Accidentally Like a Martyr

May 28, 2018
Drawing on interviews with singer-songwriter Warren Zevon’s family, friends, and industry associates, as well as on secondary resources, journalist Campion explores 10 songs and three albums that he believes offer the best insight into Zevon’s life and art. Campion observes Zevon’s brilliance in the arrangement of songs on his 1976 album Warren Zevon, in which the sweet ballad “Hasten Down the Wind” leads directly into the bitter “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” (at that point, Campion writes, there’s a “vulnerability completely absent in the ensuing songs”). Zevon’s album Sentimental Hygiene (1987) came at the end of a period of the singer’s reclusion and alcohol abuse; it was his first straight-ahead rock album and it delivered stinging indictments of what he believed was a corporate, greedy music business. Zevon’s “Desperadoes Under the Eaves,” meanwhile, is a satire of the Eagles’ song “Desperado” and also an homage to Béla Bartók. Campion writes, quoting Zevon’s daughter Ariel, “He was a musician through and through... was his means of expressing his innermost, truest insights and feelings.” Campion’s adoring book will speak mostly to Zevon’s fans, and will encourage them to listen to his music anew.

June 1, 2018

Long before the Red Hot Chili Peppers sang about the grip of addiction in the City of Angels, Warren Zevon (1947-2003) penned the loneliness and isolation of Hollywood with songs such as "Desperados Under the Eaves." Like many artists, Zevon's output was fueled by equal parts imagination and self-destruction. Here, Campion (Shout It Out Loud) uncovers both the humanity and manic energy of Zevon by dissecting three albums from his discography. Each album represents a turning point in his life underscored with a recursive stumble backward into an addiction that dominated him. However, a closer examination of Zevon's lyrics reveal an unmitigated pursuit of happiness within the confines of existential dread. Piecing together disparate shards of memories, from Bruce Springsteen to Jackson Browne, Campion writes a holistic biography of Zevon as a musician, author, and entertainer. VERDICT Unlike the 2008 biography by Zevon's former wife Crystal Zevon, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Campion's narrative is appropriately distanced from its subject, highlighting the musician's loneliness and vulnerability as opposed to his legendary antics.--Joshua Finnell, Colgate Univ., Hamilton, NY

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