Sunday Song Lyric

Hank Williams‘ “I’m So Lonesome, I Could Cry,” was the first Sunday Song Lyric.  Appropriately so as Hank Williams is easily one of the greatest American song writers of all time.  He died at only 29, and yet left one of the most impressive songbooks of any song writer.  Bob Dylan (no song-writing slouch himself) observed that “in Hank’s recorded songs were the archetype rules of poetic songwriting.”

One Williams song I hadn’t heard for some time is “Cold, Cold Heart,” which topped the country charts in 1951.  It’s not the sort of thing I listen to much, but it’s still an incredible song.  It begins:

I tried so hard my dear to show that you’re my every dream.
Yet you’re afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart
Why can’t I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

Here are the full lyrics and a TV performance.

One of these days we may get treated to even more Hank Williams songs, in a way. Dylan reportedly came into possession of 20 to 25 unfinished Williams songs, mostly lyrics without music, and has asked noted artists to record them for a tribute album.