Blaze Foley has been called a duct taped prophet, and a drunken angel. The recent compilation Clay Pigeons, a vinyl-only release by Secret Seven Records, illustrates that he is both: the prophet and the savior. If you’ve never heard of Blaze Foley, look him up. He drank with Townes Van Zandt, wrote for Merle Haggard and helped Lucinda Williams out with a song (and by extension, a grammy). Foley’s music is much like that of Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt and Kate Wolf: In your darkest hour, he will sing to you, and you will finally hear him.
As a songwriter, Foley had an acute vision of both the socio-political and emotional worlds. His ability to transmit this is on full display in selections off Clay Pigeons such as “For Anything Less”, “The Oval Room”, and especially “Election Day” which is both a prophetic and deeply personal song. In “The Oval Room”, Foley’s commentary on Ronald Reagan’s America, he reminds us of the gathering tides of poverty and fractionation in our society. His collaborator and friend Mandy Mercier commented in Duct Tape Messiah (a recent documentary on Foley), “In the 80′s, […] very few people were taking on political subjects. He was basically a voice crying in the wilderness, because everyone just wanted fancier cars, nicer clothes, more cocaine …. and screw the poor people.” And here we are, Foley dead for 13 years, and us still listening to his songs and waiting for it to trickle down. This is John the Baptist, Blaze Foley.
Blaze Foley (left) and Townes Van Zandt (middle)
“Ain’t it a cold, cold world?” It is, and sometimes we need to hear someone say it, as Foley does in “Cold, Cold World”. And if ever there was a time that we needed to hear a song like “Clay Pigeons”, about getting back in the saddle, now is that time. Interestingly, “Clay Pigeons” and “Election Day” are the same guitar riff in major and minor keys, respectively. Towne Van Zandt points out in the liner notes of Clay Pigeons that Foley was an “ace picker.” Van Zandt goes on to say that “Blaze Foley was a lover of things alive, and pleads their cause with every word.” Here Van Zandt points to the angel, Blaze Foley. His songs will come vividly alive to you in those times when everything is falling apart. As things do …..This is what it is like, he says in songs like “Rainbow and Ridges”. Foley further asks in Rainbows, “If everything passes, what past will we meet?” Now there’s a zen koan, if I ever heard one. Whatever he means by it, Tomorrow is another day. As only a true southern poet and country singer can tell you.
