          |
  |
|
 |
As I was beginning to cool my love affair with rock and roll in my early 20s I heard a new song that transfixed me almost despite myself. I bought the album immediately and played it over and over, singing along… It was Warren Zevon's "Lawyers, Guns and Money. I liked it at the time because it was funny and smart and dark, which I had spent my adolescence attempting to be. I continue to harbor fond feelings for Zevon, even though I don't think I ever bought one of his records in the CD era. And so I was saddened last year when I heard he had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. On his web site today, I was pleased to discover that Zevon has not abandoned the sense of humor that drew me to his music 25 years ago. His home page features a photograph with the caption, "WARREN BEING ATTENDED TO BY HIS PERSONAL PHYSICIAN." The man putting a stethescope on Zevon's chest is, in fact, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Clicking through WarrenZevon.com, I discovered that as a kid he studied classical piano, and even attended a recording session of Igor Stravinsky's. I learned that the music he listens to for pleasure is "as distant as possible from what I'm working on. So, if I'm writing hard rock, I'll listen to Benjamin Britten." I learned that he carries a book of Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry around with him. And I read his answer to David Letterman's interview question about whether his cancer had taught him anything. ''How much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich,'' he said. Not to get mawkish, but it was a little like rediscovering an old pal a little too Late in the game. And then one afternoon this week, a copy of his new CD arrived in the mail. So I stopped what I was doing and, I guess, paid my final respects. The CD -- presumably the last CD - is called: "The Wind." Zevon is joined on the record by Ry Cooder, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, among other famous pals. In other words it's sort of a pre-emptive wake, sad as well as spirited, starring the soon-to-be late lamented loved one himself.
Some days I feel like my shadow's casting me/ There are songs that rock, in his familiar twisted action-adventure way….
…time to duck and cover,/ And there is, bluntly put, a lung cancer blues called "Rub Me Raw." The only track on the record that Warren Zevon didn't write is a Bob Dylan song. It feels inevitable. "Knockin On Heaven's Door" was another dark, self-romanticizing American pop tune I also loved when I first heard it back in the 1970s. Hearing Warren Zevon sing it today, with both of us 30 years closer to death, I was reminded of the power that rock music used to have over me. And, with the right song at the right moment, occasionally still can. This is KA in Studio 360. |
|
| HOME | THIS WEEK | AMERICAN ICONS | KURT ANDERSEN | SHOW ARCHIVE | STATION LISTINGS | ABOUT STUDIO 360 | CONTACT US |
|
About Kurt Andersen
