Classic Clips: Lucinda Williams “Drunken Angel” – Austin City Limits, 1998

‘Drunken Angel’ is about a man who released only one single before his death in 1989 yet went on to achieve legendary status. Lucinda Williams wrote the song about Blaze Foley, a friend she’d made in Austin, Texas. It appears on her celebrated 1998 album, “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” and is a staple of her live shows. As she tells it –

“‘Drunken Angel’ is one of those songs that finds its way into the set night after night no matter where we’re playing. We could be in Oslo, Norway, or Salt Lake City or wherever, and it’s gonna be one of those. It’s almost become like an anthem. Everybody loves that song and responds to it.”

So who was this man that inspired not just Williams to pay tribute but also Townes Van Zandt, with his ‘Blaze’s Blues’ in 1990. Blaze Foley was born Michael Fuller in 1949, in Malvern, Arkansas but grew up in Texas. Polio left him with a limp though he grew to be well over six feet tall and was heavily built. His size, accompanied by an irascible temper and a drinking problem, would often see him banned from Austin’s bars. Even in the manner of his death, his physical presence became the linchpin of the defence, the man who shot Foley being acquitted on dubious grounds of self-defence.

First performing under his assumed name in 1977, Foley was also known by the soubriquet Deputy Dawg after the cartoon character, on account of his walrus moustache. Surfing couches and sleeping on pool tables, or under them, he appears to have had no fixed abode. It’s doubtful he owned anything much though he was known to offer guitars for sale, usually of questionable provenance and sometimes to an artist in mid-set.

The reliable source of many such tales is Gurf Morlix, who became a close friend and would later work with Lucinda Williams on “Car Wheels”, first as producer, then solely as a guitarist. Amidst this chaotic lifestyle, Foley produced songs whose posthumous release has brought him wider acclaim. Best known might be ‘Clay Pigeons’ which was covered by John Prine and the 1979 song, ‘If I Could Only Fly’ which was covered by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson in 1987 and subsequently by many others. There are even two films about Foley, the 2011 documentary “Duct Tape Messiah” and the 2018 biopic “Blaze” directed by Ethan Hawke while Mike Judge (“King Of The Hill”) has produced an episode of “Tales From The Tour Bus” dedicated to Foley.

But it’s “Drunken Angel” that’s done more than anything to keep the memory of Blaze Foley alive. In just over three minutes, Williams portrays her love, frustration and anger, asking why Foley had to “let it go that far” and capturing all her feelings so succinctly in the paradoxical title. This performance from Austin City Limits on 5th December 1998 followed the release of her seminal album earlier that year. Though many more musicians were used in the lengthy recording process, her live band featured John Jackson and Kenny Vaughan on guitar, Richard Price on bass, Randy Leago on keyboards, Fran Breen on drums and Jim Lauderdale on acoustic guitar and harmonica.