Review of Be Here to Love Me (2004) by Thomas M — 31 Jan 2010

Fascinating documentary about a indescribable songwriter. The man never had a hit. He never toured nothing bigger than dive bars in the backwoods of the southeast and the southwest. When he had the chance to go on a world tour backed with the blues great John Lee Hooker he got completely drunk and totaled his car and broke his arm.

When Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard had a huge #1 country hit with "Pancho & Lefty" he didn't give a shit and blew whatever royalties he had with the song. He was a drunk, a heroin addict and a pot head.

And since he was a long haired liberal hippie he was not welcome in Texas or the Nashville community. This is the story the film "Crazy Heart" should have been based on. The man was a diagnosed manic depressive and went through electric shock therapy that went disastrously and ended up causing his long term memory to be erased.

His songs are the best evocations of loneliness and dispair. It has been said that many people suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts have come to embrace his music and if you ever pick up his albums (which are extremely hard to come by since they are not owned by anybody) you will see why.

I personally love the albums "For the Sake of the Song", "Our Mother the Mountain" and "Live at the old Quater". Sorry but people don't write such brilliant and beautiful songs like he did anymore.

Insightful interviews with people who have claimed to be influenced by him. Kris Kristofferson. Willie Nelson. Bob Dylan. Norah Jones. Emmylou Harris. Steve Earle. What a sad and fascinating life. It is too bad he let the drugs and booze eventually kill him.

The songs "For the Sake of the Song", "Waiting Around to Die", "I'll be here in the morning", "No Place to Fall" and his live cover of the Rolling Stones classic "Dead Flowers" (used in the film "The Big Lebowski") are among my favorite songs of all time.