{"id":38245,"date":"2005-02-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/enjoy-every-sandwich-the-songs-of-warren-zevon\/"},"modified":"2005-02-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-02-02T00:00:00","slug":"enjoy-every-sandwich-the-songs-of-warren-zevon","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/enjoy-every-sandwich-the-songs-of-warren-zevon\/","title":{"rendered":"Enjoy Every Sandwich – The Songs Of Warren Zevon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago I used this space to verbally bludgeon
\nan album<\/a> that my friend Dave had
\ngiven me for Christmas. In addition to being a good sport and a
\ngreat friend, Dave is nothing if not persistent. Thus, another
\nYule, another attempt to expand my musical horizons. One of the
\nmany things Dave and I have in common is an appreciation for good
\nwriting in whatever form we discover it. In the music world, that
\ntrain of thought carries you straight to the catalogue of the late,
\ngreat Warren Zevon.<\/p>\n

Zevon died last year of lung cancer, another creative voice
\nsilenced too young. What he left behind is a career’s worth of
\nwitty, insightful, all-too-human songs, full of sharply imagined
\ncharacters, clever twists and eccentric asides. The very diversity
\nof his ideas and purity of his vision kept him on the fringes of
\nthe mainstream for his entire career, yet he was justly revered by
\nan entire generation of fellow songwriters<\/p>\n

Rarely has an artist’s body of work been more suited for this
\nsort of disc, a 14-song set of covers lovingly assembled by his
\nfamily, friends and admirers. And rarely have I heard one that’s
\nmore successful in both capturing and honoring the (free) spirit of
\nthe original artist.<\/p>\n

The disc almost has to start off with an Eagle — Zevon was,
\nafter all, one of the acts most identified with the late ’70s LA
\nrock scene — and Don Henley steps up to the plate like the pro he
\nis to deliver “Searching For A Heart.” (Although frankly, that’s
\nonly half a compliment, since Henley has in his later years become
\nsuch a predictably bland singer of ballads, a surprising turn for a
\nguy who’s always fostered a bit of a rebel image.)<\/p>\n

Another LA pal comes along soon, as Jackson Browne absolutely
\nnails “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” one of Zevon’s more well-known if
\npotentially misunderstood tunes. I get the feeling most of the
\npublic doesn’t realize it’s a bitingly satirical piece skewering
\nthe perpetual victims we all know (and try to avoid) in our lives.
\nRegardless, Browne gets the self-oblivious tone just right, with
\nBonnie Raitt contributing some tasty slide and warm harmonies.<\/p>\n

My favorite parts of this album, though, were the surprises it
\nhad in store. I like the Wallflowers — hell, I respect any
\nsecond-generation rock star who doesn’t make a fool of him or
\nherself at it — but Jakob Dylan and company’s cover of “Lawyers,
\nGuns & Money” is a revelation, full of an intensity and bravado
\nthat they’ve only intermittently brought to their own material.
\nWhen Jakob audibles “Warren get me out of this” mid-song, it gives
\nme chills. A major highlight.<\/p>\n

Another highlight comes from a most unlikely source. Let’s face
\nit, it would take balls for anybody but Zevon to try to sing
\n“Werewolves Of London” — it’s kinda like pulling “Freebird” on a
\nLynyrd Skynyrd tribute album. But an actor? A big-name,
\nnothing-to-win-and-everything-to-lose A-list Hollywood star? I was
\nready to cringe my way through, and ended up singing along to the
\nfearless, totally committed performance that Adam Sandler delivers
\non “Werewolves.” Counting
\nSpanglish<\/i>, that makes two startlingly good out-of-left-field
\nperformances for ol’ Happy Gilmore in ’04. Nice work if you can get
\nit.<\/p>\n

Other notables include Pete Yorn’s retro-rocking version of
\n“Splendid Isolation” (a song anyone who’s ever been a loner can
\nrelate to); Bruce Springsteen’s respectful take on the
\ndizzyingly-well-rhymed “My Ride’s Here”; Steve Earle’s reliably
\ngritty “Reconsider Me”; and the Pixies’ grinding reimagination of
\nthe aptly-titled “Ain’t That Pretty At All.”<\/p>\n

The most moving moments of the album, though come from those who
\nwere closest to Zevon himself in life. Halfway through, Zevon’s son
\nJordan (who co-produced this album) pulls a neglected nugget out of
\nhis dad’s songbook and offers an absolutely spot-on performance of
\nthe hard-luck road song “Studebaker.” And Jorge Calderon, Jordan’s
\nco-producer here and Warren’s collaborator in recent years,
\nfinishes the album off with a gentle, stately take on one of the
\nmost moving songs from Zevon’s farewell album
\nThe Wind<\/i>, “Keep Me In Your Heart.”<\/p>\n

Are there any real misfires on this disc? Well, let’s just say
\nin the category of Hollywood stars slumming on disc, Billy Bob
\nThornton comes in a get-out-the-telescope distant second to the
\naforementioned Mr. Sandler. (If I wanted to listen to Bob Dylan
\nwith laryngitis\u2026) As for the actual contribution here from
\nDylan the elder, while it’s a nice gesture to have the dean of
\nliving American songwriters represented here, after 30 years of
\nlistening I still can’t stand this amazing writer’s mumbly rasp of
\na voice.<\/p>\n

My advice regarding
\nEnjoy Every Sandwich<\/i> is to be ready to hit skip a couple of
\ntimes, but not to let that stop you from picking up this very
\nworthy tribute to one of the great ones. Rest easy, Warren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38245","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38245"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}