Warren Zevon - The Wind

One thing that cannot be denied is that with The Wind, Warren Zevon did not go gently into that good night. This is the work of somebody saying his goodbyes, not feeling sorry for himself, and having a bit of fun while doing it. Much of the LA music mafia pay their respects to Warren Zevon and appear on The Wind in one way or another. One cannot help but think of the circumstances under which this album was made, and with that in mind, I defy anybody to listen to this disc and not somehow be touched. If you can get through Keep Me In Your Heart without getting a tear in your eye and a lump in your throat, then you just aren't human. In addition to the aforementioned song, my favorites here also include Prison Grove and Rub Me Raw. Ry Cooder plays slide on the former, Joe Walsh plays slide on the latter. Having seen the VH1 documentary of the making of The Wind, I remember producer and long-time collaborator Jorge Calderón telling Warren to think of his own mesothelioma-ravaged body as the prison while he’s singing. Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmitt, Jackson Browne and Billy Bob Thornton provide chain-gang like background vocals. David Lindley pops up Numb as a Statue. Warren introduces it with “Let’s do another bad one ‘cause I love to see the blood drain from Dave’s face…” It’s always a pleasure to hear David Lindley play anything. Here Warren laments of being numbed to all feelings by his pain meds.

Warren does Dylan’s Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. When Guns ‘N’ Roses did it almost 20 years ago, it sounded like a clichéd heavy metal singalong. But in Warren Zevon’s case, he really was knocking on heaven’s door, so when you hear him at the end yell at God to “open up, open up,” you know the humor is still there despite the fact that he’s dying. Disorder in the House is a description of his own state-of-mind. As I read a reviewer on Amazon.com, it could also be a commentary on the collective state-of-mind the country was in at the time [we just went into Iraq, so he could be right on the money]. Bruce Springsteen sings with Warren as well as playing a pretty mean lead guitar [pity he doesn’t do that on his own records…]. Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam and Don Henley sing with Warren on My Dirty Life and Times, which kicks off the album. The Rest of the Night with Tom Petty has that “eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we might get drafted” feel to it. Thirty years ago it would have been taken as another ode to hedonism, but with a dying man singing the song, one can’t help but think “let’s have the wake NOW while I’m alive to enjoy it.”

Not all the songs are rockers – there are three ballads as well. She’s Too Good For Me pretty much sums up what a lot of men think about the women they’re with [myself included]. El Amor de Mi Vida [“The Love of My Life”] has Jorge Calderón singing background vocals in Spanish. Emmylou Harris, probably my favorite female vocalist, sings on Stay With Me, Warren’s plea to his lover to stick around with him. Well done.

When Warren Zevon was first diagnosed with mesothelioma, he was given only a few months to live. It's kind of ironic for the man who once sang "I'll sleep when I'm dead," but in a way he lived up to that statement by getting right to work on this, his last album. I think the need to get out this last album, plus the desire to see his grandchildren born before he died, is what motivated Warren Zevon to prove the doctors wrong, at least as far as the time they had told him he had left to live. Is this Warren Zevon's best work? No [I’d give that honor to either the debut album or Excitable Boy], but it’s a damn fine piece of work that every Warren Zevon fan needs to have in his/her collection.

On a personal note, this album came out soon before my brother-in-law Roger was killed in an accident. He was a truck driver by trade and his death happened while he was on the job. While we attended his funeral, Keep Me In Your Heart kept playing through my head as if it was an infinite loop.

Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath
Keep me in your heart for awhile

If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for awhile

When you get up in the morning and you see that crazy sun
Keep me in your heart for awhile

There's a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sometimes when you're doing simple things
around the house
Maybe you'll think of me and smile

You know I'm tied to you like the buttons on
your blouse
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Hold me in your thoughts, take me to your dreams
Touch me as I fall into view
When the winter comes keep the fires lit
And I will be right next to you

Engine driver's headed north to Pleasant Stream
Keep me in your heart for awhile

These wheels keep turning but they're running out
of steam
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Keep me in your heart for awhile

I can't help but think about the two girls he left behind, Auburn and Mikayla. Auburn was almost a teenager [she's a college sophomore now], and Mikayla was still in grade school [she's a high school junior now]. Whenever I hear Keep Me In Your Heart, I think of them and hope that their memories of their father are happy ones. I love them dearly and I hope they keep their father in their own hearts forever.

As a postscript, many of Warren's friends got together to record a tribute under the guiding hand of Warren's son, Jordan. It's title: Enjoy Every Sandwich. That title comes from something Warren said on his last appearance on David Letterman's show. When asked by Dave what he'd learned since he received his terminal diagnosis, he told Dave that one should "enjoy every sandwich." If you can find it, get it. The Wind is like a long goodbye from a friend, and Enjoy Every Sandwich is like a fun Irish wake for that same friend.