Blaze Foley - Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

The master tapes from his first studio album were confiscated by the DEA when the executive producer was caught in a drug bust. Another studio album disappeared when the master copies were in a station wagon, which Foley had been given and lived in, was broken into and his belongings stolen. A third studio album, "Wanted More Dead Than Alive," had almost disappeared until, many years after Blaze died, a friend who was cleaning out his car discovered what sounded like the Bee Creek recording sessions on which he and other musicians had performed. This album was Foley's last studio project and he was scheduled to tour the UK with Townes Van Zandt in support of the album. When Foley died, his attorney immediately nullified the recording contract and the master tapes subsequently went missing (and reportedly were lost in a flood).

Foley worked among others with Gurf Morlix, Townes Van Zandt and Calvin Russell.

Townes Van Zandt wrote the song "Blaze's Blues" about his friend and recorded it a few times, notably on his 2-disc "Live at Union Chapel, London, England" album. Townes reportedly composed "Marie," a song about a homeless couple, on Blaze's guitar after Blaze had died. (He also claimed that he had to dig up Blaze's coffin to get the pawn ticket to get the guitar out of hock.)

The song "Drunken Angel" by Lucinda Williams, which appears on her 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, is a tribute to Foley.

Gurf Morlix released a song on his 2009 album, Last Exit to Happyland entitled "Music You Mighta Made" about his longtime friend, Foley. On February 1, 2011, Morlix released Blaze Foley's 113th Wet Dream, a 15-song collection of Foley's songs.

Three songs, posthumously co-written by Jon Hogan at the request of the Foley estate, were released in 2010 on the album "Every Now and Then: Songs of Townes Van Zandt & Blaze Foley." They include "Every Now and Then," "Safe in the Arms of Love," and "Can't Always Cry."

Foley's music is featured prominently in a feature-length documentary film about him entitled "Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah," released in 2011 by filmmaker Kevin Triplett.