Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams in New York, 2009

Lucinda Gayle Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk and country music singer, songwriter and musician.

Quotes

• I know—they treat it like it’s a big phenomena. It would be like, “all-girl band” or “girl drummer” and I’d be like, “Why can’t you just say drummer?” Female this, female that. It’s an oddity.
  • On how women are perceived in the music industry in “Lucinda Williams On the Hard and Sedulous Road to Major Label Success” in She Shreds (2017 Mar 6)

• I grew up being aware that I was Southern, and that being a very important thing for me. And being drawn to short story writers, like Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty—the surroundings in their stories were so familiar to me, the whole Southern Gothic thing. That world only existed in that part of the country. It’s going to inform the personality of the songs. In a lot of my songwriting, I mention towns and places. It’s a culturally traditional thing in the South to tell stories.
  • On how her Southern heritage informed her songwriting in “Lucinda Williams On the Hard and Sedulous Road to Major Label Success” in She Shreds (2017 Mar 6)

• My mother passed away in 2004, and then my dad 10 years later. That period in between, I wrote songs like “Death Came”, and then after my father passed away I wrote, “If There’s A Heaven” and “If My Love Could Kill”, which I wrote about the Alzheimer’s disease that killed my father. There’s a lot of dealing with loss, and heavy stuff, and life. It’s a lot different of an album than some of my earlier ones, like Essence, when I was still struggling with unrequited love as a younger girl.
  • On how her album Ghosts of Highway 20 differs from her prior albums in “Lucinda Williams On the Hard and Sedulous Road to Major Label Success” in She Shreds (2017 Mar 6)

• I was always into different kinds of music but just by default, I was singing and playing acoustic guitar; I didn’t know how to dance or anything. So it would take some time, over a year, for me to kind of progress into the stuff that I ended up doing later, the more Southern soul, country-rock, whatever-you-want-to-call-it kind of thing.
  • On her 1980 album Happy Woman Blues in “Lucinda Williams Looks Back on Every Album She’s Ever Made” in Spin (2016 Feb 25)

• I think what informs my songwriting is my empathy with that. Maybe that’s what bothers people. It scares them to go to the edge of the well and look in. But it’s what they like also. And wouldn’t you rather feel the pain than not feel anything?
  • On how suicide, sadness and melancholia informs Williams’ songwriting in “Lucinda Williams interview: 'I’ve earned the right to say what I like’” in The Telegraph (2013 May 25)

Song lyrics

Lucinda Williams (1988)

• The night's too long;
  It just drags on and on.
  And then there's never enough.
  That's when the sun starts coming up.
  Don't let go of her hand,
  You just might be the right man.
  She loves the night,
  She loves the night,
  She doesn't want the night
  Don't want it to end.
  • "The Night's Too Long"

• Do I want too much?
  Am I going overboard to want that touch?
  I shouted out to the night:
  "Give me what I deserve, cause it's my right!"
  • "Passionate Kisses"

Sweet Old World (1992)

• He sleeps all alone on Second Street
  With a roof over his head and food to eat.
  But he can hardly make it day to day cause
  Everything he wants is six blocks away, six blocks away.
  • "Six Blocks Away"

• There are things about you that make me wanna scream and shout.
  There are things about you that make me wanna lock you out.
  But there's a little thing that drives me wild,
  Something that happens every time you smile.
  I can't get over the lines around your eyes,
  Lines around your eyes every time you smile.
  • "Lines Around Your Eyes"

• Just a shakin' in my knees, just a cold chill.
  Don't know what it is, just call it a thrill.
  Just a lump in my throat, just hot blood.
  Don't know what it is, some call it love.
  • "Hot Blood"

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998)

• Not a day goes by I don't think about you;
  You left your mark on me, it's permanent, a tattoo.
  Pierce the skin and the blood runs through,
  Oh my baby.
  • "Right in Time"

• Sun came up it was another day,
  And the sun went down you were blown away.
  Why'd you let go of your guitar?
  Why'd you ever let it go that far?
  Drunken angel.
  • "Drunken Angel"

Essence (2001)

• I am waiting here for more.
  I am waiting by your door.
  I am waiting on your back steps.
  I am waiting in my car.
  I am waiting at this bar.
  I am waiting for your essence.
  • "Essence"

• I would risk the serpent's bite.
  I would dance around with seven.
  I would kiss the diamond back,
  If I knew it would get me to heaven.

  'Cause I want to get right with God.
  Yes, you know you got to get right with God.

  • "Get Right With God"

World Without Tears (2003)

• You don't have to prove
  Your manhood to me constantly.
  I know you're the man can't you see?
  I love you, righteously.
  • "Righteously"

West (2007)

• Are you alright?
  All of a sudden you went away.
  Are you alright?
  I hope you come back around someday.
  • "Are You Alright?"

• I would rather suffer sweet silent solitude,
  Deathly defiant from drowning out.
  Filthy sounds stumbling, ugly and cruel
  Between the lips of your beautiful mouth.

  Deep down within me words move in phases,
  Frozen and still until they decide
  To melt and drip over the pages,
  Until that moment they live inside.

  • "Words"

Little Honey (2008)

• I found the love I've been looking for.
  It's a real love, it's a real love.
  Standing up behind an electric guitar,
  It's a real love, it's a real love.
  And all the time I was thinking no way.
  And all the time I never thought I'd say
  I found the love I've been looking for.
  It's a real love, it's a real love.
  • "Real Love"

Blessed (2011)

• You will never cop
  To the damage that's been done.
  You will never stop
  'Cause it's too much fun.

  Now you want somebody to be your buttercup.
  Good luck finding your buttercup.

  • "Buttercup"

Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone (2014)

• Sometimes the best intentions are never truly met,
  And all your expectations are never what you get.
  You’ll never say why, or come up with a reason;
  You’ve been weakened by a string of bad decisions.
  • "Burning Bridges"

The Ghosts of Highway 20 (2016)

• There's a place in my heart,
  I got room to spare.
  There's a place in my heart,
  I made room for you there.
  Even though you make me blue,
  I've got room enough for you.
  No matter what you do,
  I want you to know that
  You have a place in my heart.
  • "Place in My Heart"

• Open up the doors of heaven and let me in.
  I think I'm finally tired of living, let me in.
  I'm going to walk into glory,
  Tell everyone my story.
  So open up the doors of heaven and let me in.

  I've tried to live my life the righteous way.
  I tried to do my best from day to day.
  But no matter how hard I try,
  Seems all I do is cry.
  So open up the doors of heaven and let me in.

  • "Doors of Heaven"

• When you go, you let me know
  If there's a Heaven out there.
  When you leave me here to grieve
  In pain and despair,
  I've seen the face of hell.
  I know that place pretty damn well.
  But when you go, you'll let me know
  If there's a Heaven out there.
  • "If There's a Heaven"