It came as a shock to nobody who was at all familiar with him, but yesterday Warren Zevon succumbed to lung cancer. He publically announced his condition a year ago and worked at a feverish pace to complete one final album, which was released earlier this year. He was also fortunate enough to survive long enough to see the birth of his twin grandsons, one of whom was given the middle name Warren.
I was never a tremendous fan of his, but while in high school I latched onto his then-new live album, Stand In The Fire, and immediately fell in love with it. The songs are strong, the performances are hot, and the energy just jumps out at you. Though he was at the height of his alcoholism at the time, he was also at the peak of his powers as a performer - and fact that comes through loud and clear on that album. For my money, it ranks as one of the greatest live albums ever recorded.
Unfortunately, his record label still appears to disagree, as they have yet to release it on CD. Why that is I'll never know. I guess they didn't deem it to be commercially viable. But I'll tell you what: I found a pristine vinyl copy a while back and burned my own copy onto CD, and when I put it in my Mac and fired up iTunes, CDDB found the right track list for the CD. Apparently I'm not the only fan of that album!
I have gotten a few of his other albums over the years and they all have some really strong songs on them, but SITF remains the clear standout work from this gifted artist. I may not be his biggest fan, but that album remains one of my absolute favorites. Last year when his web site posted an email address to which one could send him a message, I sent him one telling him exactly how I felt about Stand In The Fire and thanking him for the great music. I'll never know if he read it (though I always doubt that artists read crap like that), but I hope so.
Either way, I'll say it once again: thanks so much for the great music. See you on the other side.