Line #22 Music/WarrenZevon


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Warren_Zevon_2590.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Just an excitable boy.]]
3
4	->''"I'm insane. I'm fucked up. I have problems. But I don't get depressed and I don't get bored."''
5
6	Warren William Zevon (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was a Southern California singer-songwriter who had one big hit in the late 1970s with "Werewolves of London" and a cult following. Friend to Creator/HunterSThompson, he was the only known student of Music/IgorStravinsky ever to break the top forty.
7
8	The list of songs he wrote for other artists is long, and may contain surprises. He wrote songs for artists ranging from Music/TheTurtles to Music/{{Prince}} to Music/LindaRonstadt to Music/BruceSpringsteen, in styles from rock to country to punk. In interviews he often described himself as a "heavy metal folk singer."
9
10	In 2002, just as he was in the middle of a commercial and critical comeback while touring for his album ''My Ride's Here'', he was diagnosed with mesothelioma and was given months to live. He recorded the critically acclaimed album ''The Wind'' in 2003, and died a month after its release, at the age of 56. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles.
11
12	He's often described as a OneHitWonder, though this isn't actually true. Two of his songs ("Werewolves of London" and a cover of "A Certain Girl") made the Billboard Hot 100 (and "Leave My Monkey Alone" got up to #12 on the Dance/Club list), two of his albums (''A Quiet Normal Life'' and ''The Wind'') went gold, and another (''Excitable Boy'') went platinum. He also won two UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s [[PosthumousPopularityPotential posthumously]], and several of his songs were CoveredUp by other artists. These days, though, "Werewolves" [[NeverLiveItDown is all anybody remembers]]. He is a reliable feature on lists of 'most underrated artists' or 'artists who died too young'.
13	----
14	!!Studio Discography:
15	* ''Wanted Dead or Alive'' (as [[OneNameOnly Zevon]]; 1969)
16	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Warren Zevon]]'' (1976)
17	* ''Excitable Boy'' (1978)
18	* ''Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School'' (1980)
19	* ''The Envoy'' (1982)
20	* ''Sentimental Hygiene'' (1987)
21	* ''Transverse City'' (1989)
22	* ''Mr. Bad Example'' (1991)
23	* ''Mutineer'' (1995)
24	* ''Life'll Kill Ya'' (2000)
25	* ''My Ride's Here'' (2002)
26	* ''The Wind'' (2003)
27
28	----
29	!!"Dirty Life and Tropes":
30
31	* ActorRoleConfusion: Invoked in "My Ride's Here."
32	-->''I was staying at the Westin;''
33	-->''I was playing to a draw.''
34	-->''In walked Creator/CharltonHeston''
35	-->''With [[Film/TheTenCommandments1956 the Tablets of the Law]].''
36	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Several of his songs have alliterative lines.
37	** "Werewolves of London:"
38	---> '''''L'''ittle o'''l'''d '''l'''ady got muti'''l'''ated '''l'''ate '''l'''ast night''
39	---> ''Werewo'''l'''ves of '''L'''ondon again''
40	** "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner:"
41	---> ''The '''d'''eal was made in '''D'''enmark''
42	---> ''On a '''d'''ark and stormy '''d'''ay''
43	** "The French Inhaler:"
44	--->''How you gonna make your '''w'''ay in the '''w'''orld, '''w'''oman,''
45	--->'''''W'''hen you '''w'''eren't cut out for '''w'''orking?''
46	** "Porcelain Monkey:"
47	--->''It's a '''r'''ockabilly '''r'''ide from the '''gl'''itter to the '''gl'''oom.''
48	** "Hit Somebody:"
49	--->''He was '''b'''orn in '''B'''ig '''B'''eaver '''b'''y the '''b'''order line . . .''
50	* TheAllegedCar: "Studebaker" is about a road trip in a car that keeps breaking down.
51	* AllLowercaseLetters: Early in his career, he was in a duo called lyme and cybelle, billing himself as stephen lyme.
52	* AmoralAfrikaner: The backstabbing "son-of-a-bitch Van Owen" from "Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner" is heavily implied to be one; he's a mercenary involved in the Congolese Civil War[[note]] Technically, if they really fought "through '66 and 7", as the song says, Van Owen and Roland would have been involved with the Stanleyville Mutinies[[/note]] with a stereotypically Dutch South African surname. Once Roland comes back as a headless RevenantZombie, he gets his revenge by blasting Van Owen's body "from there [Mombasa] to Johannesburg" with his Tommy gun.
53	* AntiLoveSong: "Looking for the Next Best Thing", "Nobody's In Love This Year", "Finishing Touches", "Angel Dressed in Black"... Zevon wrote quite a few of these.
54	* AntiRoleModel: "Mr Bad Example", who doesn't have time for Sloth because he's too busy committing the other six deadly sins.
55	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: A very mild case in "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner." The lyrics state, "through sixty-six and seven, they fought the Congo War" and describes Roland and his comrades battling the Bantu, but the Congolese Civil War was officially over by 1965. The fighting of the subsequent few years in Stanleyville was a mercenary-led uprising by the former Katangese Gendarmerie, which was made up primarily of the Bazela and Luba peoples. Since the song is more about the general mercenary experience and the bloody results of early Western intervention in Central Africa the dates don't matter very much.
56	* AutoTune: Used on "Genius." Since he was a decent singer on his own, it seems to have been an artistic choice. It works surprisingly well, showing once again that Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad.
57	* BecomingTheMask: The title simian in "Gorilla, You're a Desperado" yanks Zevon into his cage at the zoo, then steals his glasses and his life. After that he gets caught up in the minutiae of human existence. The lyrics leave it ambiguous who got the better end of the deal.
58	* BlackComedy: Which could sum up a lot of Zevon's career in general. See such classics as "Excitable Boy," "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," "Mr. Bad Example," and others.
59	** Discussing his inoperable, fatal cancer: "I may have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years."
60	* [[TheCameo Celebrity Cameo]]: Creator/DavidLetterman says "Hit somebody" in the chorus of "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)".
61	* CardCarryingVillain: "Mr Bad Example" is this trope incarnate, enough that the trope could plausibly even be renamed after it.
62	* CensoredTitle: The song "My Shit's Fucked Up" wasn't listed on the back of the CD case for ''Life'll Kill Ya''.
63	* ClusterFBomb: "My Shit's Fucked Up," off of ''Life'll Kill Ya''.
64	* ConceptAlbum: ''Transverse City,'' a {{Cyberpunk}} vision set about TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.
65	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The junk bond king in "Seminole Bingo"
66	* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning[=/=]SofterAndSlowerCover: His cover of Steve Winwood's "Back in the High Life Again" is slower and more melancholy than the original.
67	* CrapsackWorld: "The Indifference of Heaven," ''Transverse City,'' ''Life'll Kill Ya,''... a recurring theme in his work, especially on his last few albums.
68	* CreatorThumbprint: Had a habit of making phrases rhyme by addressing them to a name. Examples include:
69	** "Werewolves of London:
70	--->''"You better stay away from him,''
71	--->''He'll rip your lungs out, Jim."''
72	** "Lord Byron's Luggage:"
73	--->''"Looking for a needle in a haystack,''
74	--->''[[CaptainObvious It's pretty hard to find]].''
75	--->''Every dog has his day, Jack;''
76	--->''I'm still waiting on mine."''
77	** "My Ride's Here:"
78	--->''"You said 'I believe the Seraphim will gather up my Pinto,''
79	--->''And carry me away, Jim, across the San Jacinto.'"''
80	* {{Cyberpunk}}: ''Transverse City'' is an acoustic guitar version of this genre, starting with the titular song.
81	%%* DeathSong: "Something Bad Happened to a Clown," among others.
82	%%* DeepSouth: "Renegade".
83	%%* DownerEnding: Many of his songs.
84	* DrugsAreBad: "Carmelita," which deals very frankly with heroin addiction.
85	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: At the end of "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)", [[spoiler:Buddy is checked so hard that he dies... but the last thing he sees is the light go off, signalling that he scored the goal he always wanted.]]
86	* EscapeArtist: From "For My Next Trick, I'll Need a Volunteer":
87	-->"Put me in chains and I will escape"
88	* [[EvenTheDogIsAshamed Even the Lhasa Apso Seems To Be Ashamed]]: On "Disorder in the House."
89	-->"[[Music/BruceSpringsteen I'm]] [[StudioChatter gonna let Warren handle that one by himself]]."
90	* EvilVirtues: The protagonist of "Mr. Bad Example" laments that he can't commit ''all'' the deadly sins, because his actions ([[AmoralAttorney going to law school]], founding crooked businesses, etc.) keep him too busy for sloth, at least until the final verse when he's thinking of retiring and wants to be woken up for meals.
91	* FragileSpeedster: Deconstructed in "Boom Boom Mancini."
92	-->''Some have the speed and the right combinations;\
93	If you can't take the punches, it don't mean a thing.''
94	* TheGambler: The title character in "Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded" is discouraged from marrying one, but does anyway. It doesn't turn out well. Also, "Seminole Bingo" and "Lawyers, Guns, and Money".
95	%%* HeavyMeta: "Mohammed's Radio", "Johnny Strikes Up the Band", "Piano Fighter".
96	%%* TheHermit: The goal in "Splendid Isolation."
97	* HockeyFight: The focus of "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)," unsurprisingly.
98	* {{Irony}}: "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)" is about a hockey player who's drafted to be a goon, but dreams of shooting just one goal. Finally, he gets the chance, and lines up a shot... [[spoiler:and is promptly checked so hard by ''another'' goon that he dies on the ice. He makes the shot, though.]]
99	%%* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: "She's Too Good For Me".
100	* LaserGuidedKarma: "Bad Karma".
101	* LifeWillKillYou: Well, yes. His 2000 album was even ''called'' ''Life'll Kill Ya.''
102	* LiveAlbum: ''Stand in the Fire'' and ''Learning to Flinch''.
103	* LyricalDissonance: Zevon frequently employed BlackComedy in his songs, and speciality was making happy, upbeat-sounding songs, but usually with a sarcastic undertone and/or quite macabre content.
104	** "Excitable Boy" sounds like a peppy piece of semi-nostalgic 70's pop-rock, but features the subject of the song engaging in somewhat unpredictable and socially unacceptable acts, which eventually escalates to him raping and killing his date after the junior prom, getting incarcerated in an psychiatric hospital for a decade, and -- upon his release -- proceeding to digging up his victim's grave and building a cage with her bones. All the while, Zevon never once drops his completely straight-faced, matter-of-factly narration despite the increasingly disturbing events being depicted in the song.
105	** "Carmelita" is musically very zippy, even though it's written from the POV of a desperate junkie.
106	* MagicPants: In "Werewolves of London":
107	-->''Huh, I'd like to meet his tailor''
108	* UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution: The subject of "Veracruz".
109	* MistakenNationality: Often mistaken for being a Brit due to his hit song's subject matter.
110	* MundaneMadeAwesome: "The Envoy" sings about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_C._Habib a diplomat]] in a way that makes him sound like the main character of an action movie.
111	* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: ''Utterly'' averted by ''I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon,'' his official biography. An oral history compiled by his ex-wife, it includes grievances from former coworkers and collaborators, as well as stories of abuse from his family. Unusually, it done at his request, and with his blessing.
112	* NoEnding: "Life'll Kill Ya" doesn't ''end'' so much as abruptly ''stop''.
113	* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Hostage-O." "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" almost veers into this, but the narrator abruptly cuts off and says he doesn't want to talk about it.
114	* OdeToSobriety: "Detox Mansion".
115	* OneWomanSong:
116	** "A Bullet for Ramona"
117	** "Carmelita"
118	** "Suzie Lightning"
119	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: In "Werewolves of London" they satisfy some of their meat cravings at Chinese restaurants. However, they still mutilate little old ladies and will rip your lungs out if they get the chance. More a matter of a somewhat broader diet than a human-friendly one.
120	** Also, Lee Ho Fook's doesn't sell beef chow mein, so some think it is people after all.
121	* {{Outlaw}}: "Frank and Jesse James".
122	* PersonaNonGrata: In "Lord Byrons Luggage":
123	-->"They pronounced me persona non grata\
124	Goes to show that you can't come and go as you please"
125	* [[PrecisionFStrike Precision S Strike]]:
126	-->''Send lawyers, guns, and money\
127	The shit has hit the fan''
128	* PrivateMilitaryContractors: "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner", "Jungle Work"
129	* PullARabbitOutOfMyHat: Mentioned in "For My Next Trick, I'll Need a Volunteer".
130	* RevenantZombie: The titular character of "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" returns from the grave to take revenge on "that son-of-a-bitch Van Owen" who took his head, and continues to wander through war-torn places for years afterward.
131	* RunForTheBorder: "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" sees the protagonist flee from Havana into Honduras to escape the laundry list of problems that he's racked up... but now he's ''stuck'', and is begging his father for the titular legal aid, money, and weapons so he can go home.
132	* SanitySlippage: "Basket Case".
133	* SawAWomanInHalf: Mentioned in "For My Next Trick, I'll Need a Volunteer"
134	* SelfTitledAlbum: His 1976 album, in which he successfully relaunched his performing career.
135	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: A complete list of the polysyllabics found in his lyrics would overwhelm the page, but just as an example, "Porcelain Monkey" managed to include the words "Pentecostal," "sobriquet," "Rockabilly," "regicidal," and "velveteen."
136	* ShoutOut:
137	** "Johnny Strikes Up the Band" is reportedly a tribute to Music/EltonJohn.
138	** "Werewolves of London" is ultimately one to ''Film/WerewolfOfLondon'', via [[Music/TheEverlyBrothers Phil Everly]] telling Zevon about the movie and suggesting that he do a DanceSensation song called "Werewolves of London".
139	*** The ''Stand in the Fire'' live version of "Werewolves of London" has a couple, if only in passing. Some of these are quotable in Zevon fan communities.
140	---> "You'd better stay from him, he'll rip your lungs out Jim, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome AND HE'S LOOKING FOR]] [[Music/JamesTaylor JAMES TAYLOR]]."
141	*** He also would throw in "Look out Creator/MichellePfeiffer, I'm coming for you!"
142	** "Excitable Boy" has a disturbing one. The name of the eponymous boy's victim is "Little Susie." Zevon had previously been in Music/TheEverlyBrothers' road band.
143	** [[CasualtyInTheRing "Boom Boom Mancini"]]
144	** The "So I pawned my Smith-Corona[[note]]A brand of typewriter[[/note]]" in "Carmelita" is a reference to ''Film/TheLostWeekend.''
145	** "The French Inhaler" is a long one to Creator/MarilynMonroe, and the "Norman" mentioned at the end is her biographer Creator/NormanMailer.
146	** "My Ride's Here" is ''loaded'' with them. It namedrops UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/PercyByssheShelley, Creator/JohnKeats, Creator/LordByron, Creator/JohnMilton, Creator/CharltonHeston, and the Mariott, Hilton, and Westin hotel chains, and references Film/ThreeTenToYuma1957, Film/TheTenCommandments1956, and the Literature/BookOfGenesis. All in a song lasting less than four minutes.
147	* TheSnarkKnight:
148	** Of heroic proportions. In his final appearance on Letterman, having discussed the cancer diagnosis, the host said "To me, you look and seem remarkably healthy." Zevon's reply: "Well, don't be fooled by cosmetics."
149	** “I might have made a tactical error not going to a physician for 20 years. It was one of those phobias that really didn't pay off.”
150	* SoloSideProject: Normally a solo act, Zevon inverted this twice:
151	** First there were the Hindu Love Gods - Zevon fronting Music/{{REM}} (who also backed him on his own ''Sentimental Hygeine'' album) on an album of blues standards.
152	** He later toured with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a group otherwise comprised of professional authors, as their token "real musician."[[note]]The group's "official" members have included Creator/StephenKing, Creator/AmyTan, [[Literature/TuesdaysWithMorrie Mitch Albom]] (who also co-wrote Zevon's "Hit Somebody!"), and Creator/DaveBarry. [[BorrowedCatchphrase We are not making this up.]][[/note]]
153	* SomethingBlues: "Tule's Blues", "Rottweiler Blues".
154	* StudioChatter: On a couple tracks of ''The Wind''.
155	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: Subverted in "Genius:"
156	--> "There's a face in every window of the songwriters' neighborhood.
157	--> Everyone's your best friend when you're doing well - [[VerbalBackspace I mean good]]."
158	* SurrealMusicVideo: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXQDpW-kl8g Leave My Monkey Alone]].
159	* TakeThat:
160	** Zevon may have had a grudge against Music/TalkingHeads. Not only did he title a song "I Was in the House When the House Burned Down", but in his song "The Overdraft" (mocking the Talking Heads's gloomy "The Overload"), the singer is paranoid and on the run much like in the Heads' "Life During Wartime" -- except in Zevon's song, the guy is on the lam because of a bounced check.
161	** The entirety of "Porcelain Monkey" is one against Music/ElvisPresley.
162	** "Play It All Night Long" is one to the DeepSouth (though it [[CrossesTheLineTwice may be a]] StealthParody) and also references Music/LynyrdSkynyrd.
163	--->"Sweet home Alabama\
164	Play that dead band's song\
165	Turn those speakers up full blast\
166	Play it all night long"
167	* {{Theremin}}: He plays one on "Porcelain Monkey"
168	* UncommonTime: "Accidentally Like a Martyr" alternates between 4/4 in the verses and 7/4 in the instrumentals.
169	* UnwantedHarem: "Poor Poor Pitiful Me"
170	-->''These young girls won't let me be\
171	Lord have mercy on me\
172	Woe is me''
173	* VillainSong: "Mr. Bad Example".
174	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: "Model Citizen".

Context Music / WarrenZevon