How About a Nap - or Some Intervention - Before We're Dead?
There's an abundance of material meriting attention out there, but I'm going to settle for low-key here tonight. A full week in the traces has been wearing, especially with a bridal shower here the other night. Fun but not without some wear-and-tear on the system, you know?
I'm in the throes right now of Crystal Zevon's great memoir "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead." Yes, it's that Zevon, of Roland, Werewolves, Lawyers, et al.
I've been a fan since Excitable Boy, but frankly not a very devoted fan. I didn't hear much of him after that disk and I guess in hindsight was not so enthralled as to seek his recordings out given my multitude of other musical interests. But, inevitably, I was a bit sucked into the whirlpool over Warren's early death and expanded his slots in my CD racks a bit as a result. In particular, EB was joined by the great tribute "Enjoy Every Sandwich" and the retrospective with that same great Warren-esque "Sleep/Dead" tag. That was somewhat of a revelation. There's a lot of great stuff there. I'm looking forward to enjoying recently-acquired "Wind."
But this frank book is an eye-opener. Somehow that carefully made-up sweet-boy visage on the EB cover far outweighed the gun-on-plate image. From my reading, while Warren certainly could be a friend, compadre, and even a lover, far too much of the time he was plain and simple a substance-abuser with a paranoiac streak who tended to resort to very nasty behavior to folks who had done him no wrong. The gun was a necessary caution - this dude was seriously unstable, putting it politely. He seems to have often been a total asshole to the folks who had his backside, possibly for that very reason (i.e., insecurity). Oh mercy.
So I guess it comes down to hate the behavior, try to understand the person. As I believe Jackson Browne, a seeming saint in terms of smoothing the road for Warren, says, he was not gifted with the best voice, but he was a terrific songwriter. And, indeed, his quirky choices of subject and language are remarkable. He doesn't fit neatly in categories - a characteristic I particularly love - and am frustrated by.
I.e., yet another creative genius with sociopathy.
The reading of course has me pursuing recordings by others in Warren's orbit - Ronstadt in particular.
I give the book a B+ on preliminary reading.
I'm in the throes right now of Crystal Zevon's great memoir "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead." Yes, it's that Zevon, of Roland, Werewolves, Lawyers, et al.
I've been a fan since Excitable Boy, but frankly not a very devoted fan. I didn't hear much of him after that disk and I guess in hindsight was not so enthralled as to seek his recordings out given my multitude of other musical interests. But, inevitably, I was a bit sucked into the whirlpool over Warren's early death and expanded his slots in my CD racks a bit as a result. In particular, EB was joined by the great tribute "Enjoy Every Sandwich" and the retrospective with that same great Warren-esque "Sleep/Dead" tag. That was somewhat of a revelation. There's a lot of great stuff there. I'm looking forward to enjoying recently-acquired "Wind."
But this frank book is an eye-opener. Somehow that carefully made-up sweet-boy visage on the EB cover far outweighed the gun-on-plate image. From my reading, while Warren certainly could be a friend, compadre, and even a lover, far too much of the time he was plain and simple a substance-abuser with a paranoiac streak who tended to resort to very nasty behavior to folks who had done him no wrong. The gun was a necessary caution - this dude was seriously unstable, putting it politely. He seems to have often been a total asshole to the folks who had his backside, possibly for that very reason (i.e., insecurity). Oh mercy.
So I guess it comes down to hate the behavior, try to understand the person. As I believe Jackson Browne, a seeming saint in terms of smoothing the road for Warren, says, he was not gifted with the best voice, but he was a terrific songwriter. And, indeed, his quirky choices of subject and language are remarkable. He doesn't fit neatly in categories - a characteristic I particularly love - and am frustrated by.
I.e., yet another creative genius with sociopathy.
The reading of course has me pursuing recordings by others in Warren's orbit - Ronstadt in particular.
I give the book a B+ on preliminary reading.
posted by Sir Gumbo at 11:14 PM
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