Album Reviews

With heartfelt help and support from his friends, Warren Zevon's musical sendoff is like a good funeral: a mixture of tears, laughter, fond remembrances, and in the end, a celebration of a life worth living, and one that obviously touched both those close at hand, and those seated in the audience.

The CD version of The Wind, the last of Zevon's 17 releases beginning with 1969's Wanted Dead of Alive , was issued in 2003, two weeks before he became a victim of mesothelioma-an inoperable lung cancer-on September 7th, 2003. He was 56 years old. The disc turned up on many 'best of 2003' lists. It also won Grammys™ for Best Rock Performance by a Duo (“Disorder in the House” with Bruce Springsteen) and Best Contemporary Folk Album. The limited edition 180g LP issue arrived this past March, 2004.

Zevon's first break arguably came when Linda Ronstadt sang his “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” back in 1977. Zevon's 1978 album Excitable Boy containing two of his best-known tunes, “Werewolves of London,” and “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” made him both popular and respected for his ability to turn a catchy melody and write wickedly funny, often dark and cynical lyrics.

Recorded back in August of 2003 shortly after he was diagnosed, the album features the aforementioned Bruce Springsteen, plus Tom Petty, Eagles Don Henley, Dwight Yoakam, and Timothy B. Schmitt and Billy Bob Thorntion.

Dealing with the subject of death was nothing new to either Zevon or his fans. His logo was a skull smoking a cigarette and his eponymous 1976 album (released seven years after his 1969 debut Wanted Dead of Alive) included “I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.” He released Life'll Kill Ya in 2000, well before his illness was diagnosed.

Zevon exits with a moving but hardly maudlin set of originals, mostly written with Jorge Calderón and an unforgettable cover of Dylan's “Knocking on Heaven's Door,” which he sings with bold resignation, while pleading in a series of asides in the chorus for heaven to “open up, open up.” It'll get you every time.

On what is more a classic '70's rock album than a “folk” set, Zevon looks back at his “Dirty Life and Times,” (with Ry Cooder on guitar clearly influencing the musical proceedings) and a “Disorder in the House,”which celebrates cutting loose and living life full and on the edge without regrets. Springsteen heats up the track with a raw, scorching guitar track out of the Keith Richards school of rock.

“The Rest of the Night,” a 5 minute Buddy Holly-like rave-up featuring Tom Petty and Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campell gets things rocking half way through the set. Zevon follows that with an uncharacteristically sincere and vulnerable “Please Stay,” with Emmylou Harris singing background, and Gil Bernal's sax solo giving the song a mournful, nostalgic atmosphere similar to what Lenny Pickett does to close episodes of SNL.

On the gritty, bluesy “Rub Me Raw,” featuring some of Joe Walsh's best electric guitar work since “Life in the Fast Lane,” and anchored by Jim Keltner's pile driver drumming, Zevon deals with the physical and mental tribulations of his illness, as well as with the reaction of friends, family and the public.

The set ends with the heart-wrenching “Keep Me in Your Heart,” which begins with “Shadows are fallin' and I'm runnin' out of breath.” Zevon went out with a heartfelt sincerity that may have been part of his real life, but was kept out of sight in his creative one.

The album was recorded at eight venues and was surely recorded digitally, or mostly so, and probably with Pro-Tools. It's an “old-fashioned” ('70's style) studio set, appropriately intimate and closely miked. Processing is minimal except for some compression to keep things tight and relatively loud. The sound, dry and clear, suits both the material and the purpose on hand, but you may yearn for greater transparency, some more extension, resolution, sparkle and space of the kind found on the musically relatedHotel California, which of course was all analog.

The LP is one of those anonymously mastered auxiliary releases, and I have no idea who actually did the cutting or what was used as a source. I doubt CD masterer Stephen Marcussen did the cutting, but I wonder if Marcussen, the former owner and cutting engineer at the highly respected Precision Lacquer doesn't regret having hung up his lathe.

Whoever cut it, plated it and pressed it and whatever was used as a source, the LP just sounds much better for reasons perhaps inexplicable, or because vinyl playback adds 'euphonic colorations.' Who cares? Not until I played the LP did I really take notice of Dwight Yoakam's background vocals on the opening track, nor did the texture, tonality and physicality of the bongos on “El Amor De Mi Vida,” cut through with such clarity and force. On “The Rest of the Night,” while I knew Tom Petty was singing backup, it wasn't until I heard the vinyl that Tom Petty was there in the room. Bass is tighter, deeper and tauter. Unfortunately pressing quality was only so-so on my sample and there were both pops and clicks and background noise. I guess a Rainbo press in Los Angeles. Put it to you this way: if it was either RTI or UMG's Gloversville, NY plant, shame on you! But I doubt it. If you can find it, though, I still recommend the vinyl, which also includes a shiny color insert.

If you're a Zevon fan you probably already have this. If you're not, this could make you one. Real, and highly recommended whatever format you choose.