Accidentally Like a Martyr the Tortured Art of Warren Zevon Review
Accidentally Like a Martyr: The Tortured Art of Warren Zevon
By James Campion
(Backbeat Books)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
There take been a handful of books already written documenting the life and career of late vocalist-songwriter Warren Zevon. This one is unlike.
Rather than just running downward his life from either a chronological or personal standpoint, writer James Campion chooses 10 songs and iii albums — divided by a chapter each — he feels best encompass the mindset and "tortured art" that make Zevon'southward work so infrequent. It's a unique and somewhat unusual arroyo. Campion uses that structure to examine not merely each of Zevon's 13 albums, but the personal, political and concern circumstances that impacted and instigated their creation.
Over three years in the making, Campion interviewed 22 individuals shut to the artist — everyone from his grown children and ex-wife Crystal (who has her own narrative about Zevon'southward life, 2008's I'll Sleep When I'chiliad Dead: The Dirty Life And Times Of Warren Zevon), band members Waddy Wachtel and David Landau along with friends/supporters/producers or co-songwriters Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther and Jorge Calderon — to provide a vivid, warts-and-all-portrait of a multifaceted individual other legendary artists such every bit Dylan and Springsteen considered a peer.
Similar many gifted individuals, Zevon's darker demons — alcoholism, excessive drug utilize, a sexual appetite some called an addiction, a predilection for firearms and an inability to show affection to loved ones, amid other issues — combined to create a cocky-destructive streak that negatively affected his friends, family unit, fellow musicians and ultimately his career. The popularity that peaked early with 1978's Excitable Boy, his second major label release, enabled those impulses. And fifty-fifty though there were enough of superb albums that followed, unpredictable alive shows, unscrupulous record deals and Zevon's own inconsistency resulted in a downward commercial spiral he never broke out of. Zevon'south untimely death from a virulent form of lung cancer chosen peritoneal mesothelioma was diagnosed in the fall of 2002 and took its toll a yr afterward. But non before the completion of his terminal statement, The Air current, which appeared a month before his decease. It ultimately nabbed him two posthumous Grammy awards.
For Zevon newcomers, it won't take long to grasp his pitch-black humour. It'south evident in "Werewolves Of London," incorrectly pegged equally a novelty, when he sings, "I saw a werewolf drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's/ His pilus was perfect," or in "Excitable Boy"'southward serial killer protagonist who "rubbed the pot roast all over his chest." In that style he shared a wry lyrical sensibility with Randy Newman, too known for his sly, supple style with words and irony.
Information technology's simply 241 pages, but Campion'south tome is not a fast or informal read. On the contrary, he digs deep into both his discipline and the songs/albums, taking detours and spitting out head-scratching sentences such every bit the first of this one on the chapter about "Splendid Isolation": "When translating the biting humor of Warren Zevon's theoretical anthropophobia into a literal construct …" He then explains the genesis of the term "splendid isolation" in a historical sense, with a few intensely detail-heavy paragraphs about mid-late 1800'south European politics, final with this humdinger: "If Uk were a man, it might be an anachronistic figure swallowed up by the times that threaten to go out him obsolete." Thankfully, the unabridged book isn't quite then cumbersome, simply at that place are enough scholarly side roads and dense, some might say unwieldy, writing to make even the most sophisticated reader, finish, rewind, and re-read numerous pages, paragraphs and even unabridged chapters to unpack the brainy word-salad Campion throws at u.s.a. repeatedly.
For all the writer's complication, he does a wonderful job providing illuminating and often esoteric background information on Zevon such as the bear upon of William Ford Gibson's "Neuromancer" on the Transverse City anthology, ane of the creative person's virtually misunderstood and unsuccessful discs, and discussing Zevon's love of classical music. He was classically trained and friends thought his goal was to someday write a symphony, something only hinted at in short interludes included on Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School. Campion enlightens us on Zevon'southward appreciation of writers such as Norman Mailer, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and how their words, characters and vistas influenced his lyrics.
One of the most provocative capacity discusses and dissects "Studebaker," a raw ballad Zevon never fifty-fifty put on an album (it appears in rough demo form on the posthumous Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings). This allows Campion to explore the creative person's babyhood, his amore for piano and the fractious human relationship with his dysfunctional parents.
Occasionally, the author gets overly muddled with his references and wanders too far chasing downward oblique symbolisms in the songs. But overall, this is a fascinating methodology to understanding and explaining Warren Zevon'due south considerable mystique and generally underappreciated talent. The book not only sends readers back to the music, simply volition make them appreciate specifics, creative qualities and lyrical complexities they might not have noticed.
Like its challenging subject area, Accidentally Like A Martyr is an elaborate, literate, sometimes difficult withal ever rewarding piece of work, well worth the fourth dimension and effort information technology takes to absorb all its intricacies.
Source: https://americansongwriter.com/book-review-accidentally-like-a-martyr-the-tortured-art-of-warren-zevon/
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