Crystal Zevon

I wanted to read this book for 18 years. I was reminded of the great Warren Zevon while binge-watching "Action", a mostly forgotten FOX sitcom with Jay Mohr and Ileanna Douglas satirizing the movie business. The opening theme is by Zevon, and I was pleased to note that he's credited at the end in most of the episodes. What I didn't know, and what is explained in Ill Sleep When I'm Dead, is he originally wrote another song for the show, but they didn't like it, preferring another of his show more songs, "Even a Dog Can Shake Hands", which fits perfectly. I don't know what happened to the other song.
Warren Zevon was never an A-lister, though he worked with a number of them. Bruce Springsteen praised the humor in his lyrics, because it took a special touch to do it the way he did.
It would seem, from reading this book compiled by his wife Crystal(even though they divorced in the 80s, he continued to call her his wife and neither remarried) that Warren Zevon was good at one thing and bad at pretty much everything else.
Born Jan. 27 1947 in Chicago to a Ukrainian-Jewish father and a Mormon mother, he came of age mostly in Fresno CA. His father worked for Mickey Cohen, and this is what led to the relocation. He attended 7 different California high schools and was also skipped grades, a practice fairly common in those days(my opinion: it was often a way for inadequate school systems to deal with gifted children they weren't equipped to handle) H e claimed to have tested very high.
He would say later that his tutelage with Stravinsky was exaggerated, but Stravinsky was a neighbor and an influence on him.
At 17, he formed the folk duo lyme and cybelle with a high school girlfriend, and she is one of the many contributors to this book.
He also wrote songs for the Turtles, and worked with the Everly brothers. One or both Everlys contributed to his greatest hit "Werewolves of London". It was conceived as a dance craze. I've always disliked this song, but it was interesting to learn how it came into being. This book is full of stories of how to came to write Mohammed's Radio, The Hockey Song and many others.
This book is written in the "oral history" format, which means direct quotes and some fairly long first person passages from people who participated, strung together with notes from Crystal, diary entries and correspondence(remember baby boomers were letter writers), some illustrated with Warren's drawings. The best book I've ever read in oral history format is The Only Plane in the Sky by by Garrett Graff, which is about 9-11, but I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is darn good. Most importantly, Warren himself, when he knew he was dying, asked her to write it, and not to leave out anything. This means that it is difficult reading for some fans(although a few like me like him even better after hearing about his many demons) The toughest passages are about his physical abuse of Crystal. He also treated friends and collaborators shabbily. Usually what was disputed was song credits or money. One of the more stomach-turning stories is how he and an associate manipulated a groupie he had impregnated into having an abortion. Since Warren was chronically behind on child support for his already born daughter Ariel, and also owed the IRS much of the time, I suppose it makes sense that he was determined not to have more children. Still his main girlfriend (he had hierarchies of girlfriends, usually more than one at once) stood by him through this. I don't think I would have.
Sometimes in the 80s, after several tries, he stopped his prodigious pill and alcohol habit and replaced it with compulsive sexual behavior. Along with meals eaten and the expected music biz minutia of gigs and so on, many diary entries chronicles his sexual escapades, which became increasingly perverse. He suffered from migraines. His OCD, which some speculate had been kept in check by pills, also became more noticable. He would wash his hands raw, but at the same time, was a fairly bad housekeeper. Always into clothes and shopping, for a time towards the end of his life he obsessed on gray clothing, from the skin out, but some garments were discarded or not worn because of his odd superstitions. After his death, the family discovered unopened packages of gray Calvin Klein t shirts, which Crystal parcelled out to loved ones as keepsakes.
After the mesothelioma diagnosis in 2002, he went off the wagon after 17 years, mixing his prescribed liquid morphine with booze. He famously recorded his last album "The Wind"(if some of these songs don't make you cry, you may not have a pulse) and was the only guest on an episode of Letterman. "You're the best friend my music ever had," he told Dave. The somewhat darker side of this last year was when he locked himself in his apartment, not taking calls. Finally his son Jordan and a friend got in when a grocery delivery arrived, and found him in squalor. They cleaned the place and literally gave him a bath. At the very end, he often only had the strength to watch TV and talk on the phone with Ariel, who was pregnant with twins. He lived long enough to see them born. The only regret he would admit to, it seemed, was not having been a better father when his children were young.
I had the pleasure of seeing Warren Zevon perform at the legendary Parker's Ballroom in Seattle in the 90s. I'm pretty sure he was wearing gray. I know he delivered a great show to an audience that included many hardcore fans.Parker's was torn down in 2012. WZ died in 2003. And the strip club where he relaxed before the show(according to the Seattle music press) is also gone.
It is my ardent hope that new young audiences discover Warren Zevon, whose music never loses it's relevance. Lots of it can be found on YouTube, along with comments from the fans who loved him. I especially recommend long live versions of the mercenary ghost story ballad Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner recoded in Australia and Norway.

"I'm very well well acquainted with
the seven deadly sins
I keep a busy schedule tryin' to
fit them in
I'm proud to be a glutton and
I don't have time for sloth
I'm greedy and I'm angry
and I don't care who I cross."

Warren Zevon
"Mr. Bad Example" show less

I enjoyed some of Warren Zevon's music but I didn't realize just how much of it and how many artists that I love, that he was connected with. But that's not why this book received five stars.

The book is written in a series of anecdotal paragraphs from different people in Zevon's life. In some cases, one story will be told from the different perspectives of all the people involved in a story. This more personal form of story telling makes you feel the more immediate impact of what was show more happening. This was a great time period in rock and roll in Los Angeles. It was the 1970's and the big players like Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young etc. are all there making an appearance.

History is littered with tortured geniuses. Zevon is one of those. Rather than looking at someone through the long lens of time, this is a look at the immediate ramifications of someone who was brilliant but tortured. The impact of his behavior and actions was huge and left indelible marks on the people in his life: collaborators, children, wives and lovers and friends.

Zevon was a raging alcoholic and although he was able to write music and lyrics during these periods, he was ill equipped to handle almost any other aspect of his life. To that end, we see all the people in his life, although often damaged by his actions, creating a scenario in which they both enabled the alcoholism and enabled the work to continue.

To that end, this book isn't for everyone. The behavior of Zevon was at turns tragic, hilarious and selfish. Throughout the book I wondered why those who really cared and loved the man, allowed him to treat them the way that he did while rarely calling him on it. This might be the result of genius: one is afraid to touch any aspect of it for fear that changing one thing will change the nature of the work.

Readers will be surprised at how much of the work they recognize and realize that like many genius's throughout history, Zevon's work will most likely come to be appreciated more in death than it ever was in life. He was respected and revered by artists who reached greater commercial success and this made him frustrated. He was a mess but oh, what a gloriously talented mess.

Easily one of the best rock biographies I have read. Worth any amount of time and money spent on it and you will end up looking for Zevon's work and appreciating it more than you ever thought possible. show less

This readable "oral biography" gives a panoramic and fairly thorough portrait of Warren Zevon, built by contributions from those who knew him. As Warren himself requested of his former wife Crystal, who edited this book, we see all of the good and the bad, and yes, the ugly of a troubled but incredibly gifted man. This biography does not fall prey to rock star cliches, because Warren was nothing if not original. This is an important document of one of America's greatest and most show more under-appreciated songwriters. With this book, we get some of the stories behind the songs, and we see that Zevon was a flesh and blood man with many flaws and a massive amount of genius. If you are devoted to this man's music, you will find something worthwhile in reading this biography. show less

I found this difficult to read, but ultimately quite interesting and revealing.
Warren Zevon was a musical genius who was clearly a disturbed pain in the ass. An extraordinary musical career, mirrored by an absolute fuck-up mess of a private life. To his credit, he made amends with some people later in life, after he sobered up.