Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Hank Williams Said It Best” by Guy Clark:

Guy Clark — “Hank Williams Said It Best”

Last Friday I broadcast an hour-long show on WRCU-FM Hamilton, New York. One of the songs I played was “Sometimes the Grass Is Really Greener” by the excellent Robbie Fulks, from his new album, Gone Away Backward. While it was playing, my friend got in touch to point out that a line from that song, “One man’s dirt is another man’s gold,” is an allusion to/quotation of “Hank Williams Said It Best” by Guy Clark. Here’s a decent overview of Clark’s work, from The All Music Guide. One of the things I like about music (and literature, for that matter) is the conversations that it creates.  Here, Robbie Fulks creates a conversation between himself and Guy Clark, who created a conversation between himself and Hank Williams; These conversations spawned another, between Bob and me, and between both of us and these songs, and of course, now including you as well.