![]() ![]() ![]() The son of a Russian fighter and gambler, and a piano prodigy who as a child knew Stravinsky, his first couple of albums contained expertly observed portraits of the beautiful and the damned among the ’70s LA coke and champagne set. ![]() Scott FitzZevon could scarcely have been more apposite. The singer was as comfortable with writers like Carl Hiaasen, Hunter S Thompson, Jonathan Kellerman and Thomas MacGuane as fellow musicians (although he had no shortage of distinguished fans and collaborators, including Bob Dylan and Neil Young). Jackson Browne dubbed him “the first and foremost proponent of song noir.” Bruce Springsteen called him “The good, the bad and the ugly… a moralist in cynic’s clothing”. Zevon coined so many brilliant lines that when his peers came up with quotes about him they tended to speak above even their own abilities. When Warren Zevon passed away on Sunday September 7, rock ‘n’ roll lost one of its great ironists and men of letters. Written by Warren Zevon 1973 Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.In the article below – originally published in Hot Press in 2003 – Peter Murphy reflects on Warren Zevon’s legacy, and shares a transcript of a phone interview with the singer-songwriter from 2000: These friends of mine in this Hollywood bar With these phonies in this Hollywood bar, How’re you going to make your way in the world, woman They’d all like to spend the night with you Maybe you’ll end up with someone different every nightĪll these people with no home to go home to You must try it again till you get it right Where will you go with your scarves and your miracles “How’re you going to make your way in the world Warren Zevon went to sleep permanently on September 7, 2003, aged 56, leaving behind one of the great discographies of all-time and capped off by this great song. It’s a wonder he survived another 25 years. One of our lasting musical memories is of catching Zevon at the Roxy in 1978 in support of his masterpiece, “Excitable Boy.” Zevon put on a manic show that night, but we all cringed when he repeatedly jumped up and collapsed to his knees (doing nothing in the process to undermine his mantra: I’ll sleep when I’m dead). The album was produced by Zevon’s pal, Jackson Browne, with support from the best of L.A.’s session players at the time. We first hear those harmonies at the 1:00 mark, but thankfully they recur throughout the song. Musically, the song is a marvel featuring piano, complex chord changes, strings, and the perfect harmonies of Don Henley and Glenn Frey (a zenith moment they never again approached). Evidently, after the breakup of Zevon and Tule, Warren found out that she was sleeping with another musician, and in the liner notes of the reissued album Jordan says that his mother confessed to him before she passed that the song was a “f*** you” to her for sleeping with this other musician.” At the conclusion of the song, Zevon also makes reference to the furor surrounding Norman Mailer’s exploitative Marilyn Monroe biography published in 1973. Lyrically the song is primarily a kiss-off to “Tule” Livingston (Zevon’s ex-wife and mother of his son Jordan), but also about life and lust in the LA music scene. We humbly opine that The French Inhaler is one of the finest songs ever recorded. A large reason for our repeat listening is needing to hear The French Inhaler over and over and over (a particular shortcoming of vinyl and turntables if you don’t have the 45 rpm single stylee). We have been mired in Warren-World for over a month and unable to scrape Warren Zevon‘s stunning 1976 major label debut album off of our turntable. ![]()
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