married duo Joey + Rory created some beautiful music out of their short time together, including their version of Towne Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You.”
Like many people, I love Townes Van Zandt’s song “If I Needed You.” And through the years, I’ve enjoyed many beautiful covers of the song. Recently, I discovered a version by Joey + Rory, and it has quickly become one of my favorite versions of the song. But then discovering a little more about the singers Rory Lee Feek and Joey Feek makes this version even more heartbreaking.
There’s something about finding an artist new to you and then finding out they are no longer around. That is the case for me with my recent discovery of Joey + Rory.
The husband and wife duo married in 2002 after falling in love and knowing each other only a few months. Rory Feek had served in the marines and was a single dad and successful songwriter, and Joey Martin had been part of a talented musical family. As a musical team, they achieved some success after a friend suggested they try out for a musical competition as a team. In 2008, they were among the finalists for CMT’s competition Can You Duet. Later that year, they released their debut album, and several other albums soon followed.
“If I Needed You” appeared on Country Classics: A Tapestry of Our Musical Heritage, released in October 2014. That year was a big year for both Rory and Joey, as in February they welcomed their first child, a daughter who was born with Down’s Syndrome. Then, in May, Joey was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
They initially thought that treatments had taken care of the cancer, but it returned in mid-2015. And Joey Feek passed away in March 2016 at the age of 40.
If I needed you, Would you come to me? Would you come to me? For to ease my pain; If you needed me, I would come to you; I would swim the seas, For to ease your pain.
In her final months, Joey did get to see the couple receive a Grammy nomination for their version of “If I Needed You,” and she also saw the release of their final album, a collection of gospel hymns that also featured a song they had previously released, “When I’m Gone.” In that song about a wife dying and leaving her husband, Joey sang, “And even though you love me still/ You will know where you belong/ Just give it time, we’ll both be fine/ When I’m gone.”
The background of the time period where “If I Needed You” was released adds a layer of poignancy and beauty, in the sense of how beauty often comes because everything is temporary. Joey’s voice reminds me of another of my favorite singers, Kasey Chambers (who also breaks your heart on her version of “If I Needed You” that appeared on her album Storybook in 2012).
The video for Joey + Rory’s version of “If I Needed You” also celebrates a life that started at the same time as another one was preparing to leave us, even if they did not know it at the time. Check it out.
Since Joey’s death, Rory Feek has been raising their daughter Indiana as a single father on the family farm. But he reports that he has help from many family members and that his daughter spends a lot of time in a community schoolhouse built on the property with contributions made after Joey’s passing. Rory reports that he has learned that Indy can be whatever she wants to be: “She just needs love, just like everybody else.”
Justin Townes Earle passed away on August 23, 2020, leaving behind an impressive catalog of music starting with a debut song on one of his father’s albums.
The first time I heard Justin Townes Earle’s voice was on the final song of his father Steve Earle’s 2003 album, Just An American Boy. The father gave his son the final track on the album on the son’s song, “Time You Waste.” Although I still had to wait several years for an album from the talented son, that wonderful debut led to a career of stellar music and albums. So, like many fans, I was heartbroken to learn that 2020 had claimed the life of Justin Townes Earle at the age of 38.
The news sent me back to listen to many of his albums that I had in my collection, including from his debut EP Yuma (2007) through his much acclaimed Harlem River Blues (2010) through his personal exploration in Single Mothers (2014) and Absent Fathers (2015) to his latest The Saint of Lost Causes(2019). Earle had carved out his own niche, separate from his father, but still influenced by him as well as the singer-songwriter he was named for, Townes Van Zandt.
Like his father and the man he was named for, Justin Townes Earle faced his own substance abuse problems throughout his life. We always rooted for him to succeed in controlling the demons, as his father had done. So we are heartbroken that he died even so much younger than his namesake, who had died at the age of 52.
Thinking about the music of Justin Townes Earle in this age of the pandemic where we have lost so many, I keep going back to that debut recording of “Time You Waste.”
Don’t think that I, I wouldn’t take every minute back If I could bring myself To live like that.
Cause all the other ones, You only get one chance; It’s seeing life through the eyes of the innocent; So take it slow; No need in haste,
Because the time you’ll miss Is the time you waste;
Yeah the time you’ll miss, babe Is the time you waste.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Justin Townes Earle, including his wife and daughter, his mother, and his father Steve Earle.
A new documentary about the life of Guy Clark is being released. Without Getting Killed or Caught recounts the music and life of the legendary Texas singer-songwriter.
Guy Clark is one of my favorite artists, so it is great to see his work getting more attention. One of my favorite all-time songs, Clark’s “L.A. Freeway,” provides the line that is the title of the upcoming film.
The documentary started out and was partially funded as a Kickstarter project. The film features commentary from many of those influenced by Clark, like Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell.
The movie is adapted from Clark’s wife’s writings in The Diaries of Susanna Clark, including the complicated relationship shared by her, Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. In the documentary, actress Sissy Spacek voices Susanna’s narration.
