Last September, songwriter Warren Zevon announced he was dying of inoperable lung cancer. He was expected to live only a few months — hopefully long enough, he joked, to see the new James Bond movie. — yet here he is nearly a year later with a new record. The Wind is a star-studded affair, with pals like Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Don Henley (puke), and David Lindley helping Zevon go not-so-quietly into the dying light.
I tried unsuccessfully to get into Zevon when I was younger. Musicians I respected told me he was the kind of songwriter I should appreciate, so I tried. I bought a copy of Sentimental Hygiene mainly because REM played on it. I liked it well enough, but it rarely made it past REM, Replacements, U2, The Waterboys, U2, and whatever else I was digging at the time. I was an angry and serious young man and I was mainly into music that reflected my state of mind, that made me think I was right in feeling how I felt and that things would get better some day. The Zevon I heard at the time was neither serious nor angry. I came to realize how wrong I was once I matured and began to see shades of grey. Zevon doesn’t shout, he simmers.
A few years ago, a friend gave me a copy of Stand In The Fire, a live record documenting Zevon’s five-night stand at LA’s Roxy in 1981. Zevon was newly clean and sober after years of Richards-ian debauchery and determined to prove himself. I started to realize the quality of his songwriting, the value of his dry, deadpan take on life. I dug out my old copy of Sentimental Hygiene and a best-of tape a friend made me. George, my pal and bandmate, played me Life’ll Kill Ya and My Ride’s Here, Zevon’s two most recent records. It’s all good. I finally got it. It’s fun to get into an artist after the hype has died down. It’s often easier to appreciate an artist with less noise in the air. And it’s true that you have to be in a certain place to appreciate certain artists.
Warren Zevon won’t likely crack my personal pantheon of great songwriters — Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, Tim Rogers, and a few others — but he’s a wonderful songwriter and a true character. If nothing else, one has to admire the way he’s written and recorded up until his final days, while no doubt in great pain and incredibly medicated. Many rock writers chastised Zevon for pissing away his talent in his alcohol-and-drug-crazed younger days, but even his harshest critics have to admire the way he’s going out with dignity, humor, and more timeless songs.
Zevon’s story is much more fascinating than I have time for here. Check out the following:
- In His Time of Dying (NY Times)
- VH1: Dirty Life & Times – VH1 is airing a Zevon documentary this Sunday, Aug 24, at 10pm Eastern.
- The Wind Amazing Testament To Soul’s Honesty (NY Observer)
- Warren Zevon’s Bright Twilight (MSNBC)