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  #1  
Unread 02-23-2019, 10:01 PM
Damian Balassone Damian Balassone is offline
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Default The Wit of Warren Zevon

I recall engaging with a few Sphereans re the songs of Warren Zevon awhile back on this forum, hence I'm including a link here to a page I've put together, compiling the most quotable of Zevon's lyrics. Just a bit of a fun. Enjoy every stanza!

https://damianbalassone.wordpress.co...-warren-zevon/
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Unread 02-23-2019, 11:56 PM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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Interesting to see his collaborations, with Paul Muldoon for instance.
One of my favorite blues repetends is this:

I saw Lon Chaney walking with the queen
Doing the werewolves of London;
I saw Lon Chaney Junior walking with the queen
Doing the werewolves of London.

Cheers,
John
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Unread 02-24-2019, 04:20 PM
Damian Balassone Damian Balassone is offline
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The song 'My Ride's Here' that Zevon wrote with Paul Muldoon is a classic. He also collaborated with many other writers: Thomas McGuane, Carl Hiaasen, Hunter S. Thompson and Mitch Albom. The literati loved him.

Love that Lon Chaney line, John.

Ah-hooo!
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Unread 02-24-2019, 04:35 PM
Simon Hunt Simon Hunt is offline
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I've always thought this verse from "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" captures a lot of what's great about Funny Zevon:

I met a girl at the Rainbow bar
She asked me if I'd beat her
She took me back to the Hyatt House
I don't want to talk about it

The switch from singing to muttering and the unfulfilled expectation of rhyme just seal the joke--and it's a good joke. And there's also (as usual) a joke on 70s LA rock culture in those place names. I love how WZ hung with all those sensitive, sensitive 70s singer-songwriters while constantly taking the piss...

And Funny Zevon is so good. Werewolves and Lawyers and Roland, oh my!

And, of course, there are a handful of songs where he's clearly just trying too hard for a hit (that never came) and ends up sounding goopy, no better than James or Jackson (eww!).

But can I float my theory here--that he's at his very best, which is to say as good as almost anybody, when he tones down the yuks just a little and balances the wit with a gorgeous, broken sentimentality? Desperadoes Under the Eaves, maybe. Or Keep Me in Your Heart. Or Splendid Isolation. Or (my favorite for the last few months) Mutineer.

Last edited by Simon Hunt; 02-24-2019 at 07:07 PM.
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Unread 02-24-2019, 06:57 PM
Damian Balassone Damian Balassone is offline
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Simon, re 'Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me', that is a very funny line indeed. I remember laughing out loud when I first heard it, though it probably doesn't translate on the page as well as it does in song.

Spot on re his take on 70s LA Rock culture..


So I drank up all the money,
Yes, I drank up all the money,
With these phonies in this Hollywood bar,
These friends of mine in this Hollywood bar



"He's at his very best, which is to say as good as almost anybody, when he tones down the yuks just a little and balances the wit with a gorgeous, broken sentimentality?"

So true, Simon, so true. 'Desperadoes Under the Eaves' says it all.
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