Zevon Song of the Week #14
haro...@yahoo.ca
Category: Love-Gone-Wrong
I heard this song on Thursday on The Loft, and decided it would be a
good Song of the Week this week. The version I heard, though, was Linda
Ronstadt's cover. I also heard a song by Jordan yesterday on The
Loft, so there's some good Zevon coverage happening up in the sky.
The most distinctive thing about Warren was his ability, demonstrated
on almost every album, to morph easily from power rocker (I'll Sleep
When I'm Dead) to tender ballad (Hasten Down The Wind). Not everyone
is a fan of the latter class of songs, but I certainly am. Without
them, Warren's music would be like a two-headed coin, i.e., fake.
A few weeks ago, a couple of posters mentioned that Empty-Handed Heart
was their favourite Zevon love song. I slightly prefer Hasten Down The
Wind, for a number of reasons. The predominant one is Phil Everly's
haunting harmony, as good an example as there is of how to perform that
difficult art. He's so good that I suspect many listeners of the song
are not even aware that there's anyone else singing besides Warren.
On guitar, not only do we get Waddy in fine form but also David Lindley
performing his magic on slide guitar. Warren provides a laidback piano
line. The effects are hypnotic, beautifully so. As with Warren's best
soft compositions, such as EHH and Mohammed's Radio, one is
transported, if one allows it, to a tranquil place, a sad but peaceful
one nevertheless.
As subtle as the Everly harmony is the presence of The Sid Sharp
Strings. Jackson liked strings when producing Zevon, and we must assume
Warren was OK with them as well.
Unlike some of his songs in later decades, e.g., Finishing Touches in
the '80s and Poisonous Lookalike in the '90s, Warren's early
love-gone-wrong songs are devoid of any nastiness. He still loves the
person being sung about, but regretfully acknowledges that the
relationship is unworkable. The crux of Hasten Down The Wind is the
line, so wonderfully and uniquely Zevonian, "She's so many women,
he can't find the one who was his friend."
Here's a review of The Wind that uses HDTW as its title:
http://www.slate.com/id/2087278/. Thus we have one of the first
examples, and most definitely the last, of Warren's attraction to
this particular aspect of nature. Why not? It was good enough for his
mentor Dylan, as in Blowin' In.
As for Linda, her four Zevon covers in the late '70s certainly helped
out Warren immeasurably, and no one can dispute her raw talent. I'm
quite fond of her Mohammed's Radio. But with Hasten, I think
there's no contest. Warren's original, with the support of the
fantastic musicians backing him up, is as good as it gets. It doesn't
help that Linda changes a couple of the lyrics, or that she performs
the song in a more muscular fashion than Warren, or that her harmony
partner (anyone know who it is?) cannot possibly measure up to Phil
Everly. On the plus side, Waddy is with her on guitar and she used the
song's title as the title of a 1976 album. Some of the Google links
actually display the lyrics as being hers rather than Warren's. Yep,
and Hendrix wrote All Along the Watchtower.
The song isn't perfect. The title is perhaps a tad precious, and some
people are disturbed by Warren's pronunciation of the word "free"
(sounds like "flee" or "fee"). Neither of these things bothers
me much.
Because, to paraphrase James Carville, it's the music, stupid.
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Lucy
> her harmony partner (anyone know who it is?) cannot possibly measure up to Phil
Everly. <
Don Henley. And our "friend," Andrew Gold, plays piano &
tambourine. Russ Kunkel's the drummer and Kenny Edwards is
on the bass. There's also two violas, a cello and a double
bass.
-- Lucy, still fond of all the information on the inside
sleeve of LPs - in a font large enough to read.
ImT...@aol.com
Ah, "Hasten Down The Wind" has always been one of my favorite Zevon
songs, if only because it's probably one of the first of his I ever
heard. My mom had a couple of Linda Ronstadt albums in the
mid-seventies, and I liked them pretty well, I think there might have
been 3 or 4 of Warren's songs between them, but I think the "Hasten
Down The Wind" album was my favorite, maybe mainly because Linda looked
really hot on the album cover. What can I say? I was probably 12 or
13 at the time. Anyway, I liked her covers of his songs.
I had become a big Jackson Browne fan around the time of "The
Pretender," and I read something about him producing an album for
Warren, so I went and picked it up, not really knowing what to expect,
but already familiar with a couple of the songs, so I was pretty sure
it would be decent. Wow, what a knockout! Is there anything on
"Warren Zevon" that isn't perfect? It's still my favorite WZ album,
close to being my favorite album by anybody, and one I never get tired
of listening to...I have a copy for the house and one for the car.
Garry
Howard Roseman
> "Warren Zevon" that isn't perfect? It's still my favorite WZ album,
> close to being my favorite album by anybody, and one I never get tired
> of listening to...I have a copy for the house and one for the car.
>
> Garry
>
On this Sunday morning, all I can say is Amen, brother!
Howard Roseman
> > her harmony partner (anyone know who it is?) cannot possibly measure up
to Phil Everly.
>
> Don Henley. And our "friend," Andrew Gold, plays piano &
> tambourine. Russ Kunkel's the drummer and Kenny Edwards is
> on the bass. There's also two violas, a cello and a double
> bass.
Well, Henley is pretty damn good himself, good enough that Warren was happy
to have him sing harmony on a few of his own songs (The French Inhaler,
Gorilla You're a Desperado, Wild Age, The Envoy, Reconsider Me, Trouble
Waiting to Happen, Frozen Notes, and She's Too Good for Me).
But tambourine is a decidedly un-Zevonian instrument. In fact, my (trusty?)
spreadsheet tells me that tambourine was never used on any of Warren's
albums. Perhaps someone's dancing around with one on the unreleased box set.
Lucy
>
>
> But tambourine is a decidedly un-Zevonian instrument. In fact, my (trusty?)
> spreadsheet tells me that tambourine was never used on any of Warren's
> albums. Perhaps someone's dancing around with one on the unreleased box set.
Y'know, I haven't listened to LR's HDTW in a long time, but
I certainly canNOT see how a tambourine would fit in that
song...in any version. I wonder whose idea that was.
-- Lucy
Doug
IMHO.
Doug
Joanne Corsano
wonderful lyrics showing the tender Warren at his best. ("Holding on
to half her heart, he can't have the restless part." Brilliant.) I
have no problem with the "poeticalness" of the title; song lyrics are
for listening to, not just reading on paper, and those syllables sound
good, soft and soothing, and sad too.
I find it interesting that Zevon chose to write this in the third
person ("she tells him ...") as opposed to first person. (It could
have been "she tells me ....") This choice doesn't take any of the
emotional content out of the song, as it might have in the hands of a
lesser songwriter; rather, it universalizes the emotions.
Warren's singing is beautiful on this song. When he sings in that
slightly higher pitch, his voice can sound so beautiful, and here it
does. His voice sounds so emotional and passionate. Another good
thing about the song is its length: the perfect pop song 3 minutes
flat.
However, overall the song is far from being my favorite Zevon ballad,
and it comes down to the production. In my opinion the mild country
flavor (created mainly by the strings) is a slight distraction, giving
the song a little bit of a generic L.A. singer/songwriter feel. As
for Phil Everly's harmony vocals, I think they're too loud. They
overpower Warren's voice, which I think is a production mistake.
Overall, I'd say it is an extremely well written song slightly
diminished by production choices.
Joanne
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Valerie Brock
write it in the 3rd person.
Howard Roseman
I'm in complete agreement with your first three paragraphs. The criticism
you make of JB's production is one that has been made several times before,
although I have no problems with any of the songs on WZ.
As for Phil's harmony, I don't find it too loud at all. In fact, I have to
strain in many places to hear it.
Perhaps the best harmony on a Zevon song is Warren and Jorge on Veracruz.
They meld so perfectly that it's difficult to tell who's singing.