Understanding the authorship debate surrounding Hank Williams song ‘I’m So Lonely I Could Cry’
‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ by the late country star Hank Williams is one of the genre’s ultimate standards and one of the most coveted pieces ever released. Recorded by Williams in 1949, the song has since been covered by many different musical fields, including notable ones by BJ Thomas and Johnny Cash. A simple yet effective track, Williams’ swooning vocals are nothing short of iconic, and whilst there have been many stellar renditions of it, none has pipped the original.
Reflecting on the track’s importance, one of the finest folk musicians of all time, Bob Dylan, wrote in his autobiography: “Even at a young age, I identified with him. I didn’t have to experience anything that Hank did to know what he was singing about. I’d never heard a robin weep but could imagine it, and it made me sad.”
Elsewhere, k.d. lang said in the documentary The Road to Nashville: “I think ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ is one of the most classic American songs ever written, truly. Beautiful song.”
A range of sources has claimed that Williams said in his life that he originally wrote the song intending to speak the words instead of singing them, as he had done in the guise of his alter ego, Luke the Drifter, but the reason for him opting not to remain is unclear. In Colin Escott’s 2004 biography of the country star, it is said that Williams got the name for the song from the title of another piece that he had read on a list of upcoming MGM releases.
For the recording, Williams was backed by the members of The Pleasant Valley Boys: Zeke Turner on lead guitar, Jerry Byrd on the steel, Louis Innis on rhythm guitar, Tommy Jackson on the fiddle and Ernie Newton taking up bass duties. It is certain that nobody in the recording booth at Herzog Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 30th, 1949, knew just how culturally significant the music they were capturing was to be. However, the track has not been without controversy, and although to many it is the definitive Hank Williams piece, for seemingly an age now, its authorship has been contested.
The claims come from journalist Chet Flippo and historian W. Lynn Nickell, who each assert that a 21-year-old Kentucky native, Paul Gilley, wrote the song lyrics and then sold them to Williams with the rights, which allowed him to take full credit. It is also claimed that Gilley wrote another Williams classic, ‘Cold, Cold Heart’.
Flippo’s story started in 1981 when he wrote that Gilley travelled to a Nashville bus station to meet Williams to sell him more songs after the success of their alleged collaboration on ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ and ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’. Then, in 2012, Nickell discussed this encounter, adding what some perceived as more credence to Flippo’s original claim, despite the fact that much of it is unproven. However, in the main, both Flippo and Nickell’s assertions have been dismissed as they lack real weight.
It’s a strange case in that it will likely never be solved, as Williams tragically passed away in 1953 and Gilley in 1957, aged just 27. A cult hero in the history of country music, it is said that after Gilley drowned in a neighbour’s pool. His mother was so devastated by his death that she burned much of his work, effectively destroying his legacy. Still, like with everything in this story, this is also contested.
Williams maintained he wrote the song right until the end. In 2014, country great Mac Wiseman also discussed its provenance and said that he and the equally eminent Bill Monroe were both present when Williams wrote the track and that they both contributed lines to it.
Although it is debatable, it seems likely that ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ is a Hank Williams song and that if he did have help, it was only minor. This was Hank Williams, after all.
