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The best songwriters of all time (13) Hank Williams
Even 65 years after his death – on January 1, 1953 at the age of 29 – Hank Williams is not only considered the most important country musician of all time, but also as a godfather and impulse provider of Rock’n’Roll.
“In my eyes,” says Bob Dylan, “there is no songwriter who can hold Hank Williams the water.” Between 1947 and 1952 he promoted 31 songs to the top 10 US Country charts; Five more made the leap in the year of his early death.
His spectrum ranged from the cheerful party cracker (“Hey Good Lookin ‘” or “Settin’ The Woods on Fire”) to the Lamento about the end of a relationship (“I’m so lonesome I Could Cry”), from religious enlightenment in “I Saw the Light” to the existential hopelessness in “Lost highway” or “i’ll never of This World Alive ” – his last single published during his lifetime.
“I saw the light”:
The best songwriters of all time (13) Hank Williams
However, regardless of what his minds looked like, Hank Williams wrote with an economic precision that other songwriters only dreamed of. “If a song cannot be written in 20 minutes, you shouldn’t write it in the first place,” he says – and thus immediately provided the argument why the laconic word of his songs was revered by the following generations.
“You sing songs like” Lonesome whistle “or” Your Cheatin ‘Heart’ just like to do without a bullshit, “said Beck. “The words, the melodies, the feelings – everything is in its right place. You need this economy if you want to transport a train of thought or a feeling in a song – and nobody could do it better than Hank Williams.”