Between spells in rehab he relaunched his career several times and in 2000 released Life’ll Kill Ya, on his recurring theme of death. Sadly, that meant taking everything to excess and he required frequent treatments for drug and alcohol addiction. Zevon believed life should be lived to the full, hence his motto ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich’. Personal favourites include The Hula Hula Boys and Gorilla You’re A Desperado.
Despite their poor sales figures, each album tended to contain a few little gems. But Zevon struggled to repeat his success and over the years produced a series of commercial failures. The next album, 1978’s Excitable Boy, brought Zevon’s mordant wit to the fore and featured his best-known songs Werewolves of London, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, and Lawyers, Guns and Money. Browne and his band were magnificent Zevon underwhelming with only a piano for company. I saw him perform that year, supporting Jackson Browne at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. To find out why, listen to Carmelita, a song that combines the misery of heroin addiction with lashings of unnecessary geographical detail as Zevon hocks his typewriter to pay for a fix.Īlso included was I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, one of many Zevon compositions on the theme of mortality and a precursor of his own early demise. While his first solo LP, Wanted Dead Or Alive, sank without trace, his eponymous second, released in 1976, became known as the ultimate Los Angeles album. Thanks also to Sean Toddington for recommending the Loudon Wainwright song In C, which was new to me and is excellent.Īfter all that tugging at the heartstrings maybe it’s time for something ostensibly a bit more upbeat, namely the music of Warren Zevon, one of rock’s great comic lyricists.īorn in Chicago in 1947, Zevon cut his musical teeth playing keyboards on tour with the Everly Brothers. There are many more classics to seek out in the Tabor back catalogue. Unicorns and The Scarecrow, are great as you say. First of all thanks to CRSM and PJM for your comments on last week’s June Tabor post.
0 kommentar(er)
