Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon 1976

Warren William Zevon (born January 24, 1947 in Chicago , Illinois , † September 7, 2003 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American rock 'n' roll musician and songwriter . He was characterized above all by his ironic, almost cynical view of life, which is reflected in his often black-humored songs - Zevon often took up political or historical topics. He was not only a friend of various authors such as Hunter S. Thompson , Carl Hiaasen , Ross Macdonald , Thomas McGuane or Paul Muldoon , he was also an excellent expert on music, art, film and literature. This cultural knowledge was often found in postmodern allusions and quotes in his music. Zevon also enjoyed working with author friends and writing songs with them. All of the above authors have written at least one song in cooperation with Zevon. Zevon was remembered by a wider audience as a one-hit wonder with the song Werewolves of London , but was one of the most valued songwriters among colleagues. The term cult star applies to him - apart from Werewolves of London and the accompanying album Excitable Boy , he never sold tons of records, but had and still has a loyal fan base .

Youth and first musical experiences

Zevon's childhood was marked by difficult, unusual family circumstances. The family on the father's side is of Russian-Jewish origin. His father, William Zevon - born William Rubin Zivotovsky in 1903 in Kiev in what is now the Ukraine - came to America in 1907. Upon arrival, he and his brother adapted the family name to American standards - Zivotovsky became Zevon . William Zevon's poverty-stricken childhood in Brooklyn , New York led to a career as a professional gambler and petty criminal from an early age. His nickname Stumpy resulted from his small height. William Zevon's criminal activities and the resulting rejection of Warren's mother's family gave the young Warren a difficult childhood. He processed this part of the family history in the song Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded (from the 1976 album Warren Zevon ).

On the other hand, Zevon's musical talent as a pianist was encouraged early on. At the age of 14 he met Igor Stravinsky . Under Stravinsky's student and assistant Robert Craft, he deepened his studies of classical music. In his senior year at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, he met Violet Santiago. Together they founded the duo Lyme & Cybelle . Warren (aka Lyme , named after an aftershave ) was writing folk songs at this point, which he sang in a much higher pitch than at more successful later times. Under the producer Bones Howe, Zevon and Santiago recorded two singles as Lyme & Cybelle for the small record company White Whale, but they were not destined for great national success. After all, Follow Me became a minor hit in California. However, after the follow-up single - a cover of the Bob Dylan song If You Gotta Go, Go Now  - was also unsuccessful, Zevons and Santiago parted ways. Santiago recorded another single under the name Lyme & Cybelle , but with a different Lyme . Zevon stayed with White Whale and tried his hand at songwriting for other artists. His folk ballad Like The Seasons (already written in Lyme & Cybelle times) was recorded as B-side by The Turtles , and they also recorded his song Outside Chance . Even so, Warren did not have an artistic breakthrough. Some demo versions of the songs from this period as well as his recordings as Lyme & Cybelle were released in 2003 as The First Sessions .

Beginning of the solo career

Zevon recorded his debut album again in 1969 for a very small, independent record company, Imperial. Wanted Dead Or Alive , which was released under the name Zevon , was created under the notorious scene guru and producer Kim Fowley . The album was not a commercial success, and artistically, Zevon was still looking for a suitable personal style. Described by himself as an attempt to imitate his idol, the blues musician John Hammond Jr. , Wanted Dead Or Alive vacillates between seemingly aimless attempts at blues, the beautiful ballad Tule's Blues (written for his then wife Tule Livingston) and the first song , in which both the voice and the mood of later albums flash, the murder ballad A Bullet for Ramona . The song She Quit Me , which is also included here , was used - in a female interpretation as He Quit Me  - in the film Midnight Cowboy , which won the Academy Award for best film of the year the following year.

After Zevon some time had been hired as a studio musician and as a composer of advertising jingles, he got through the common friend David Marks (a founding member of the Beach Boys , who, however, only a few months remained in the band) contact with the Everly Brothers and got one of them a position as pianist and musical director of the live shows. In this role he also met Waddy Wachtel , one of the best guitarists on the Los Angeles music scene, whose guitar playing accompanied Warren's albums until 1990 and the album Mr. Bad Example . Although he made friends with many members of the local musical scene during this time, including Jackson Browne and Lindsey Buckingham (later with Fleetwood Mac ), his career did not seem to be advancing. Frustrated, Zevon moved to Sitges , Spain on the Costa del Garraf for a few months in 1974 , where he worked as a bar pianist in an Irish pub (The Dubliner) . Its owner was an ex-mercenary named David Lindell. His stories culminated in the jointly written song Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner .

It was Jackson Browne , after all, who convinced Zevon to come back to LA. Browne had auditioned with the boss of his record company Asylum, David Geffen , and got his friend Zevon a record deal with Asylum. Back in LA, Zevon recorded the album, simply called Warren Zevon , with Browne as producer and the renowned session band The Section , which is widely regarded as his artistic breakthrough. Zevon had used the long time between his debut album and its successor to write a number of impressive songs. Warren Zevon includes such classic songs as Carmelita (later covered by, among others, Dwight Yoakam and the Counting Crows ), The French Inhaler and Desperados Under the Eaves . Dozens of well-known musicians including Phil Everly , Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks (from Fleetwood Mac), Carl Wilson (from the Beach Boys), David Lindley, Glenn Frey & Don Henley (from the Eagles ), and Browne himself sang and played on this album .

Nevertheless, even after the publication of the critically acclaimed Warren Zevon, initially the success failed . It was Linda Ronstadt who brought Zevon encouragement and income for the first time by recording and making known several of his songs such as Hasten Down the Wind , Mohammed's Radio and Poor Poor Pitiful Me .

Career history

In 1978 Zevon released his album Excitable Boy , with which he finally made his breakthrough. This record also contains his only worldwide hit, Werewolves of London (a tribute to the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson , whom Warren befriended), which hit the charts in many places and has since grown enormously in the United States, especially during Halloween time Pleased with popularity. The record's title track and Lawyers, Guns and Money were widely played on the radio, and the latter song can still be heard today on many broadcasters in the United States that play AOR music . From the historical ballad Veracruz to the pop song Tenderness on the Block, written and sung with Jackson Browne , to the disco beat of Night Time in the Switching Yard , this album shows Zevon's musical breadth.

For almost the entire decade, Zevon had a drinking problem. Both in the studio and at live concerts, he often sang while drunk. In 1979 he undertook an addiction treatment. His struggle with alcoholism was openly discussed by him, for example in an interview for the music magazine Rolling Stone in 1981 or in the later song Detox Mansion , after Zevon relapsed in the mid-1980s.

In 1980 Zevon released the album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School , which he dedicated to the novelist Ross Macdonald , who assisted him during a difficult time in 1979. The album was not as successful as Excitable Boy and the released singles like Gorilla, You're a Desperado could not build on the surprise success of Werewolves of London .

This was followed by the live album Stand in the Fire , which is regularly praised by critics as one of the best live albums of all time for its explosive performances of old classics and new pieces such as the title song. His collaboration with the group The Boulders on this record ensures a rougher, definitely more rock 'n' roll sound than on the albums recorded with studio musicians.

1982 followed with The Envoy, the last studio album for Asylum, which was again not a great commercial success despite continued criticism. After releasing a compilation of his hits and best known songs, A Quiet Normal Life: The Best of Warren Zevon , Zevon and Asylum / Elektra parted ways.

In 1986, movie fans were reminded of Warren Zevon and his biggest hit when Martin Scorsese had a key scene in The Color of Money starred with Werewolves of London .

Zevon celebrated his comeback after a time without a record deal and another fight with alcoholism in 1987 with the highly acclaimed album Sentimental Hygiene , on which he was supported by a number of prominent colleagues. These included Neil Young , Bob Dylan , George Clinton , Jennifer Warnes and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers , Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and REM Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry (all REM members except for singer Michael Stipe) on almost all songs. This collaboration was continued under the band name Hindu Love Gods , under which Zevon and the three REM musicians present themselves as a cover band of old blues songs. In 1990 an album was released under the band name Hindu Love Gods , among whose songs a cover of the Prince song Raspberry Beret stood out.

In 1989 Zevon released his second and final album for Virgin, the concept album Transverse City, inspired by cyberpunk concepts, about modern and future life in the big city. The guests this time were Jerry García ( Grateful Dead ), David Gilmour , Chick Corea and again Neil Young.

Just one year later, Mr. Bad Example came out, hailed by many fans as one of Zevon's best albums. It contains both quieter ballads like Heartache Spoken Here and rock songs like Finishing Touches . The included song Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead served as the inspiration for the script of the film of the same name, which was made in 1994 and directed by Gary Fleder and was released in Germany as The Afterlife in Denver .

Throughout his career, Zevon toured concerts, either with a band or as a solo artist. When performing as a solo artist with guitar and piano, Zevon smugly declared that he was a heavy metal folk singer . Recordings of a solo tour were published in 1992 under the title Learning to Flinch (the title comes from a poem by the American poet Robert Lowell ).

His 1995 album Mutineer was the first that Zevon made in his home studio, but it was also the first whose idiosyncratic production was criticized. Once again it was not a commercial success.

In the course of his musician career, Zevon often appeared together with Stephen King and his band Rock Bottom Remainders . While performing, Zevon would often ask King to interpret his hit Werevolves of London as lead vocalist by telling King, “G major, and just howl at your throat. But above all: 'Play like Keit' ”.

Again without a record deal, Zevon withdrew into private life, but recorded various demos in his home studio. When he played this to his old friend Jackson Browne, the latter helped Zevon to find a record label, as he had done more than twenty years earlier. Life'll Kill Ya was published by Artemis in 1999 and received a lot of critical acclaim. Many saw the album as a return to Zevon's top form. The album My Ride's Here followed in 2001. The title songs of both albums explicitly deal with the subject of dying, which in retrospect could be read as a kind of prophecy when Zevon was encouraged to see a doctor by his dentist in 2002 after complaints of shortness of breath . He was diagnosed with inoperable end-stage mesothelioma (a type of lung cancer). He was given a life expectancy of three months.

Zevon's last year and The Wind

He then began recording his last album, The Wind , which featured some of his closest friends as guests, including Bruce Springsteen , Don Henley , Tom Petty , Timothy B. Schmit , Joe Walsh , David Lindley , Billy Bob Thornton and Emmylou Harris . Zevon had decided that his songs would be the best way to say goodbye to friends and relatives. The recordings, which were difficult and lengthy due to Zevon's state of health, were accompanied by a television team and shown in a documentary broadcast on the music channel VH 1 called Keep Me in Your Heart , which was later also released on DVD.

On October 30, 2002, Zevon was a guest on the Late Night Show with David Letterman . There he played a few songs and spoke at length about his illness. He had previously been a frequent guest on the show and occasionally took on the role of band leader on Letterman's TV shows as a replacement.

Zevon survived the doctors' prognosis by over nine months and lived long enough to witness the birth of two grandsons (twins) in June 2003 and the release of his last album, The Wind, on August 28, 2003. One of his grandsons was given the name Warren as a middle name by Zevon's daughter Ariel and her husband .

The Wind is arguably a unique album in music history as, unlike other recent albums, it allows the artist to deal directly with his own death and legacy. This subtext also makes the depressing, but always life-affirming mood of the album. As a sign of the typical Zevon humor, Knockin 'on Heaven's Door is the only cover version .

On September 7, 2003, Zevon died of complications from cancer in his Los Angeles home.

Posthumous honors and publications

The Wind was the most successful album in Zevon's career since Excitable Boy and was awarded gold by the RIAA in December 2003. Zevon received five posthumous Grammy nominations, including Keep Me in Your Heart as Song of the Year. It won two awards, for The Wind for best folk album and for Disorder in the House, recorded with Bruce Springsteen, for best rock song by a duo or group.

The tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon was released on October 19, 2004. His son Jordan Zevon did much of the work on the album and recorded an unreleased song by his father, Studebaker . The title of the CD goes back to the statement of a doctor who advised Warren Zevon after being diagnosed with lung cancer that from now on he should enjoy every foldable cuff.

In March 2007, the albums Excitable Boy , Stand In The Fire and The Envoy were released as remastered editions with bonus tracks that had been reworked in terms of sound technology. For Stand in the Fire and The Envoy is the first time that they are officially available on CD.

On May 1, 2007 Preludes: Rare And Unreleased Recordings was released, a two-CD set, which contains an interview with Zevon 16 unreleased songs, including various demo versions of well-known songs and six songs never released in any form. A special edition of the American Best Buy department store chain contains three additional songs.

On the same day, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon , a biography written by Zevon's ex-wife, Crystal Zevon, was released. Shortly before his death, Zevon himself asked his ex-wife to write this biography. His explicit request to present all details, positive as well as negative, created a mixed response to the book. Many fans find the work too one-sided and negative, with too much emphasis on Zevon's drug and woman stories.

Werewolves of London received homage from the song All Summer Long by Kid Rock , in which Warren Zevon's piece forms the backbone for an integration of the rock classic Sweet Home Alabama .

In the television series Californication , Zevon and his talent are featured in several episodes, and some of his songs have been selected for the official soundtrack and run in the background in the series.

In the very last episode of the television series Dr. House is also played Keep Me in Your Heart towards the end after the alleged death of the title hero.

Discography

• 1969: Wanted Dead or Alive
• 1976: Warren Zevon
• 1978: Excitable Boy
• 1980: Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School
• 1981: Stand in the Fire
• 1982: The Envoy
• 1982: Capitol Theater WNEW-FM Broadcast
• 1986: A Quiet Normal Life: The Best of Warren Zevon
• 1987: Live BBC
• 1987: Sentimental Hygiene
• 1989: Transverse City
• 1990: Hindu Love Gods
• 1991: Mr. Bad Example
• 1993: Learning to Flinch
• 1995: Mutineer
• 1996: I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (An Anthology)
• 2000: Life'll Kill Ya
• 2002: My Ride's Here
• 2002: Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon
• 2003: The Wind
• 2003: The First Sessions
• 2004: Enjoy Every Sandwich
• 2007: Preludes: Rare And Unreleased Recordings

Web links

• Official Website of Warren Zevon (English)
• Warren Zevon at laut.de.