{"id":84740,"date":"2023-03-23T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84740"},"modified":"2023-03-23T09:04:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T14:04:58","slug":"mister-bad-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84740","title":{"rendered":"Mister Bad Example"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m not sure how I missed this piece<\/a>, from five years ago, about supremely complicated story of Warren Zevon – a deeply flawed person<\/a> who wrote some of the best music ever about deeply flawed people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a sprawling article that covers a lot of turf – too many <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In an old Late Show <\/em>episode from the \u201990s, when Zevon was guesting as bandleader, David Letterman asks Zevon to play \u201cDesperados Under the Eaves,\u201d which he had never performed on the show. Zevon demurs, suggesting that he needs an orchestra backing him to do the song justice. Maybe he just didn\u2019t want to play his big hymn about L.A. on the opposite coast from that \u201cbeautiful, sensual morgue.\u201d<\/a> Either way, Dave never was able to convince Warren to play it for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best <\/em>song can\u2019t ever be your favorite <\/em>song, because the best song belongs to everybody, whereas a favorite song belongs only to you. Goldsmith goes with \u201cThe French Inhaler,\u201d<\/a> a telling choice for a songwriter\u200a\u2014\u200ait boasts a parallel narrative that references Zevon\u2019s bitter break-up with the first love of his life and mother to Jordan, Marilyn \u201cTule\u201d Livingston, and the controversy over Norman Mailer\u2019s 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe. It\u2019s the sort of song\u200a\u2014\u200asophisticated without making a big deal about it\u200a\u2014\u200athat professionals wish they had written.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Favorite but not “best”? Probably a three way battle between “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, “Lawyers, Guns and Money” and “A Certain Girl”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rebooting of Zevon’s reputation – from untouchable to secular saint, in the two decades since he died – fills a lot of the article, and it’s fascinating, and a little bit of a blast down memory lane to the days when he was one of the most alcoholic-y alcoholics around:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

One of the most haunting passages from I\u2019ll Sleep When I\u2019m Dead <\/em>concerns \u201cReconsider Me,\u201d<\/a> Zevon\u2019s most poignant love song. (Given how much Zevon labored over his lyrics, the use of \u201creconsider\u201d seems especially crucial.) Crystal Zevon recounts how Warren showed up at her place at some point in the mid-\u201980s, before he got sober, to play her the song. In spite of everything, they were thinking about giving their marriage another go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their daughter, Ariel, was excited to show her daddy her report card and a drawing she made for him. But when he walked in, he ignored Ariel, instead fixating on Crystal as he played her his beautiful love song. The little girl looked on, quietly devastated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It’s an illuminating and fascinating read if you’re a fan. And I am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure how I missed this piece, from five years ago, about supremely complicated story of Warren Zevon – a deeply flawed person who wrote some of the best music ever about deeply flawed people. It’s a sprawling article that covers a lot of turf – too many In an old Late Show episode from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-universe-and-everything","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84745,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84740\/revisions\/84745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}