Severed Ears, ODs, Voices from God, etc

Tonight I decided to re-watch the excellent documentary on Townes Van Zandt called Be Here to Love Me.

I know that I recently heralded Hank and Woody as the greatest artists of the 20th century. I'll stick by that, I suppose. But coming in close behind has got to be Townes Van Zandt (and Bob Dylan right beside him).

His songs are so devastating and sad and perfect and beautiful. As Kristofferson says in the film, he was a songwriter's songwriter.

It's so sad to me that he had to be such a sloppy, crazy disaster of a human being. I've wondered this many times...is insanity a prerequisite for genius? I mean, Townes threw himself 4 stories off a building backwards just to see what it felt like to fall. He was a lifetime substance abuser, which caused his early death at the age of 54. He was a terrible husband and a terrible father. But his songs...they're perfect. They're so, so beautiful. And they're incredibly sad and hopeless, which is probably why I like them so much.

One of Townes's sons, who had to live with the irresponsibility and empty refrigerator and dirty carpets, puts it so well. He says something like, "there's more important things in life than writing great songs."

Townes says it himself. "I came to a point where I said to myself, you know, I could really do this. But it takes blowing EVERYTHING off. Security, family, you freedom, you got to sacrifice ALL of it. And you just take a guitar, and go."

I don't know what I'm getting at here...I just wonder what it takes to be a truly great artist. I write songs, and I make doodles, and I do this blog and whatnot, and truth is, I'm about half crazy myself. But I'm no artist. Maybe if I was 100% crazy, I could be. As it is, I'm a wannabe professor who messes around with art stuffs. And, if being batshit crazy and ruining the lives of my loved ones is my alternative, i'm cool with where I am.