According to John Kruth's 2007 biography To Live's To Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt, the bad feelings had been festering ever since Clement had requested that Van Zandt alter a potentially offensive line in the song "Tecumseh Valley" for the singer's debut album For the Sake of the Song back in 1968, and that by 1974 Clement and Eggers "had come to a final parting of the ways.

By 1978, Van Zandt had released no new original material in five years and was living with his second wife Cindy in a cabin in Franklin, Tennessee where, as Earle recalls in Be Here To Love Me, the troubadour spent most of his time listening to Paul Harvey every morning and watching Happy Days.

[2] Moman brought several top session musicians in for the recording, including Gary and Randy Scruggs, Muscle Shoals pianist Spooner Oldham and Irish guitarist Philip Donnelly, who had worked with The Everly Brothers.

Several of the songs (including "Loretta," "No Place To Fall," "Rex's Blues" and a cover of the Bo Diddley classic "Who Do You Love") initially appeared on Van Zandt's critically acclaimed Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas, which was recorded in 1973 and released in 1977.

According to biographer John Kruth, "Flyin' Shoes" was written while Van Zandt sat by the Harpeth River, where the Battle of Franklin took place, and the author speculates that he might have been influenced by the nineteenth century gospel tune "Golden Slippers."

In the Be Here To Love Me documentary, Van Zandt's second wife Cindy believes the line, "Baby it won't be long till I'll be tyin' on my flyin' shoes" was written about the singer having to leave her to go out on the road.

The melodies here are strong, the lyrics full of Van Zandt's razor sharp insight, and the production is sparse and to the point, bringing to mind the inconspicuous polish of High, Low and In Between.

"Snake Song" has been recorded by Fatal Shore on their 1997 self-titled LP; Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan on their 2010 album Hawk; and Emmylou Harris on Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt.