HANK WILLIAMS: THE COMPLETE LYRICS

HANK WILLIAMS: THE COMPLETE LYRICS Edited by Don Cusic (St. Martin's Press, $12.95) Commonly considered the greatest songwriter in country-music history, Hank Williams (1923-1953) brought a rattled gospel fervor and blues despair to his work. Don Cusic's book is intended to bestow literary respect upon Williams' songcraft by printing the words to all of his known compositions. As in the best popular music, however, Williams' lyrics cannot be separated from their melodies or their performances-the simplicity of the language, which leaves room for the author's magnificently wracked vocals, seems merely trite and repetitive in a book. It should also be said that Cusic's book suffers from his own banally grandiloquent introduction (''Genius is part instinctive, part intuitive ''). Almost any Hank Williams greatest-hits collection would rate an A; this book is a mere C.-Ken Tucker