I could wax on an on in detail about his songwriting prowess and how his career false started in the 60's...how he played keys for THE EVERLY BROTHERS and others through the early 70's befeore releasing his s/t classic in 1976...

Best known for the song 'Werewolves Of London" a thinly veiled sarcastic take on the club and sex scenes of the period.

But there is no need. I can sum up the Late great WARREN ZEVON in one sentence.

The man was a f***ing genius.


Listen to everything he has ever recorded as it is gold!

Gorgeous songwriting laced with dark pain and sardonic wit.

And if you it's there. go to youtube and find his final appearance on LETTERMAN before his death in 2003 *

The music world could use more ZEVONs...



* ZEVON was a fave of Letterman and appeared often, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Letterman gave him a show...the entire hour all Zevon. Where he talked of his life, his impending death and played his songs, after which he presented a tearful DAVE with the guitar he always used on the show stating simply "Take care of it"

AAOOOOOoooooo.....Werewolves Of London.

Warren Zevon was great. The first album I bought by him, on a whim(because it was cheap, but remastered) was the 1980 live album Stand in the Fire. It is fantastic. Every song is a winner. I really like his 70's and 80's output, but I haven't listened to anything he did from 1990 up until his death. I plan on checking it out though.

Love Warren Zevon.

A good place to start with his music is the compilation "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" which pretty much spans his career.

One of my favorite Zevon songs is Boom Boom Mancini because I saw that fight happen live; Mancini was my favorite boxer at the time and it was such a tragedy when Duk Ku Kim died in the ring.

I think my all time favorite Zevon song though is Lawyers, Guns And Money.

My favorite is "Carmelita" which is why I chose to include it in my initital entry...but there are no weak Zevon tunes...

Carmelita is great too.

But there are some weak Zevon tunes IMO. Nightime In The Switching Yard? Bleccch! Only song on Excitable Boy I don't like.

BTW, Zevon is the only person I know who could work the word "brucellosis" into a song. "Grandpa pissed his pants again. He don't give a damn...."

And what about that song on Transverse City where the lyrics are nothing but chemical formulas?

brilliant!!!

"Poor Poor Pitiful Me" is another gem...

I like the song about the gorilla in the zoo who changes places with Zevon too. Another lyrically brilliant song.

BTW, Warren's version of Poor Poor Pitiful Me is so much better than the Linda Ronstadt version that was a huge hit IMO.

The best line in his is the one where he pickes up the girl who want's him to beat her...then in lieu of a rhyming lyric he just says"I don't wanna talk about it"

That cracks me up.

Don't know enough about the music to really comment, but I thought he was great when he was a guest on The Larry Sanders Show. Anyone remember that episode?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNvZQkiMt5o

We had this cool art teacher who used to always have "Detox Mansion" on a mix he played. This caused me to seek out some of Warren's records. This would of been at a time when I was much less adventurous with my music. Of course I loved it.

He's one of those guys I really prefer to play on vinyl.

Detox Mansion is a great tune!

"I've been rakin' leaves with Liza, me and Liz clean up the yard."

Dude, he totally ripped off Kid Rock's All Summer Long.

All I really know about Warren Zevon is the song "Werewolves of London."

However, Warren used to help me out quite frequently when I was CD shopping. At one certain CD store near where I used to work, if I found a CD that I wanted but didn't have enough $ to buy at the time, I would always stash it in the Warren Zevon section until I could come back to pick it up a day or two later. I reasoned that not many Warren Zevon fans were going to be interested in Exodus or Mentors CDs. Worked like a charm, too.

Don't ask me why I picked Warren Zevon's section as my hiding place, by the way... it must've been conveniently located near the used bins, or maybe "Werewolves of London" was playing in the store when I first came up with the idea

you shouldve bought a Zevon disc as well....

Yeah, like Excitable Boy, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School or Sentimental Hygiene.

Better yet, get the retrospective 2 disc set, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.

This is the only artist I know who could work the word "brucellosis" into a song.