Posted on 05/11/2007 9:07:23 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Mr. Bad Example on a rocky road to fame
Warren Zevon's ex-wife portrays him as a genius -- and a tyrant.
BY HOWARD COHEN
hcohen@MiamiHerald.com
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon.
Warren Zevon was a complicated man to love and champion. Before dying of cancer in 2003, he urged his ex-wife Crystal Zevon to write the definitive biography of his tumultuous life, and he asked her to leave out nothing.
She obliged, perhaps too well. Reading the addictive diary-styled I'll Sleep When I'm Dead tests a fan's devotion. You want to like Zevon, but as you read reports of domestic violence, drunken rages and nasty comments, you have to wonder whether karma just played a natural role in his life and death.
The prickly, brilliant, witty, charming and insufferable artist was one of the few contemporary musicians to actually earn the tag ''genius.'' Yet when he died he left behind an underappreciated body of work. He drew admirers from the literary world; The Miami Herald's Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry were close friends. ''He was always a magnet for unforgettable characters, but few could keep up with him,'' Hiaasen writes in the book's foreword.
Hiaasen, Thomas McGuane, Hunter S. Thompson and Mitch Albom collaborated with Zevon on several songs. On the music side, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen touted his songwriting. Jackson Browne produced Zevon's finest album (1976's Warren Zevon) and remained loyal even when Zevon's behavior tested his patience. As for the masses, only one of Zevon's albums made the Top 10, 1978's pop/rock classic Excitable Boy.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead isn't as slavishly detailed as one of the late Timothy White's windy, pretentious and exhausting rock bios, but one of Crystal Zevon's accomplishments is a conversational style rather than a lengthy narrative approach. She gathered comments from those who were most intimate with the rocker and weaves in tidbits from her ex-husband's diaries, editing out only a few of the more salacious items.
One amusing revelation: Excitable Boy's hit single, Werewolves of London, the infectious song Zevon is best known for, gave him little pleasure.
''When Elektra picked Werewolves as the single, Warren and I just about threw up,'' recalls guitarist/producer Waddy Wachtel in the book. ``We were insulted, depressed. . . . They took that piece of s - - - after we gave them Tenderness on the Block and Johnny Strikes Up the Band? Meanwhile, it's the only hit we ever had.''
While members of the musical SoCal cognoscenti he associated with would go on to fortune and fame, Zevon's next 25 years would offer a series of struggles, affairs, estrangements, addictions and heartache. ''That his own work was underappreciated has always been a mystery to Warren's fans, and was a source of bitter frustration for him,'' Hiaasen writes. And still Zevon crafted exceptional music late into his career on Life'll Kill Ya and The Wind.
Zevon was so thorough a musician, the book reveals, that before a stint on his pal David Letterman's show in 1997, Zevon painstakingly notated every scrap of music he thought he might cover on the program, including the Spice Girls' entire debut CD.
Perhaps his longest musical collaborator and friend Jorge Calderone sums up Zevon's life best: ''Warren Zevon traveled down his own road, and it's unpaved.''
The path may have been rocky, but what a great musical ride.
Howard Cohen is a Miami Herald staff writer.
Roland searched the continent...for the man who’d done him in.
He found in him in Mombasa...in a baroom drinkin’ gin.
Roland aimed his Thompson gun. He didn’t say a word. But he blew Van Owen’s body from there to Johannesburg...
When ever I hear that song it makes me think of the movie “The Wild Geese”. Ever seen it?
MOST of his best work was done by other musicians. Linda Ronstadt did quite a few of his songs.
That's how it goes. 'Crazy Train' was a throwaway for Ozzie and Rhoads.
I get tears in my eyes when I hear “Tenderness on the Block,” thinking of my own little girl (currently 12) growing up.
Mama, where’s your pretty little girl tonight
Trying to run before she can walk - that’s right
She’s growing up
She has a young man waiting
She’s growing up
She has a young man waiting
Wide-eyes
She’ll be street-wise
To the lies
And the jive talk
She’ll find true love
And tenderness on the block
Daddy, don’t you ask her when she’s coming in
And when she’s home don’t ask her where she’s been
She’s going out
She has a young man waiting
She’s going out
Can’t keep her young man waiting
She’ll be okay
Let her have her day
It’s a long way
It’s a long walk
She’ll find true love
And tenderness on the block
I know how much it hurts to see her go
She has a mind of her own, you know
She’s all grown up
She has a young man waiting
She’s all grown up
She has a young man waiting
She was wide-eyed
Now she’s street-wise
To the lies
And the jive talk
She’ll find true love
And tenderness on the block
She’ll find true love
And tenderness on the block
I saw John Edwards drinkin’ a pina colada at Trader Vic’s...And his hair was perfect.
But when I introduced them to the earlier Linda, who pretty much got famous singing Warren's lyrics, they were kinca shocked.
Now that’s funny. My nominee for Chuckle of the Day.
Now I'm hiding in Honduras...
I'm a desperate man...
Send Lawyers, Guns and Money...
The Sh-t has hit the fan!
I know we all have politics on the brain, but come on. Excitable Boy is simply Zevon's bizarre composite caricature of the whack jobs making "news" every day. Well maybe it is liberalism, but I feel certain that Zevon did not intend it so.
No flames from this quarter. Dylan is so cryptic that I have come to believe that he never knew what he was even trying to say. Zevon's words have meaning.
My kids LOVE Werewolves in London. arrooooooooo
“The man could write lyrics. The Dylan of the 80’s but (and I know I’ll get flamed for this) with more talent.”
You’ll get no flame from me. Zevon was likely the most talented, humorous, and poignant lyricist whose work I’ve ever marveled over and enjoyed.
From “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” to “Desperados Under the Eaves” and everything in-between, Zevon was tough to beat. Even his lousier material, such as “Werewolves,” smoked - and still smokes - the vast majority of the crap that’s been out there for the past 30 years or so.
Didn’t mean to imply Zevon had ANYTHING implied in his song...just enjoying the irony of the mindset it implies.
I am with you there. One of the things I liked about Zevon was the fact he was "political" but not an over the top cookie cutter liberal. That's good enough in the entertainment industry.
Yep . . . or “The Wild Bunch!”
Me too, and i kant spel... Shoulda been ‘kinda schocked’, of course...
Wow... ‘shocked’. I’m going to shut up now, before I end up like that skeleton in the fundraising pictures...
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