Eric the Blue

First time I ever heard the name Blaze Foley was here, in John Prine’s intro to “Clay Pigeons.” I knew “Clay Pigeons” but had always assumed Prine wrote it. How good must a song be for Prine to cover it?He’s got about a thousand great ones he wrote himself. Here’s Foley’s version. Prine refers to Merle Haggard’s cover of another Foley song, “If I Could Only Fly.” I’ll paste in below a recording of Foley performing that one. Sorry, Merle, something got lost, and it’s perfect that the introductory chit-chat makes no mention of the man who wrote the song. I don’t know every song in the Song Book, obviously, but if there’s a sadder, more beautiful song, it’s with trepidation that I’d want to hear it.

Foley died in 1989, age 39. The story of his death, according to Wikipedia:

On February 1, 1989 Foley was at a house in the Boulder Creek neighborhood of Austin, Texas when he was shot in the chest and killed by Carey January, the son of Foley’s friend Concho January. Foley had confronted Carey January, accusing him of stealing his father’s veteran pension and welfare checks. Carey January was acquitted of first degree murder by reason of self-defense. He and his father presented completely different versions of the shooting at trial. Concho January, who has since died, liked to drink and proved an unreliable witness even though he tried to testify against his son.

Real trailer-park vibe, right? If you’re getting the idea that Foley never “made it,” you’re more right than you probably imagine. There is on YouTube a video of him performing “If I Could Only Fly” in the backyard of someone who had apparently hired him to perform at their wedding. The song doesn’t need any help being sad, but uff da, it’s painful to see him in front of a noisy, inattentive “crowd” doing one of the great songs ever for however much the newlyweds forked over. A hundred dollars?

As a kid, Foley had polio, which left him with a limping, uneven gait. Seems like maybe this biographical detail wouldn’t have helped Carey January’s case for self-defense, but the elder January’s life as a drunk seems to have held more weight. Shockingly, Foley had a problem with alcohol, too. In 39 years, he seems to have lived almost all the cliches that might be reflexively applied to Forgotten Genius of American Music. Lucinda Williams’s “Drunken Angel” is her tribute.