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Warren Zevon

Started by Golden E. Pump, July 06, 2017, 12:03:58 AM

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Golden E. Pump

I'm just discovering Warren Zevon this week. I've been familiar with 'Werewolves of London' but I decided to give the whole 'Excitable Boy' album a spin. It's incredible.

I also love 'The Wind', especially the closing track 'Keep Me in Your Heart for a While' which he wrote when he knew he was dying. It's absolutely beautiful.

Anyone else into Zevon? Any other albums you'd recommend?

the science eel

I like 'Bad Karma', which was used over the closing credits of one of that HBO series about that comedian fella

Black_Bart

I like the face he pulls when Larry asks him to play WWOL.

samadriel

Yep, Warren Zevon is pretty great. I recommend 'Transverse City', inspired by William Gibson; particularly the title track and 'Splendid Isolation'.

SteveDave

I really love "Hit Somebody" despite not liking ice hockey.

Pdine

Quote from: Golden E. Pump on July 06, 2017, 12:03:58 AM'Keep Me in Your Heart for a While'

Yes, part of the greatness of that song for me comes from the fact that the lyrics are ambiguous. Obviously the whole album was marketed as Zevon's 'I know I'm dying' record, but that song's lyrics could also be taken as coming from an asshole who has walked out and still demands that his jilted lover think fondly of him. That in turn sets up a metaphor of death as a kind of jilting of life and the living, a passionate, selfish act, not a creeping fate before which we are powerless.

Golden E. Pump

Quote from: Pdine on July 06, 2017, 11:07:34 AM
Yes, part of the greatness of that song for me comes from the fact that the lyrics are ambiguous. Obviously the whole album was marketed as Zevon's 'I know I'm dying' record, but that song's lyrics could also be taken as coming from an asshole who has walked out and still demands that his jilted lover think fondly of him. That in turn sets up a metaphor of death as a kind of jilting of life and the living, a passionate, selfish act, not a creeping fate before which we are powerless.

Couldn't have said it better.

Icehaven

#7
I read a pretty decent biography of him a few years ago. Can't remember why now, I only know Werewolves of London, think he just struck me as an interesting character, which he was, albeit a bit of a bastard too. I have to admire the fact that despite being a raging (literally) alcoholic who managed to quit drinking completely for years, as soon as he knew he was terminally ill he said 'fuck it' and went straight back to drinking heavily again.

Edit; Just realised too it's written by his ex-wife (with whom he eventually stayed on relatively good terms with despite frequently beating her during his younger drinking days.)

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Golden E. Pump on July 06, 2017, 12:03:58 AM...Anyone else into Zevon? Any other albums you'd recommend?

That's a really good place to start. The three albums that I started with were that, Sentimental Hygiene and Stand in the Fire – only really knowing Werewolves, I bought them largely on spec due a friend's enthusiasm (she's never steered me wrong!) that lead me to think 'I am going to like this artist a lot'.

I had no idea that Stand in the Fire was a live album, which shows how much I knew at the time but it's one of my favourites. That and Sentimental Hygiene are highly rated and probably very obvious choices, but they get my vote.

greenman

The self titled re debut(ignoring the much earlier release) from 76 is surely the other obvious recommendation beyond Excitable Boy, more singer songwriterish but just as good if not better for me.

Not sure I can think of a better first couple of albums from any artist, maybe his brothers in cynicism Steely Dan?

Golden E. Pump

I've been listening to a lot of Steely Dan recently too. Them and Todd Rundgren.

I bought a very reasonably priced boxset of his from listening to this one song but found it all a bit cheesy, where am I going wrong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqLZZ1jVTR8

Golden E. Pump

'Nighttime in the Switching Yard' is funky, but it's not a great example of his usual material. 'Leave My Monkey Alone' is similar in that it's even got Dwayne 'Blackbyrd' McKnight on guitar and is funky, but it's anomalous in his catalogue as I explore it so far.

Pdine

Bumping this to recommend the biography by his wife Crystal

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ill-Sleep-When-Im-Dead/dp/0060763493

which is fascinating and repulsive. It's written in that style you get a lot these days - and which I like - of excerpts from interviews quoted verbatim and back-to-back.

I'll pad this out with some Youtube links:

First We Take Manhattan (Live 1992 Leonard Cohen cover)
They Moved The Moon (from hard-to-get album Transverse City)
Desperados Under The Eaves (Live 1994)
Mohammed's Radio (Live 1976)

Sebastian Cobb

I don't know much about him but I like what I've heard. Quite like this one.


Pdine

Yeah... great song although looking back it makes you wonder how aware he was of the fact he was already dying then. He had severe OCD and refused to see a doctor for most of his life, instead using his dentist for medical advice (his dentist eventually forced him to see a doctor when he came in in early 2002 short of breath). He got his manager to pre-screen his cigarette packets for warnings involving cancer; low-birth weight and emphysema were OK but if he read the word 'cancer' he'd have to undertake elaborate de-cursing activities to restore himself.

Ant Farm Keyboard

I'd say that the self-titled album is mostly better than Excitable Boy, except that EB has the undisputed hit.

Sentimental Hygiene, in addition to having a strong collection of songs, has a killer lineup of musicians, who wanted to support Zevon after he had stopped drinking and returned to recording. I mean, REM is the backing band (even Stipe sings backup on a track), various members of Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Eagles, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and King Crimson also pop up at various moments, and even Bob Dylan and Neil Young make an appearance. Zevon also recorded a full album of covers backed by REM minus Stipe, under the alias Hindu Love Gods, but it's less essential.

Zevon was a lifelong James Bond fan, and when he was diagnosed with cancer, one of his main fears was that he wouldn't make it to the release of the next one, three months later. It turned out to be Die Another Day, one of the worst ones in all of the franchise. Zevon was still able to live for eleven more months after seeing that piece of crap.

Also, I know he hated the comparison, as he thought that he was much more of a rocker himself, but if you love the early Warren Zevon albums, give a try to the seventies studio albums by Randy Newman.

Rizla

Excitable Boy is one of the greatest albums ever made, without question. It's miraculous.
The instrumental bridge bit in "Accidentally like a martyr" might be one of the prettiest bits of a pop record outside of the Beatles or the Beach Boys. So sweet.
"Tenderness on the block", fucking hell. Did he even have a daughter? I've never heard a better song about having one.

This live set rules, hitting the NJ crowd with a bonus bit of Boss after his Ronstadt hit.

Pdine

He did have a daughter, although like nearly all of his family he treated her appallingly.

dontpaintyourteeth

Weirdly I only know the last three albums. The mortality trilogy, or whatever. Very good. The guy sounded like a real jerk though

Cottonon

Made a comp after exploring the albums many years ago and seeing this thread made me remember how good some of his stuff is. For me these were the choice cuts:

Excitable Boy
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
Werewolves of London
Lawyers, Guns and Money
Accidentally Like a Martyr
Hasten Down the Wind
Poor Poor Pitiful Me
Mohammed's Radio
Carmelita
Desperados Under the Eaves
A Certain Girl
Play It All Night Long
The Envoy
Boom Boom Mancini
Splendid Isolation
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
Searching for a Heart
I Was in the House When the House Burned Down
My Shit's Fucked Up
Keep Me in Your Heart

The Culture Bunker

I've only got 'Excitable Boy', which is mainly great ('Nightime in the Switching Yard' always gets skipped) and I read the biography ten or so years ago - he doesn't come across well in it, of course, but I do remember sort of understanding why others were so patient with him.

When he was starting out, he co-wrote 'Outside Chance' for the Turtles, which is bloody brilliant too.