Townes Van Zandt - If I Needed You
Townes Van Zandt - If I Needed You


Townes Van Zandt - If I Needed You Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Late Great Townes Van Zandt
Released: 1972

If I Needed You Lyrics


If I Needed You
Would you come to me,
Would you come to me,
And ease my pain?
If you needed me
I would come to you
I'd swim the seas
For to ease your pain

In the night forlorn
The morning's born
And the morning shines
With the lights of love
You will miss sunrise
If you close your eyes
That would break
My heart in two

The lady's with me now
Since I showed her how
To lay her lily
Hand in mine
Loop and Lil agree
She's a sight to see
And a treasure for
The poor to find

If I needed you
Would you come to me,
Would you come to me,
And ease my pain?
If you needed me
I would come to you
I'd swim the seas
For to ease your pain

Writer/s: TOWNES VAN ZANDT
Publisher: BUG MUSIC O/B/O KATIE BELLE MUSIC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

If I Needed You
  • Townes Van Zandt introduced the song with the following statement at a private concert in Houston: "It came to me in a dream. I was living in Tennessee with Guy and Susanna Clark, and I was asleep, and I had a notepad by my mattress - I had a mattress on the floor. I was dreaming that I was a folk singer, and this was the song I played, and I happened to wake up, write it down, and went right back to sleep. The next morning I woke up, went to the room with all the guitars, picked up a guitar and played it through. It never has changed."
  • One of Van Zandt's most romantic love songs, many will know the tune from Emmylou Harris and Don Williams 1981 duet version. Released as the first single from Harris' album Cimarron, it topped the Canadian country chart as well as reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
  • Guy Clark covered the song on his 2011 Songs & Stories album.
  • Actors Johan Heldenbergh and Veerle Baetens covered this as part of The Broken Circle Breakdown Bluegrass Band for the 2012 Belgian film The Broken Circle Breakdown.
  • Julia Roberts performed this in the 1998 movie Stepmom. It was also used in Off the Black (2006), starring Nick Nolte, and Crazy Heart (2009), starring Jeff Bridges.
  • In an episode of Austin Pickers in 1984, Van Zandt explained that he and the Clarks were all sick with the flu, which led to bizarre dreams like the one that inspired this song.