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A Generational Analysis of the Lyrics of Warren Zevon
by
Matthew Elmslie

MSNBC Announces Warren's Death
I'm writing this for two audiences at once, and both groups will find
material herein that will be familiar to them. The words you are reading
are being posted to the Generations in Music thread in the Discussion
Forum at the Fourth Turning website
www.fourthturning.com on April 15th, 2000, more or less the same time
that they're being submitted by e-mail as a Guest Column for the
Warren Zevon
fan page.
Warren Zevon is a rock musician; a singer, songwriter, pianist and
guitarist. He is best known for his 1978 hit, "Werewolves of London",
which went to #21 and was later featured prominently in the film, "The
Color Of Money". While popular success has largely eluded him otherwise,
he has nonetheless accumulated a devoted following. His intelligence,
black humour, and surprising sensitivity have led people to compare him to
Bob Dylan, Dorothy Parker, Raymond Chandler, Sam Peckinpah, and Martin
Scorsese.
The title of this monograph mentions the words 'generational
analysis'. By this I mean that I will be looking at Zevon's lyrics in the
context of the theory of generational cycles put forth by history writers
William Strauss and Neil Howe in their books "Generations", "13th GEN:
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?" and "The Fourth Turning".
Zevon was born in January, 1947, to a Russian Jewish family. He spent
his childhood in Arizona and California, and became a professional
musician at an early age. Before the 1960s were over, he had released
several singles as one half of a duo called 'Lyme and Cybele', written a
couple of songs for the Turtles (including the energetic "Outside Chance")
and one called "She Quit Me Man" that appeared on the "Midnight Cowboy"
soundtrack as well as his own 1969 album, "Wanted - Dead Or Alive". The
album failed commercially and critically, and he spent the next few years
as bandleader for the Everly Brothers and writing commercial jingles
before settling in Spain.
He returned from Spain in 1976, encouraged by the support of fellow
musicians Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt, and recorded the album
"Warren Zevon", which went over well. Zevon released several more albums
over the next few years as part of the Southern California
singer-songwriter group of rockers which also included Browne, Ronstadt,
the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Steely Dan. Since then, his career has
been interrupted by battles with substance abuse, but as of early 2000 we
have seen a total of 10 studio albums, 2 live albums, 2 greatest-hits
collections, and a collaborative cover album with three members of R.E.M.

Zevon is a member of the Boom generation (birthyears 1943-1960). The
Boom generation is an example of the Prophet archetype. History has shown
that the composite life story of a Prophet generation looks something like
this: young Prophets grow up as indulged children in an institutionally
strong but culturally bland High era; challenge the secular order as young
adults with a spiritual revolution during an Awakening era; retreat into
perceived narcissism in midlife while they consolidate the new spiritual
order during an Unraveling era; and finally emerge as visionary elders as
they lead society through a Crisis era.
Zevon, so far, doesn't seem to fit this pattern particularly neatly.
First of all, if his own lyrics are any kind of a guide, his childhood
didn't have a lot in common with 'Leave It To Beaver':
"Gambler ambled down a country lane
Looking for a game of chance
She was twenty-one or two
And she knew what she wanted
And she wanted that gamblin' man
Her parents warned her
Tried to reason with her
She was determined that she wanted Bill
They'd all be offended at the mention still
If they heard this song, which I doubt they will
And my mama couldn't be persuaded
When they pleaded with her
"Daughter, don't marry that gamblin' man"
Mama couldn't be persuaded
When they pleaded with her
"Daughter, don't marry that gamblin' man"
Mama couldn't be persuaded
When they pleaded with her
No, no nevertheless
I said my mama couldn't be persuaded
When they pleaded with her,
"Daughter, don't marry that gamblin' man."
Gambler tried to be a family man
Though it didn't suit his style
He thought he had him a winning combination
So he took us where the stakes were high
Her parents warned her
Tried to reason with her
Never kept their disappointment hid
They all went to pieces when the bad luck hit
Stuck in the middle, I was the kid..."
- from 'Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded' (1976)
He was, however, devoted to music:
"Mom and Papa bought a Chickering
Every day I'd sit and play that thing
I practiced hard; it was more than a whim
I played with grim determination, Jim..."
- from 'Piano Fighter' (1993)
The most recent Awakening era, the Consciousness Revolution, ran from
1964 to 1984. On the one hand it can be characterized by sex, drugs, rock
and roll, and campus revolution, but at its best it was an attempt to
exchange the blankness of the High era (1946-1963) with a new age of
freedom, expression, openness, spirituality and liberation.
Zevon's musical output during the '60s reflects little of either the
psychedelic revolutionary hippie movement or the innocent pastorality that
we associate with the era. Mostly, they're pop songs, some with the
themes of pandemonium and gunplay that he would become better known for
once his career started for real in the mid-'70s. Zevon had several kinds
of subjects that he returned to again and again. These included: mercenaries, ne'er-do-wells, killers, international politics and
financial malfeasance ("Lawyers, Guns, and Money", "Roland the Headless
Thompson Gunner", "Jungle Work", "The Envoy", "Werewolves of London",
"Excitable Boy") love gone bad ("Hasten Down The Wind", "The Hula Hula Boys", "Poor Poor
Pitiful Me") the 1970s Southern California lifestyle ("The French Inhaler", "Gorilla,
You're A Desperado", "Carmelita", "Desperadoes Under The Eaves")
If we look closer, though, we can see that Zevon, although he didn't
participate musically in the Awakening to any great extent, was now
nevertheless trying to deal with the consequences of, and end of, that era
in his lyrics. And he isn't having an easy time of it.
The sexual revolution isn't working out for him:
"She tells him she thinks she needs to be free
He tells her he doesn't understand
She takes his hand
She tells him nothing's working out the way they planned
She's so many women
He can't find the one who was his friend
So he's hanging on to half her heart
He can't have the restless part
So he tells her to hasten down the wind
Then he agrees he thinks she needs to be free
Then she says she'd rather be with him
But it's just a whim
By which she hopes to keep him on the limb
She's so many women
He can't find the one who was his friend
So he's hanging on to half her heart
He can't have the restless part
So he tells her to hasten down the wind"
- "Hasten Down the Wind" (1973)
"Well, I met a girl in West Hollywood
I ain't naming names
She really worked me over good
She was just like Jesse James
She really worked me over good
She was a credit to her gender
She put me through some changes, Lord
Sort of like a Waring blender
Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me
These young girls won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe is me"
- from "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" (1973)
He isn't enjoying the drugs:
"Well, I'm sittin' here playing solitaire
With my pearl-handled deck
The county won't give me no more methadone
And they cut off your welfare check
Carmelita
Hold me tighter
I think I'm sinking down
And I'm all strung out on heroin
On the outskirts of town"
- from "Carmelita" (1972)
The lifestyle in general is having its effects on his personality:
"Big gorilla at the L.A. Zoo
Snatched the glasses right off my face
Took the keys to my BMW
Left me here to take his place
I wish the ape a lot of success
I'm sorry my apartment's a mess
Most of all I'm sorry if I made you blue
I'm betting the gorilla will, too"
- from "Gorilla, You're a Desperado" (1980)
In general he's just tired of everything:
"I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was staring in my empty coffee cup
I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'
All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles
I'm gonna drink 'em up
And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill
Don't the sun look angry through the trees
Don't the trees look like crucified thieves
Don't you feel like desperadoes
Under the eaves
Heaven help the one who leaves
Still waking up in the mornings with shaking hands
And I'm trying to find a girl who understands me
But except in dreams you're never really free
Don't the sun look angry at me
I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was listening to the air conditioner hum..."
- "Desperadoes Under the Eaves" (1976)
In 1982 Zevon came out with his album "The Envoy", which proclaimed the
end of the Awakening. It was over and now it's time to move on. For
example, the sexual revolution had become kind of ridiculous:
"Yesterday she went to see
The Polynesian band
But she came home with her hair all wet
And her clothes all filled with sand
I didn't have to come to Maui
To be treated like a jerk
How do you think I feel
When I see the bellboys smirk? "
- from "The Hula Hula Boys" (1982)
So he's getting out of it:
"Got the license--got the ring
Got back the blood tests and everything
Putting on my boutonniere--It's her favorite flower
Then I'm walking down the altar and I'm gonna take the vow"
- from "Let Nothing Come Between You" (1982)
The drug culture has gone bad and it's time to face up to it:
"Charlie dealt in pharmaceuticals
Charlie used to sell me pills
Yesterday his sister called to tell me
He'd been killed
Some respectable doctor from Beverly Hills
Shot him through the heart
Charlie didn't feel a thing
Neither of them did
Poor kid
Charlie dealt in pharmaceuticals
He sold those expensive drugs
I gave Charlie all my money
What the hell was I thinking of?
Charlie had to take his medicine
Charlie got his prescription filled
I came to say goodbye
I'm sorry Charlie died
I came to finish paying my bill
I came to finish paying my bill
I came to finish paying my bill
I came to finish paying my bill"
- from "Charlie's Medicine" (1982)
One of my favourite Zevon songs is one that he wrote after witnessing
the bizarre behaviour of a concertgoer. I don't know how old this
concertgoer was, but it's a fact that as the eighties developed, the Boom
generation slowly became aware that there was a new, younger generation
coming up behind them who seemed to their eyes to be unfeeling savages
(the 13th Generation, also known as Generation X, born 1961-1981; a Nomad
archetype):
"It ain't that pretty at all
So I'm going to hurl myself against the wall
'Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all
Gonna get a good running start and throw myself at the wall as hard as
I can, man
I've been to Paris
And it ain't that pretty at all
I've been to Rome
Guess what?
I'd like to go back to Paris someday and visit the Louvre Museum
Get a good running start and hurl myself at the wall
Going to hurl myself against the wall
'Cause I'd rather feel bad than feel nothing at all
And it ain't that pretty at all
Ain't that pretty at all"
- from "Ain't That Pretty At All" (1982)
Zevon sums up the end of the Awakening, once and for all, this way:
"I worked hard, but not for the money
Did my best to please
I used to think it was funny
'Til I realized it was just a tease
Don Quixote had his windmills
Ponce de Leon took his cruise
Took Sinbad seven voyages
To see that it was all a ruse
(That's why I'm) Looking for the next best thing
Looking for the next best thing
I appreciate the best
But I'm settling for less
'Cause I'm looking for the next best thing
Looking for the next best thing
All alone on the road to perfection
At the inspection booth they tried to discourage me
You can believe what you want--that'll never change it
You'll have to come around eventually
(And you'll be) Looking for the next best thing
Looking for the next best thing
I appreciate the best
But I'm settling for less
'Cause I'm looking for the next best thing
Looking for the next best thing
I'm looking for the next best thing."
- "Looking For The Next Best Thing" (1982)
With the end of the Awakening we entered an Unraveling era (1984-20??),
a time when the strong secular institutions built in the High and attacked
in the Awakening have been almost completely dismantled and/or
discredited. Individuality is strong, but civic life is almost
nonexistent. People are confident about their inner lives but tend to
think that the world is falling apart around them. In an Unraveling,
Prophet generations enter midlife and gradually bring their spiritual
values regime into a position of leadership. They are often criticized,
though, for the difference between their current stances when compared to
those they had during the Awakening. The stereotypes of Boomers, for
example, changed from hedonism (in the Awakening) to (hypocritical?)
austerity (in the Unraveling).
Zevon, intelligent man that he is, is aware of the contrast, and can
connect it with the fragmented and media-driven nature of this era:
"Everybody's at war these days
Let's have a mini-surrender
I need some
Sentimental hygiene
Everybody's had to hurt about it
No one wants to live without it
It's so hard to find it
Sentimental hygiene
Every night I come home exhausted
From trying to get along
I need some
Sentimental hygiene
Everybody's joining up to fight
For the right to be wrong
I need some
Sentimental hygiene"
- from "Sentimental Hygiene" (1987)
"Well, I'm gone to Detox Mansion
Way down on Last Breath Farm
I've been rakin' leaves with Liza
Me and Liz clean up the yard
Left my home in Music City
In the back of a limousine
Now I'm doin' my own laundry
And I'm getting those clothes clean
Growin' fond of Detox Mansion
And this quiet life I lead
But I'm dying to tell my story
For all my friends to read
Well, it's tough to be somebody
And it's hard not to fall apart
Up here on Rehab Mountain
We gonna learn these things by heart"
- from "Detox Mansion" (1987)
Having inaugurated the Unraveling with his "Sentimental Hygiene" album,
he then proceeded to describe it in excruciating detail in "Transverse
City", a cyberpunk concept album derived from the science-fiction writings
of such authors as William Gibson and Thomas Pynchon. In my opinion, it's
his best work, although very different from any of his other albums, and
neither fans nor critics seemed particularly impressed. On the album, he
explores such aspects of the Unraveling as consumerism:
"There's a brand new shopping center seven storys high
There's bound to be a sale or two--something we can buy
There's four floors of parking and we're sure to find a space
We'll spend all the money that the government doesn't take
Down in the mall
I'll be your man
We'll go shopping, babe
It's something we can stand
Down in the mall
We will abide
Up on the escalator
Darling, we will ride
Shopping for a pair of shoes, shopping for a hat
We're buying some of this and we're buying some of that
We'll shop up a storm 'til we can't shop no more
Then we're stopping off at the video store
Down in the mall
I'll be your man
We'll go shopping, babe
It's something we can stand
Down in the mall
We'll be all right
Monday through Saturday
'Til nine o'clock at night
We're buying CDs and we're buying lingerie
We'll put it on a charge account we're never gonna pay
Department store, camera store, tobacco store, appliance store
(Sporting goods, oriental imports)
You buy everything you want and then you want more
Down in the mall
I'll be your man
We'll go shopping, babe
It's something we can stand
Down in the mall
We will abide
Up on the escalator
Darling, we will ride
Down in the mall"
- "Down In The Mall" (1989)
Or the encroachment of technology:
"Networking, I'm user friendly
Networking, I install with ease
Data processed, truly Basic
I will upload you, you can download me"
- from "Networking" (1989)
Or the failure of societal infrastructure:
"It's 5:00 P.M. on a weekday, friend
There's one of me and two million of them
The whistle blows and the factories close
There's a million more commuters on the access roads
The brake lights flash--there's an RV crashed
I'm in the passing lane going nowhere fast
The traffic crawls and the engine stalls
I'm stuck on the edge of the urban sprawl
Gridlock
Up ahead
There's a line of cars as far as I can see
Gridlock
Goin' nowhere
Roll down the window, let me scream
Oh yeah, ain't it a shame
We're all jammed up at the interchange
The paramedics and the CHP
Wait impatiently for catastrophes
I'm spending half my days like this
I might as well be working on the midnight shift
The radio's tuned to the traffic news
And everybody's choking on monoxide fumes"
- from "Gridlock" (1989)
Or alienation:
"I want to live alone in the desert
I want to be like Georgia O'Keefe
I want to live on the Upper East Side
And never go down in the street
Splendid Isolation
I don't need no one
Splendid Isolation
Michael Jackson in Disneyland
Don't have to share it with nobody else
Lock the gates, Goofy, take my hand
And lead me through the World of Self
Splendid Isolation
I don't need no one
Splendid Isolation
Don't want to wake up with no one beside me
Don't want to take up with nobody new
Don't want nobody coming by without calling first
Don't want nothing to do with you
I'm putting tinfoil up on the windows
Lying down in the dark to dream
I don't want to see their faces
I don't want to hear them scream"
- "Splendid Isolation" (1989)
"We keep walking away for no reason at all
For the sake of being free
No one's invested enough of themselves
To yield to maturity
And the rate of attrition for lovers like us
Is steadily on the rise
Nobody's in love this year
Nobody wants to try
Nobody's in love this year
Not even you and I"
- from "Nobody's In Love This Year" (1989)
Or the feeling that the world is falling apart and there's nothing to
rely on:
"They moved the moon
While I looked down
When I looked away
They changed the stars around
They moved the moon
I feel so strange
While I looked down
Everything I depended on
When I looked away
Has been rearranged
They changed the stars around"
- from "They Moved The Moon" (1989)
But the centerpiece of the album is the title track, combined Sgt.
Pepper-like with the second track. These two songs sum up everything:
"Told my little Pollyanna
There's a place for you and me
We'll go down to Transverse City
Life is cheap and death is free
Past the condensation silos
Past the all-night trauma stand
We'll be there before tomorrow
Pollyanna take my hand
Show us endless neon vistas
Castles made of laser lights
Take us to the shopping sector
In the vortex of the night
Past the shiny mylar towers
Past the ravaged tenements
To a place we can't remember
For a time we won't forget
Here's the hum of desperation
Here's the test tube mating call
Here's the latest carbon cycle
Here's the clergy of the mall
Here's the song of shear and torsion
Here's the bloodbath magazine
Here's the harvest of contusions
Here's the narcoleptic dream
Told my little Pollyanna
Here's a place where we can stay
We have come to see tomorrow
We have given up today
Down among the dancing quanta
Everything exists at once
Up above in Transverse City
Every weekend lasts for months
Here's the hum of desperation
Here's the test tube mating call
Here's the latest carbon cycle
Here's the clergy of the mall
Here's the witness and the victim
Here's the relatives' remains
Here's the well-known double helix
Here's the poisoned waves of grain
Here's the song of shear and torsion
Here's the bloodbath magazine
Here's the harvest of contusions
Here's the narcoleptic dream
Here's the hum of desperation
(4-Aminobiphenyl, hexachlorobenzene
Dimethyl sulfate, chloromethyl methylether
2, 3, 7, 8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-
para-dioxin, carbon disulfide
Dibromochloropane, chlorinated
benzenes, 2-Nitropropane, pentachlorophenol,
Benzotrichloride, strontium chromate
1, 2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane) [note: all these chemical names are chanted
over and over again in the background from this point]
I went walking in the wasted city
Started thinking about entropy
Smelled the wind from the ruined river
Went home to watch TV
And it's worse when I try to remember
When I think about then and now
I'd rather see it on the news at eleven
Sit back, and watch it run straight down
Run straight down
Run straight down
I can see it with my eyes closed
Run straight down
We've been living in the shadows all our lives
Where it's stand in line and don't look back and don't look left and don't
look right
So we hide our eyes and wonder who'll survive
Waiting for the night...
Fluorocarbons in the ozone layer
First the water and the wildlife go
Pretty soon there's not a creature stirring
'Cept the robots at the dynamo
And it's worse when I try to remember
When I think about then and now
I'd rather see it on the news at eleven
Sit back, and watch it run straight down
Run straight down
Run straight down
I can see it with my eyes closed
Run straight down"
- "Transverse City", "Run Straight Down" (1989)
Zevon's output after the "Transverse City" album was somewhat mixed -
some good songs, some not so good, but nothing particularly of interest
generationally. That changed this year, with the release of his tenth
studio album, "Life'll Kill Ya".
Prophet generations are most often known for their spirituality. Yet
Zevon has long been uncomfortable with this topic, and in some ways I'm
not sure what to make of it. Though he's of Jewish ancestry, religion has
been most often addressed in his songs in the context of Christianity
(usually negatively, or with trepidation):
"They say Jesus will find you wherever you go
But when he'll come looking for you they don't know
In the meantime keep your profile low..."
- from "Gorilla, You're A Desperado" (1980)
"Time marches on
Time stands still
Time on my hands
Time to kill
Blood on my hands
And my hands in the till
Down at the 7-11
Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven"
- from "The Indifference Of Heaven" (1993)
"One time I trusted a stranger
'Cause I heard his sweet song
It was gently enticing me
But there was something wrong
And when I turned
He was gone
Blinding me
His song remains reminding me
He's a bandit and a heartbreaker
My Jesus was a cross maker
Sweet silver angels over the sea
Please come down flying low for me
He wages war with the devil
With a pistol by His side
He's always chasing him out of windows
And He won't give him a place to hide
But he keeps His door
Open wide
Fighting him
He lights a lamp inviting him
He's a bandit and a heartbreaker
My Jesus was a cross maker
Yeah, Jesus was a cross maker"
- from "Jesus Was A Cross Maker" (written by Judee Sill, 1972)
When he presents religion positively, it might be some kind of
Hindu/pagan mishmash:
"Hell is only half full
Room for you and me
Looking for a new fool
Who's it gonna be?
It's the Dance of Shiva
It's the Debutantes ball
And everyone will be there
Who's anyone at all
Monkey wash donkey rinse
Going to a party in the center of the earth
Monkey wash donkey rinse
Honey, don't you want to go?"
- from "Monkey Wash, Donkey Rinse" (1995)
Or, of all things, Islam:
"Everybody's restless and they've got no place to go
Someone's always trying to tell them
Something they already know
So their anger and resentment flow
But don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long?
Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio
Mohammed's Radio
You know, the Sheriff's got his problems too
He will surely take them out on you
In walked the village idiot and his face was all aglow
He's been up all night listening to Mohammed's Radio
Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long?
Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio
Mohammed's Radio
Everybody's desperate; trying to make ends meet
Work all day, still can't pay the price of gasoline and meat
Alas, their lives are incomplete
Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long?
Mohammed's Radio
I heard somebody singing sweet and soulful
On the radio
Mohammed's Radio
You've been up all night listening for his drum
Hoping that the righteous might just, might just, might just come
I heard the General whisper to his aide-de-camp
"Be watchful for Mohammed's lamp"
Don't it make you want to rock and roll
All night long?
Mohammed's Radio"
- "Mohammed's Radio" (1976)
Or even technology:
"There's a prayer each night that I always pray
Let the data guide me through every day
And every pulse and every code
Deliver me from the bypass mode"
- from "Networking" (1989)
But just because it's not Christian doesn't mean Zevon's happy with it:
"Was it something I did
In another life?
I try and try
But nothing comes out right
Bad Karma
Killing me by degrees
I took a wrong turn
On the astral plane
Now I keep on thinkin'
My luck is gonna change
Someday
Bad Karma
It's uphill all the way
I can't run
Can't hide
Can't get away
It must be my destiny
The same thing happens to me every day
Bad Karma
Coming after me
Bad Karma
Killing me by degrees
Bad Karma
Bad Karma"
- from "Bad Karma" (1987)
With "Life'll Kill Ya", Zevon is doing two things. First, he seems to
finally have come to terms with spirituality, Christianity in particular:
"I was in the house when the house burned down
I met the man with the thorny crown
I helped Him carry his cross through town
I was in the house when the house burned down"
- "I Was In The House When The House Burned Down" (1999)
He still feels free, though, to approach the subject with Boom-style
irreverence, recognizing that the roots of his generation's spiritual
aspirations are in the free-love Awakening:
"I like to think I've earned my reputation
For rushing in where angels fear to tread
I'll take you home to meet the congregation
We'll all get together in my tent
I make a dirty little religion out of lovin'
I'll make a dirty little convert out of you
I make a dirty little religion out of lovin'
I'll make a dirty little convert out of you
They treat you like a red-headed stepchild
And try to keep you nailed to the floor
Join us for the countdown to the Rapture
We never turned a sinner from our door
I make a dirty little religion out of lovin'
I'll make a dirty little convert out of you
I make a dirty little religion out of lovin'
It's a dirty little religion, hallelujah
Dirty little acolyte
Dirty little one
Learn the fundamentals of desire
Can I get a witness
To my testament?
Can I get an amen from the choir?
I like to think I've earned my reputation
For trying to take the bull by the horns
I'll show you where I get my inspiration
Where we plow and where we plant the corn"
- "Dirty Little Religion" (1999)
When a Prophet generation tries to institute its new spiritual regime,
to replace the old secular order, one of the things they have to do is
resacralize all aspects of life, paying attention to them in a new way and
including them in their own personal voyages of discovery. Other
generations often criticize them for this, thinking that this practice
stems from narcissism or a subconscious belief that nobody's experience is
valid except that of the Prophet. But that's not it:
"We left Constantinople in a thousand ninety-nine
To restore the one True Cross was in this heart of mine
To bring it to Jerusalem and then sail home to Rhodes
We took that holy ride ourselves to know
We took that holy ride ourselves to know
Everyone got famous, everyone got rich
Everyone went off the rails and ended in the ditch
But we had to take that long, hard road to see where it would go
We took that holy ride ourselves to know
We took that holy ride ourselves to know
Now if you make a pilgrimage I hope you find your grail
Be loyal to the ones you leave with even if you fail
Be chivalrous to strangers you meet along the road
As you take that holy ride yourselves to know
You take that holy ride yourselves to know"
- "Ourselves To Know" (1999)
The other thing Zevon does in this album (although it's clearly buoyed
by his new spiritual confidence) is to come to terms, as many others of
his generation are currently doing, with the facts of aging and death:
"You've got an invalid haircut
It hurts when you smile
You'd better get out of town
Before your nickname expires
It's the kingdom of the spiders
It's the empire of the ants
You need a permit to walk around downtown
You need a license to dance
Life'll kill ya
That's what I said
Life'll kill ya
Then you'll be dead
Life'll find ya
Wherever you go
Requiescat in pace
That's all she wrote
From the President of the United States
To the lowliest rock and roll star
The doctor is in and he'll see you now
He don't care who you are
Some get the awful, awful diseases
Some get the knife, some get the gun
Some get to die in their sleep
At the age of a hundred and one
Life'll kill ya
That's what I said
Life'll kill ya
Then you'll be dead
Life'll find ya
Wherever you go
Requiescat in pace
That's all she wrote
Maybe you'll go to heaven
See Uncle Al and Uncle Lou
Maybe you'll be reincarnated
Maybe that stuff's true
If you were good
Maybe you'll come back as someone nice
And if you were bad
Maybe you'll have to pay the price
Life'll kill ya
That's what I said
Life'll kill ya
Then you'll be dead
Life'll find ya
Wherever you go
Requiescat in pace
That's all she wrote"
- "Life'll Kill Ya" (1999)
"Well, I went to the doctor
I said, "I'm feeling kind of rough"
He said, "Let me break it to you, son
Your shit's fucked up."
I said, "My shit's fucked up?
Well, I don't see how--"
He said, "The shit that used to work--
Won't work now."
I had a dream
Ah shucks, oh well
Now it's all fucked up
It's shot to hell
Yeah, yeah, my shit's fucked up
It has to happen to the best of us
The rich folks suffer like the rest of us
It'll happen to you
That amazing grace
Sort of passed you by
You wake up every day
And you start to cry
Yeah, you want to die
But you just can't quit
Let me break it on down:
It's the fucked up shit."
- "My Shit's Fucked Up" (1999)
"Don't let us get sick
Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight
The sky was on fire
When I walked to the mill
To take up the slack in the line
I thought of my friends
And the troubles they've had
To keep me from thinking of mine
Don't let us get sick
Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight
The moon has a face
And it smiles on the lake
And causes the ripples in Time
I'm lucky to be here
With someone I like
Who maketh my spirit to shine
Don't let us get sick
Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight."
- "Don't Let Us Get Sick" (1998)
Zevon has written several songs about prominent members of other
generations - the G.I. diplomat Philip Habib ("The Envoy"), the Silent
musicians Elvis Presley ("Jesus Mentioned", "Porcelain Monkey") and the
Everly Brothers ("Frank And Jesse James"), and a nameless 13er labourer
("The Factory"). His portrayals of Boomers, though, have been mostly
limited to athletes ("Boom Boom Mancini", "Bill Lee").
He's only ever summed up his generation as a whole once, though, as he
helped lead them out of the rubble of the Awakening:
"You've seen him leaning on the streetlight
Listening to some song inside
You've seen him standing by the highway
Trying to hitch a ride
Well, they tried so hard to hold him
Heaven knows how hard they tried
But he's made up his mind
He's the restless kind
He's the wild age
He's the wild age
He's the wild age
Wild age
It's the wild age
And the law can't stop 'em
No one can stop 'em
At the wild age
Mostly when the reckless years end
Something's left to save
Some of them keep running
'Til they run straight in their graves
To stay the wild age
Stay the wild age
Stay the wild age
Wild age"
- "Wild Age" (1980)
And Zevon himself?
"Someone called Piano Fighter
I'm a holy roller, I'm a real low rider
Hold me tight, honey, hold me tighter
Then let me go
Piano Fighter"
- from "Piano Fighter" (1993)
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