![]() He enjoys being in charge of his own epitaph. ![]() Zevon has chosen not to undergo chemotherapy. For now, he is taking only anti-nausea and pain medications. It works so well as a drug.” It is a poignant comparison. When you get into songwriting, everything else falls away. Much of what Zevon is writing for this record is for, he says, “people I want to say goodbye to. He jokes about racing against the clock (“Do they still put out EPs?”) and quotes another friend, crime novelist Carl Hiaasen: “Carl believes you can’t die in the middle of a project.” Since his diagnosis, Zevon has been writing and recording what he knows will be his last album. The next day, Zevon is hunched over a grand piano in a studio off Sunset Boulevard with his longtime friend and collaborator, Jorge Calderón, wrestling with a chord progression in a new song. However those words Warren Zevon sang have been the most powerful lyrics he ever composed because so man years later, Warren Zevon is still in our hearts.Which he does. Just staring at the album cover was difficult. We said goodbye to him on the David Letterman appearances. Warren Zevon was still alive when the record came out. I brought this album when it first came out and it was very difficult to listen to this song the first time. Yet Warren Zevon’s work was his life, and his quest to compose a goodbye song says so much about the man and who he was and what he accomplished in his life. Most people would have just tried to enjoy every minute they had left and paid no attention to work. ![]() Over the years, it has always struck me that as Warren Zevon knew he was dying, he still felt compelled to record one final album. The Warren Zevon song “Keep Me In Your Heart,” was not only Warren Zevon’s swan song to his career, it was his farewell song to life itself. Bad Example in 1991, Life’ll Kill Ya in 2000, My Ride’s Here in 2002, and his final album released in 2003 entitled The Wind. In 1989, Warren Zevon released the album Transverse City followed by Mr. Six out of the album’s ten tracks were released as singles. In 1987, Warren released the album Sentimental Hygiene. The supporting cast of musicians that appeared on the album included some of the biggest rock stars of all time such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Brian Setzer and REM. ![]() It would be five years before Warren Zevon would release another album. Two years later Zevon released The Envoy in 1982. Warren Zevon followed up the Excitable Boyalbum with the record Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School in 1980. “Werewolves of London,” would become a song that would become ingrained in popular culture forever. “Werewolves of London,” would become a song that went beyond pop charts success. While the 1976 album brought Warren Zevon the largest audience he had ever had up to that point, the release of Excitable Boy in 1978 would prove to be the album that would make Warren Zevon a household name. The album was very successful and contained many of the songs that would also become big hits for Linda Ronstadt such as “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” “Carmelita,” and “Hasten Down The Wind.” From that point on, every Warren Zevon album would feature a combination of the best studio musicians, world class rock artists appearing as guests, and a amazing body of well written and recorded rock and roll songs. The album featured an amazing cast of musicians including Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Phil Everly, Carl Wilson, Bonnie Raitt and almost the entire Eagles band. Six years later Warren Zevon released his second album entitled Warren Zevon. The album was a commercial failure and quickly disappeared. Warren Zevon released his first album in 1969 entitled Wanted Dead Or Alive.
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