by
Wayne Wood
There are people who accompany us through life who provide companionship and
examples of excellence. If were lucky, some of those people are in our
family or circle of friendsand I have been very lucky in that regard.
But what Im thinking about today are those who are a profound influence
from afarwriters, performers, maybe even sports figures who maybe we never
even meet, but who through their examples influence us.
When I was a teenagerthat time when one is most susceptible to influences
of all kindsBob Dylan taught me not to be afraid of either the power of
my emotions or the complexity of my mind. Frank Zappa was funny and iconoclastic
and a strong advocate of not paying too much attention to the dominant ideas
of either peer groups or alleged leaders. From Atlanta Braves pitcher Phil Niekro,
he of the unconventional knuckleball and Hall of Fame career, I drew the lesson
that having talents that are somewhat different from everybody else is not barrier
to success if those talents are used to maximum benefit.
Never met any of them. Doesnt matterthey were big influences.
This is all brought to mind by the recent news that singer-songwriter Warren
Zevon is dying. He has announced through his publicist that he has inoperable
cancer in both lungs.
This is sad news to his family, of course. He is 55 and has two children in
their 20s that he says he plans to spend time with.
Its sad news of a lesser magnitude, but still sad news, to those of us
who like and admire his work. The greatest popular success he ever had was with
the song Werewolves of London in 1978, but he has spent the last
25 years or so making interesting music for a relatively small but devoted group
of fans.
Some of his best songs to my ear: Mohammeds Radio, Poor
Poor Pitiful Me, Lawyers, Guns, and Money, Looking for
the Next Best Thing, Tenderness on the Block, Sentimental
Hygiene, Play it All Night Long, I Was in the House
When the House Burned Down, Mutineer, Dont Let
Us Get Sick, and The Indifference of Heaven.
The thread that runs through these songs, and through his other work, is that
life is too important to take too seriously. He writes really funny songs about
really serious subjects, and he writes songs of lost love that are so full of
pain that you know hes not just writing it down because he needs a song,
hes writing it down because he has no choice.
When he found out he was dying, the statement he asked be released contained
none of the cliches we associate with celebrities delivering similar bad newsthe
off-key assertion that whoever it is is confident of beating the
disease.
Heres what Warren Zevon said: Im okay with it, but itll
be a drag if I dont make it till the next James Bond movie comes out.
(For the record, that movie is titled Die Another Day.)
Listening to his last two albums, one almost gets the idea he knew this was
coming. They are titled Lifell Kill Ya and My Rides Here.
Music writer Greil Marcus wrote a short item in his column for the web magazine
Salon in which he summed up Zevons career and concluded: From afar,
he has been a good friend.
A good way to put it. Ive never met him, never seen him in concert, almost
never heard him on the radio since the late 70s. But Ive bought
his albums off and on over the years, and in the way that you can sense when
you are on the same wavelength as somebody else, I do know him.
It seems like there is almost no way to tell a famous person how much he or
she means to you. Would Warren Zevon, perhaps with weeks to live, really care
to hear that Ive enjoyed his songs? I dont know.
Does it ever become boring for anybody famousa performer, writer, athlete,
or whateverfor strangers to say what youve done means something
to them? If I were to meet, say, Paul McCartney, what could I say to him that
he hadnt heard virtually daily since 1963?: I enjoy your work, it
has made my life better having experienced your talent. Thank you.
And yet, what else could I say? All that is true, and the fact that its
also true for tens of millions of other people doesnt make it any less
true for me. If I ever get to meet Paul McCartney, or Warren Zevon, or one of
a thousand other famous people in all kinds of fields whose work I admire, Im
certainly not going to talk about the weather or the stock market.
Well, word is that Zevon is using some of his remaining timefunny phrase,
because by definition all any of us have left is our remaining timeto
record some new songs. He has a studio setup at his house, where, he says, he
can keep recording even when the hearse is idling at the curb.
I love this guy.
But until we get to hear these last songs, its worth remembering that
the final song on his (so far) last album, My Rides Here, concludes with
these words: Id like to stay/But Im bound for glory/Im
on my way/My rides here
Well, the ride is on its way for all of us, sometime or another. And in this
season of thanksgiving, let us remember those, near and far, who nurture us
and provide us with the lights we live by.
Accidentally like a martyr