It’s no secret that I love Warren Zevon’s music. I love his poetry, his sense of irony and the heartbreak you can feel in a lot of his songs. A few years ago I dipped my toe in the pool of the Zevon Fan World, but even before his death I decided it wasn’t necessarily for me. I love the man’s music. I was lucky enough to see him in concert once and I was heartbroken when he died.
But he was a person. A complicated person with a hard life. His songs are my friends; he was not. I’ve read several accounts by those who knew him. Most were glowing, but a few painted a picture of someone I didn’t care to spend time with. I decided all those years ago that it was best to love the parts of Zevon which he chose to share with everyone–those parts that are in the songs.
I’ve read several reviews of the new book by Crystal Zevon, and as much as I’m sure she and Ariel and the grandkids could use the cash, I’m afraid I’m not buying this book. I don’t know that I have any need to read about endless drug binges or sexual conquests. I’m sure those things all happened, of course. I’m also sure there were days where the all-too-human Zevon was a hideous ass to the people around him. Having had more than my share of Hideous Assery days myself, I think everyone’s entitled to their own spates of ugliness. Fortunately for most of us, those ugly days and bitter actions aren’t necessarily recorded for public consumption. (Unless you’re a blogger…)
One of the most troubling ‘shocking revelations’ I’ve come across in reviews of the book is the fact that Zevon reverted to his alcoholic drug binge days during his bout with terminal cancer. The shock for me isn’t that he did those things. Rather, I’m shocked with the disapprobation Crystal Zevon has for that behaviour. Granted, I’m not the man’s ex-wife so I don’t feel “cheated” out of spending that time with him. But I’d like to think that if I had a spouse or friend who was dying of a hideously painful disease I wouldn’t really mind if he popped some pills or swilled some vodka.
Liking celebrities is a hard thing. Most people who choose a spotlit life seem to have a lot of difficulties with mustering decency. They are cruel to those around them on a daily basis, they are arrogant, they are are lonely. Human connection on a basic level seems hard for them and I think that’s why they choose a path of public adulation. (Granted, most of my frame of reference for this is Bette Midler’s character in Beaches so what do I know?) I decided years ago that if I really found a work which spoke to me on some level, be it Zevon’s music, JK Rowling’s books or Francis Coppola’s movies, I’d do better to ignore all information about the people themselves and just focus on their creative output.
Freaky Irony Update: Just listened to a snipped of ‘Accidentally Like a Martyr’ off the Preludes album. A line from the song not used in the album version sticks out:
The greedy just get greedier and the vulnerable get burned.
I can’t help but think that the Murdoch group, responsible for publishing such a salacious memoir, might find that a fitting epitaph.
I’m somewhat ambivalent about the Zevon biography, but I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s far from a hatchet job. If you’re interested in the genesis of the some of the best rock songs of the past 30 years, it’s well worth picking your way through the more sordid sections. (I didn’t need to know, for example, that Eleanor Mondale allegedly gives great head.)
Crystal Zevon doesn’t display a huge amount of disapprobation for Zevon’s last fall off the wagon. I think she’s mostly angry at the toll the relapse exacted on his kids. Long-time friends Jorge Calderon and Carl Hiassen are more direct in expressing their anger and sorrow, and I think their reactions are fair.
Unless she’s an outright liar, the ex-Mrs. Zevon had Warren’s blessing to write this book with the awful bits intact. If it and its attendant publicity bring his music to a wider audience, that’s all to the good.
[…] Ms. Coble opines on the new Warren Zevon tell-all by his ex-wife, apparently written with both his and the kids’ OK. And I have to say that I agree. Very strongly. […]
Look away down Gower Avenue.
When I get the word, I want bales of marijuana.
[…] whether or not I should buy the Zevon book after all. Because it’s my birthday. And despite my protestations, I felt a pull toward that big thick book of Warren Zevon. Full of anecdotes and stories and quotes […]
I recently interviewed Crystal Zevon for my podcast, Wings For Wheels. I asked her early on about whether or not she was worried about the book being perceived as exploitation.
You can find it at http://www.wingsforwheels.net/wordpress/?p=303
[…] 9th, 2007 by Katherine Coble Back in May I said I wouldn’t read the Warren Zevon biography. I had good reasons. But then I saw the book in the store on my birthday, and the heavy slab of […]
This biography leaves nothing to the wayside. I agree with Berry that I need not learn about the “Mondale Way”, but to learn so much about a man I admired from afar, and now truly despised then became comfortable with, it gives one pause in life.
I once wrote my wife that in the race for Asshole of the 20th Century, Warren ranked in the 30’s, above Stalin and Hitler and below Einstein and Sinatra. But when it really comes to words, he isn’t that bad. He was a genius at songs, a wonder at perfomance, but he was a total dick to everyone he knew except Hunter Thompson, who was his equal.
Yet….when the gong is rung, and this book is viewed, he finally did the right thing. At least to my gender.
Had I been a woman, and he did that stuff to me, I would have killed him back in the 70’s and it would have been justifiable homicide.
As for my X chromosome? Dude, you wrote some great songs and went out the right way.
Miss you.
[…] Warren Zevon: Why I’m Not Reading The Book « Just Another Pretty … – May 7, 2007 … Posted in the Kat’ll all have brucellosis | 7 Comments … (I didn’t need to know, for […]