WARREN ZEVON - "Even a Dog Can Shake Hands"

"Even a Dog Can Shake Hands" originally appeared on the Zevon album Sentimental Hygiene. Trivia: Zevon is backed here (as he is on the rest of the album) by three-quarters of REM (Buck, Mills and Berry), with whom he would collaborate on a subsequent album under the name Hindu Love Gods. The song was also used as the opening theme of the short-lived television show Action...

WARREN ZEVON - "Searching for a Heart"

And I'm searching for a heart
Searching everyone
They say love conquers all
You can't start it like a car
You can't stop it with a gun...

WARREN ZEVON

FRIDAY WITH WARREN

Today's selection is a live performance of Zevon's "Play It All Night Long":

Sweet home Alabama
Play that dead band's song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long...

FRIDAY WITH WARREN

Today's FRIDAY WITH WARREN feature is a fantastic live performance given on June 20, 1976, at The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The show closely follows the release of his self-titled major-label debut. Anyone who's read I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, penned by Zevon's ex-wife, Crystal, will have some context of the state of Warren's life at this point in time, and in this performance it shows like the tiny hairline cracks in the finest porcelain.

The Internet Archive is a fantastic online resource essentially devoted to the preservation and dissemination of culturally-relevant media. The materials on the site are either in the public domain or have been made available by the respective artists on the condition that no profits are made.

For Want of a Title

Michael Jackson in Disneyland
Don't have to share it with nobody else
Lock the gates, Goofy, take my hand
And lead me through the world of self...

WARREN ZEVON, "Splendid Isolation"

FRIDAY WITH WARREN

Yes, I know it's Saturday, but I inadvertently missed posting "Friday with Warren" yesterday (apologies, AJM and CE), so we'll pay him a visit this morning instead...

Baltimore may not be Denmark, but it's a dark and stormy day, nonetheless, and what better way to set the tone for "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner", a beautifully morbid little tale of double-crossing mercenaries and post-mortem vengeance from Zevon's 1978 albumExcitable Boy...

The Shit Has Hit the Fan

Well, folks, I'm leaving town for a few days - you know, just until This Thing blows over. My access to the technologies that make frivolities such as this blog possible will be rather limited, hence, posts may be sparse during the interim.

In the meantime, take Warren's advice: Send lawyers, guns and money...

Fridays with Warren

Zevon gets his Irish on in today's selection, a live performance of "MacGillycuddy's Reeks", from his penultimate album My Ride's Here...

I saw her on Killarney's shore one morning in July
When I still thought I was a thorn trying to find a side
I met her in the little launch that runs to Innisfallen
Hunched together, haunch to haunch, trying to keep my balance...

- Warren Zevon, "MacGillycuddy's Reeks"

FRIDAYS WITH WARREN

This is a "feature", of sorts, that began on Facebook. Over the course of several weeks, it seemed that every time Friday rolled around, I was in that Zevon frame of mind and invariably posted some video of his. AJ Michel later dubbed it "Fridays with Warren".

Today's selection is "Splendid Isolation", here featured in live performance on David Letterman. Zevon was a frequent guest on Letterman's show (if memory serves correctly, I believe the two had been roommates at some point way back when), and he'd often sub for Paul Schaeffer whenever he was out of town. In October 2002, having been diagnosed with terminal mesothelioma, Zevon gave his last public performance on Letterman; in the ensuing interview, Zevon offered his now oft-quoted summation of life: to "enjoy every sandwich." He died in September the following year.

I was fortunate enough to see him live no less than a half-dozen times. I really miss his shows - as much for his banter between songs as the music itself. One time, while performing on stage at the Theater of Living Arts on South Street in Philadelphia, he remarked that he'd been in the music business for 30-odd years.

"How many folks out there playing now will be around in, say, 10 years," he posited, then, after a protracted pause, added, "Take Alanis..."

At this, a handful of people in the audience groaned; Morissette was all over the radio dial in those days.

"Nah," Zevon added dryly. "She'll still be playing. Ten years from now, she'll be up here on stage, and some drunk guy will be down in front yelling, 'Hey, Alanis, do the one where you give the guy the blow job.'"