Zevon Song of the Week #6

[Howard Roseman]

#6, on 6/6/6 (and my blood sugar this morning was again 66.6!!), what better
choice than ...

Mr. Bad Example

Jim just posted an article about Excitable Boy. The song MBE was Warren's
sequel to EB. The subtext is males behaving badly.

Warren was a drunk, and sometimes a mean one, but the evidence suggests he
was otherwise a man of very reputable character. He did care, very much,
"who gets hurt". It strikes me that a song like MBE was his way of
fantasizing about how much fun it would be to act devilishly all the time.
The seven deadly sins, and how the day is too short to give them their due,
is the song's direct focus; indirectly, the target is the Catholic church
and the hypocrisy and twisted sanctimony that particular body represents. "I
started as an altar boy ..."

Like MSFU, the stark subject matter is delivered in such a jaunty fashion,
in this case to a repeating polka beat, that it's impossible not to feel
good during and after the song. That's the Zevon mastery at work, making you
laugh out loud at some dark shit. Except when he was writing about his
tortured love life, Warren knew in his bones that humour was the best weapon
against the travails of life, especially when compared to stale and
self-righteous religious dogma. Self-righteousness is nowhere to be found in
the Zevon oeuvre.

There are so many "best lines" in MBE that it's hard to choose just one. My
favourite verse, one that should be much more famous than it is, is the one
about the seven deadly sins, but the line about the housewives and tackless
stripping is hilarious as well. Writers always mention brucellosis, but who
else has thrown cummerbund into a rock song?

Warren, I'll see you in the next life. You know when to wake me up.

[Jim R]

"Howard Roseman" <hros...@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:jsihg.247160$7a.112597@pd7tw1no...

One of my very favorite Zevon tunes. I remember the next to the last time I
heard it in concert (Fall of 99) though and by the time he finished it he
was really out of breath and my wife leaned over to me and said "That really
wiped him out, he should go see a doctor."

Jim

[donn...@hotmail.com]

Not just cummerbund, but Naugahyde, aborigines, "pauperized" and
charmin de fer (sp?) in a narrative that whips from Spokane to Monte
Carlo to Adelaide to Sri Lanka. It's got to be one of the wittiest rock
songs ever.

[Howard Roseman]

Thanks - I opened the window on the words and hoped someone would step
through.

The card game is chemin de fer. It derives from baccarat, which Warren
mentioned he might stay up late and play when we saw him in Vegas in 2001.
Both games were mentioned, I believe, in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.
Ideally, like Bond, you should be wearing a tux to play them.

http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9360472/chemin-de-fer

[donn...@hotmail.com]

> The card game is chemin de fer. It derives from baccarat, which Warren
> mentioned he might stay up late and play when we saw him in Vegas in 2001.
> Both games were mentioned, I believe, in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.
> Ideally, like Bond, you should be wearing a tux to play them.

Thanks for explaining. I also wasn't sure about 'the flag salute' but I
can make an educated guess:)