The release of his album and subsequent death of David Bowie made me remember a similar situation which occurred back in 2003 with one of my favorite artists, Warren Zevon.
Warren Zevon released an album in 1978 named Excitable Boy. It was produced by Jackson Browne, a big name in his own right. In that album, he charted three songs, the most famous of which was ‘Werewolves of London’, which has been covered by Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, Adam Sandler, Kid Rock, Jimmy Buffett, and countless others. The other two from the album were ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ and my personal favorite, ‘Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” It seems that ‘Roland’ wasn’t just a personal favorite of mine, though.
David Letterman was a regular supporter of Warren Zevon. He came on his show regularly, throughout his career. In fact, shortly after Zevon was diagnosed with a cancer of the abdominal lining (a result of exposure to asbestos) in 2002, Letterman had him on his show as the only guest that hour. During the interview, Zevon said, “I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years,” as Zevon had a long-standing phobia of doctors. Letterman asked Zevon to play ‘Roland’, making the track his very last public performance.
Zevon released his last album, The Wind, working nearly to his death. In fact, his son had to take over a huge chunk of the work near the end. However, the album garnered Zevon his first Grammy Awards of his long career. Sadly, since the album was just released two weeks before his death, he wasn’t able to accept the awards.
The song above, ‘Keep Me In Your Heart’, was nominated for song of the year, but didn’t win. However, the album did win an award, as well as his duet with old friend Bruce Springsteen.
His voice in ‘Keep Me In Your Heart’ is clearly hashed and he doesn’t have the power that he did in his heyday. Compare it to his very humorous video of ‘Werewolves’ below.
Warren Zevon was an artists with rare vocal talents who began work on his last album after being diagnosed with cancer. (Photo from his homepage)