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Originally Posted by DeepPurple
Did you see the David Letterman show that was devoted totally to Warren, I guess it was about 4 months before he died. Lawyer, Guns and Money is now one of my favorite songs.
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Yes one of my favorite artists. I have every recording I believe that exists except his very first "Wanted Dead or Alive" I believe was only released in Europe. I guess it was a major failure and was blasted by critics. His producer walked out midway through the recording citing impossible to work with because Warren insisted on playing all the instruments. Warren said he chalked up his disagreement to his producer as "a sudden attack of taste". He did release one song that I consider really good on that album that he re-recorded on Excitable Boy Tule's Blues. A song about the mother of his son. Also, the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy uses his song She Quit Me changing the lyrics to He Quit Me. Warren went on to take a job as band director and music coordinator for The Everly Brothers. He didn't record another album till 1976 and the critically acclaimed album Warren Zevon my personal favorite.
I guess Warren actually had a genius IQ Warren always referred to it mockingly as the highest IQ ever recorded in Fresno California lol. He was considered a prodigy who as a youngster was trained by Igor Stravinsky. Warren had his demon and it was alcoholism. Every step forward it seemed alcohol knocked him back 10 steps. He got clean later in life mostly to make amends to his wife that he abused when he drank heavily. He was a strange guy his wife in the book she wrote that he could never wear a shirt twice. Even when flat broke he would go to goodwill and thrift stores stock up on shirts lol and dump the used ones.
I just connect with his songwriting. He is one of the few artists that I never get tired of listening to. I really think he didn't get his due because of the abusive behavior. His friends Bob Dylan Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Brown knew how good his writing was.