A great profile of Warren Zevon, who is still alive even though he was given three months to live (I hope he asked for a second opinion and didn't pay the first doctor) in the New York Observer. He has a new album coming out, The Wind and a teevee special about it. Get it while you can, since I don't think they archive these.
At the beginning of VH1's Inside Out: Warren Zevon , to be broadcast on Aug. 24, Mr. Zevon tells the camera: "Clearly, one of the reasons we find ourselves here and I find myself in a unique position of not being able to complain about my present circumstances is that I've always been interested in writing about death." Then he smiles and says, "You know Hemingway said all good stories end in death."
One year after his diagnosis, Mr. Zevon, 56 years old, is still hanging in there. He's the brand-new grandfather of twins, courtesy of his daughter Ariel, and his album, The Wind , is finished. It will be released on Aug. 26, and if you're expecting it to be a great album about death, you'll be sorely disappointed.
The Wind is a great album about living --a visceral document of a man determined to squeeze the most out of his remaining time on earth. When Mr. Zevon's friend David Letterman devoted a whole show to the singer last October, he asked Mr. Zevon, "From your perspective now, do you know something about life and death that maybe I don't know?"
"Not unless I know about how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich," Mr. Zevon said. That message is written in The Wind . It's not a joyride but it's not medicinal either, nor is it an instruction manual. Mr. Zevon doesn't tell us how to live, he simply shows us what works for him: gathering up his nearest and dearest--longtime collaborator Jorge Calderon (who co-wrote a number of songs on The Wind ), Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Don Henley, musicians such as David Lindley who helped define the California sound of the 70's and 80's, his grown children Jordan and Ariel, and his hot girlfriend Kristen--heading into the studio and writing and performing a bunch of songs that right some wrongs, settle some scores and make a big noise. As Mr. Zevon wrote in his diary, "It's the best way I can think of to say goodbye to my friends and kids."
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Jim - Warren and Neil on Blogcritics in the same day!
2 - Phillip Winn
He was given three months to live in the New York Observer? I'm confused.
Sorry, my inner editor would not be repressed. :)
3 - Jim Carruthers
He was given three months to live in the New York Observer ? I'm confused.
How do you think Warren felt? Goes to do the Letterman show, and winds up in some hoity-toity weekly paper?
Away from Hell-ay, having to deal with people called Mr.-this, and Mr.-that.
No wonder he went to Jersey to get The Boss to fill on the album.
4 - Jim Carruthers
And while I re-read it, the question about the "," after (or not) the paragraph mark is hugely open to question.
So can somebody send me a promo copy of the teevee special since I don't have cable and live in a foreign land. Plus can I get a review copy of the album?
5 - Eric Olsen
I have an extra I'd be happy to send you Jim, email me your address.
6 - Natalie Davis
Gawd, I just heard the album. On Warren's cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," the background singers are wailing away at the chorus, and Zevon starts pleading repeatedly, "Open! Open!" Chills, tears, the works. Oh, my excitable boy...
7 - sheldon
Since I don't have access to VH-1, can anyone out there tell me if the special is available in Canada on an alternate channel? Thanks.
8 - Eric Olsen
I would contact VH1 about that - if not, move to America.
9 - Jim Carruthers
And all this after we support you across the Great Lakes, you ungrateful bastards, oh, wait, nevermind. Y'know, how 'bout this, I don't see a lot or any Canadians going to the States and renouncing their citizenship. But of course you have Drew Carey and we have Bruce Cockburn. Brushcuts, music, and funny, but who is better?
Y'know I like to think Warren, if he had the choice would prefer to live tin Canada. Go ahead, ask him: Cleveland or Canada?
10 - Eric Olsen
I'd ask him but he isn't talking much
11 - Jim Carruthers
Y'know it is so fucking cool that you would have the option to ask Warren Zevon if he would choose between Cleveland or Canada.
And if he would answer that would be even cooler.
I know and respect Warrent (tho I've never met him) too much to take up his limited time (but I know he would choose Canada over Cleveland).
12 - Jim Carruthers
I would like to make it abundantly clear that despite fumble-fingers, I do not endorse Warrant (and to add, Journy) or any other dumb-ass rock band.
13 - Eric Olsen
That goes without saying. RE Warren, I could only reach him through an intermediary so my coolness in this regard is limited. he wasn't talking when I wrote my review many weeks ago, but he sure is hanging on, isn't he?
14 - Jim Carruthers
Amen, brother.
And Warren, keep on rocking.
15 - sgarrioch
I'd move to America but I hear you don't get electricity down there that often!
16 - Eric Olsen
Good one! But it seems we are all one happy grid: Canada is the 51st state after all.
17 - sgarrioch
What can I say? You're right; and with a much weaker dollar to boot!
18 - Mark Saleski
isn't food the big problem up there?
i seem to remember john candy joking about how nobody ever says "hey, let's go out and eat canadian tonight".
;-)
19 - Jim Carruthers
But I eat out Canadian all the time.
Oh, were you talking about restaurants?
It always puzzled me as a kid (and still does) that Chinese restaurants in cities and towns would always advertise "Chinese and Canadian Food" and I wondered what defined Canadian Food?
I guess anything that has Maple syrup, and there's back bacon, and those tiny doughnuts, and Oh Henry bars .. screw this, I'm going to the Food Hall at the Ex.
20 - sgarrioch
Back to Zevon for a moment, is either "Stand in the Fire" or "The Envoy" still available or have the record company bastards made them unavailable?
21 - Rodney Welch
I don't believe they are, which is too bad. Stand in the Fire is one of the really great live albums; one that captures the experience of a performer who really was on fire, and just flat out playing and singing his balls off. I bought it on cassette twenty some years ago, and that's STILL the only thing way I have to hear it. I don't think it has ever made it to CD; not sure if The Envoy ever has either. That one, too, has some truly great stuff on it that no Zevonhead need be denied, namely the title song as well as "The Overdraft,"(yet another Zevon paean, co-written by Sam Shephard, to the joys of running off with a nice piece of jailbait) and "Charlie's Medicine," which ranks with Neil Young's "Tired Eyes" in the pantheon of Great Songs About Offing Pushers. The whole Zevon catalog needs to be out there and available; considering they recently released his shitty early stuff, I don't see why they won't release the better stuff as well, in time.
22 - Jim Carruthers
From a quck search on Amazon, I can only conclude that Elektra has not kept those in print.
I think they are really only interested in Warren dropping dead and then just push the single "best of" title as hard as they can at a really "special price"
I was talking to a young woman last week, and she said she'd never heard of Warren Zevon. So, I did what any geek would do, I gave her a mix-tape (CD really, but you get the idea). Of course, she spent most of the listening time saying: "oh, I know this!".
23 - Eric Olsen
Alas neither is on Amazon - I have them both on vinyl. Maybe trip to the used record store?
24 - Jim Carruthers
I have "Stand In the Fire" on vinyl LP, and it is about the only album in my "Z" section (the other underpopulated section is "Q" with one Robert Quine solo album - I once owned a Queen album, but I was young and dumb and bought it for the cover as an SF geek)
I think, the Rhino best of aside, if I had to recommend one Warren Zevon album to someone who didn't know his music, it would be "Stand In The Fire".
25 - Eric Olsen
It is a great live album with a very hot band. I predict tha the cliche will hold and Warren will come to be very highly regarded in the long run, long after he's gone. The is some consolation in the recognition he has received in the last year and it looks like "The Wind" is receiving the deification it deserves right off the bat.