WARREN ZEVON

Born: Chicago, Illinois, 24 January 1947; died Los Angeles, 7 September 2003

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Life'll Kill Ya (2000)

Singer/songwriter Warren Zevon's cynical wit, fascination with the macabre, and propensity for creating oddball characters all seep into his lyrically weighted, often satiric music. Zevon's Excitable Boy (1976) is one of rock music's most acclaimed albums and many of his songs have become hits for other artists. Zevon's ability to find irony in the saddest places was reflected in the way he came to terms with his own grave health issues.

Although Zevon was born in Chicago, his childhood was spent shuttling between California and Arizona because his father was a professional gambler. Before they were divorced, his parents settled for a time in Los Angeles where Zevon studied classical piano. He left home at age sixteen and moved to New York City to be part of the burgeoning 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, but eventually found his way back to southern California a few years later. There he befriended and worked with many of the luminaries of that emerging folk rock scene, such as Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and members of the Eagles. He had sporadic success as a songwriter for the Turtles and April Stevens and finally recorded his first album, Zevon: Wanted—Dead or Alive (1969). The album went unnoticed by record buyers, although one song—"She Quit Me"—was used in the film Midnight Cowboy (1969).

After the album's failure, Zevon then went into survival mode as a jingle writer for commercials, a music director for the rock vocal duo the Everly Brothers, and a pianist in Spain at a touristy club before getting back to Los Angeles and signing a songwriting contract with recording giant David Geffen. This led to another shot at recording and he released Warren Zevon (1976). The album endeared Zevon to the critics and featured several songs that went
on to be recorded by other artists, including "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" and "Hasten Down the Wind," both of which became more prominent after Linda Ronstadt recorded them. The success of Warren Zevon began a cult following for Zevon and his next album, Excitable Boy (1978), put him at the forefront of the music industry. Excitable Boy is a timeless work reflective of Zevon's attention to the grittier aspects of life. It stunned critics and listeners. The songs mix solemn fact and sublime fiction to create intelligent and striking satires. Zevon paints an apocalyptic picture of violence in a revenge tale about a betrayed fortune hunter in "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner." His offhand horror spoof, "Werewolves of London," became Zevon's biggest hit. "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" humorously chronicles the cries for help from a spoiled rich kid during some decadent Third World travels and the title song combines a happy-go-lucky melody with a staggeringly disturbing story about a boy's violent nature.

Zevon's subsequent recordings continued to fare well with ardent fans, but they never gave him the commercial success that seemed promised after Excitable Boy. Alcoholism and its recovery blocked his progress in the early 1980s along with the decade's changing musical tide, which, curiously, turned against songs with lyrical wit. Zevon, in addition to other strong songwriters including Loudon Wainwright III, John Prine, and Randy Newman, all suffered a drop in popularity during the 1980s. In addition, Zevon's recordings of that decade lacked his trademark bite and he did not return to that vein until Mr. Bad Example (1991), which contains the hilarious, "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead."

More than any other artist, Zevon sang songs about death and related topics. His albums' logo is a grinning skull. He titled his forty-four-song anthology release I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (1996). Some critics liken Zevon to the graphic crime novelists who spare no detail about violence in their books and Zevon counted authors Stephen King, Hunter Thompson, and Carl Hiaasen as close friends and occasional song collaborators. In 2000 he received high critical praise for his album Life'll Kill Ya (2000) and the same for his follow-up release, My Ride's Here (2002).

Zevon was a multitalented musician who generally alternated between guitar and piano in concert. He had a droll, straightforward singing style that seemed to announce the words as opposed to melodically singing them. But when called for, as in bittersweet songs such as "Accidentally Like a Martyr," his voice could be full of emotional power.

In August 2002 Zevon was diagnosed with inoperable lung and liver cancer. The news did not blunt his humor or his recording career; he went right to work on My Dirty Life and Times. Zevon stated that the album (which had not been released as of May 2003) is a goodbye to a wide-ranging list of friends. My Dirty Life and Times features many of his past collaborators, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Petty, and Emmylou Harris. He died September 7, 2003.

Zevon wrote songs with the detail and zest of an investigative journalist. His body of work is produced not only from personal circumstances, but also as a comment about the world around him. It will serve as a journal of the times that Zevon lived.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Wanted—Dead or Alive (Imperial, 1969); Warren Zevon (Asylum, 1976); Excitable Boy (Asylum, 1978); Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School (Asylum, 1980); Stand in the Fire (Asylum, 1980); The Envoy (Asylum, 1982); Sentimental Hygiene (Virgin, 1987); Transverse City (Virgin, 1989); Mr. Bad Example (Warner Bros., 1991); Learning to Flinch (Warner Bros., 1993); Mutineer (Warner Bros., 1995); Life'll Kill Ya (Artemis, 2000); My Ride's Here (Artemis, 2002).

donald lowe