If I Could Only Fly

January 27, 2016 12:23 PM

The singer

If I Could Only Fly - Merle Haggard

The songwriter

If I Could Only Fly - Blaze Foley

The songwriter's story

Duct Tape Messiah

See also

Blaze Foley - The fall and rise of Blaze Foley

Faded Love - Blaze Foley's long lost muse, Sybil Rosen

posted by y2karl (11 comments total)

Oh, great thanks for this post. I've always been intrigued by Blaze Foley. Love his song Clay Pigeons.
posted by Rumple at 12:47 PM on January 27, 2016

Wow thanks, I've been wanting to see Duct Tape Messiah for ages and wasn't aware it was online.
(I also came in here to post Clay Pigeons)
posted by coleboptera at 12:55 PM on January 27, 2016

Crap, at first I thought this was going to say Merle Haggard died, which would have sealed this crappy time.

This is really interesting. I have a couple of Blaze Foley records buy had no idea about his story.
posted by bongo_x at 1:16 PM on January 27, 2016

I'll be damned, somehow I always thought that was a Hag original.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 1:17 PM on January 27, 2016

One of my favorite songs, and a rare case where the cover is a better realization than the writer's own rendition.

It's not a Hag original, but Hag doesn't cover songs that couldn't be his songs. It's part of his genius (and I do regard him as a real genius) to spot such things (another example is "Out Among the Stars," Adam Mitchell's haunting ballad about a liquor store robbery gone wrong, an incredible song in Hag's voice).

Lucinda Williams says her song "Drunken Angel" is about Blaze.

Thanks for the post!
posted by spitbull at 6:26 PM on January 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Crap, at first I thought this was going to say Merle Haggard died

Don't even . . . . spit spit spit.
posted by spitbull at 6:53 PM on January 27, 2016

I feel a Merle Haggard binge coming on now, thanks for lighting that fuse, y2karl.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:43 AM on January 28, 2016

The Townes song Blaze's Blues is also (obviously) about Foley. Nicely covered here
posted by C.A.S. at 11:33 AM on January 28, 2016

Well, madamejj, as spitbull recommends, there is no better place to start than Out Among the Stars...
posted by y2karl at 12:54 PM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

And from the album Out Among The Stars, I was going to add a rollicking Western Swing version of a very vintage jazz standard, which is, to quote DeKoven, Super OTW but then I found this wonderful live version of the same song: Merle Haggard & Les Paul - Pennies from Heaven.
posted by y2karl at 6:20 PM on January 28, 2016

And, for and from the record, that is, the album Out Among the Stars, here is the best of his two studio Pennies from Heaven.
posted by y2karl at 7:42 AM on January 29, 2016