Zevon Song of the Week #8
haro...@yahoo.ca
Category: Social Commentary
I've chosen this song, with its theme of Dad, Get Me Out of This, for
Father's Day. The relationship between sons and their fathers is a
simple one, and a complex one. Two mints in one.
Warren referred to his own father as a gambler and minor mobster, a man
whose version of "Enjoy every sandwich" was "Never look back".
Judging by the fact that, on the Letterman show, Warren claimed that he
could not remember recording Stand In The Fire, he took his father's
advice.
A case can be made that LG&M, rather than the novelty hits Werewolves
of London and Excitable Boy, is the best song on the 1978 EB album. I
would venture that it was certainly Warren's strongest rocker to
date, with many of the Zevonian features we know so well: a simple
lyric with a memorable and oft-repeated catchphrase, solid guitar work
from Waddy, numerous subsequent covers by a variety of other artists,
and even a tribute album based on the Father's Day theme cited above
(2003's "Dad, Get Me Out of This! - The String Quartet Tribute to
Warren Zevon").
One of the most memorable LG&M covers was performed by Jakob Dylan and
the Wallflowers on 2004's Enjoy Every Sandwich tribute. The boys
obviously enjoyed pounding their guitars to the song's infectious
rhythm. Jakob threw in a subtle, Dylanesque tribute of his own by
singing "Warren, get me out of this." Considering who HIS father
is, that's understandable.
Speaking of subtle, I've always enjoyed that Warren wrote "between
THE rock and THE hard place", a distinction usually ignored by others
who sing it as "between a rock and a hard place", its normal usage.
I think Warren's choice works much better.
After EES was released, the Wallflowers were asked to sing LG&M on The
Late Show. Jordan accompanied them on guitar, as well as,
appropriately, singing the "Dad, get me out of this!" line.
LG&M was also Warren's first song to use profanity. In a
quintessentially American display of prudery, the 1986 compilation A
Quiet Normal Life dropped LG&M's final verse so that poor poor
innocent ears would not have to be subjected to "The shit has hit the
fan." Pa-fucking-thetic.
On a personal note, I never gambled in Havana or hid out in Honduras,
but I did have occasion to call on my own father for two out of three
of LG&M's subject matters. He sent a lawyer once to bail his
20-year-old out of the drunk tank, and he sent money more than once at
critical times when I was down and out. My father handled a gun in
WWII, but we never bonded over that particular item. Like all fathers,
he possessed numerous flaws, but I loved him, in spite of them and
because of them.
Ultimately, it's what fathers are supposed to do, help their foolish
sons extricate themselves from the bad situations they've dug
themselves into. My father did it, and presumably the song's father
did it as well. Whether Warren's father ever did it for him is a
mystery, but my guess is not that often, if at all.
We don't really require a special day to celebrate our fathers.
They're part of us, and we carry them in us after they're gone.
Nevertheless, happy Father's Day, everyone. As Steve Goodman wrote in
My Old Man, "I miss my old man tonight, and I wish he was here with
me."
Categories to date
--------------------------
Love-Gone-Wrong: 1
Mortality: 1
Satire: 2
Social Commentary: 3
Sports: 1
haro...@yahoo.ca
called Family, eventually to be joined by TOTB among others.
Categories to date
--------------------------
Family: 1
Love-Gone-Wrong: 1
Mortality: 1
Satire: 2
Social Commentary: 2
Sports: 1
Raoul
and an open-mike night and sing "I'm hiding in the White House, I'm a
desperate man". Do I get penalized for such heresy? I blame the booze.
aloha
LD
OT - While transferring tons of old, forgotten burned CDs to the iPod, I
found the Dead covering "Werewolves". Since I'm a newbie and probably
missed everyone else's opinion, I'll just quote John Winger and say "I think
it sucks."
Doug
I was perfect.
DG
Raoul
> it. I was perfect.
Ah, perhaps a textbook case of "You had to be There". And at times it does
indeed suck to be me.
aloha
LD