Zevon Song of the Week #13

[haro...@yahoo.ca]

Play It All Night Long

Category: Social Commentary

My wife and I are enjoying a very pleasant long weekend in the rugged
countryside of Vancouver Island's west coast, in a small resort town
called Tofino. I've been here a few times, but only just discovered
that most of the young people I see in almost all the service jobs are
here because of their shared passion for the sport of surfing. I ran on
the beach late yesterday, and saw several wet-suited adventurers
braving the Pacific's icy waters, although July is apparently the
worst month here to surf.

They say that if the technology existed, a camera directed at the
horizon on Long Beach would ultimately focus on Japan.

Strangely enough, I was pondering yesterday what might be an
appropriate SotW for a weekend like this, and PIANL did not occur to
me. Sometimes, I need to be hammered right on the head for the most
obvious thing to become clear. When we left the restaurant tonight, I
turned the engine on and was greeted by the closing minute or so of
PIANL on The Loft.

A-ha! Of course.

When we saw Warren in Vegas in 2001 at the House of Blues in Mandalay
Bay, he remarked at one point that he felt songs were like children,
and that any parent who said they loved all their children the same
were definitely not being honest. He and his excellent backing
musicians then launched into a rousing rendition of what he admitted
was probably his favourite "child", PIANL.

The song is classic Zevon, lyrically dark but irresistibly energetic. I
have no supporting evidence whatever, but I've always thought that
Warren wrote this song as a rebuttal to Bruce Cockburn's "Going to
the Country", with its impossibly idealistic refrains of "Happy as
can be" and "Sunshine, smile on me". Perhaps he was also reacting
to, say, John Denver, who kind of look liked Warren but was otherwise
different in every way. No Rocky mountain highs in the Zevoniverse.

Regardless, Warren in one fell swoop destroys the notion of a
blissed-out, paradisical existence with his emphatic enumeration of the
essential elements of country living-"sweat, piss, jizz and
blood". Yikes, let's go back to the city, where we can retreat to
suburbia and pretend those things don't exist.

Aside from this up-front heresy, Warren added fuel to the fire with the
chorus's phrase "Play that dead band's song". Maybe he wanted
to join in on the feud between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young. We know
he made some comments in subsequent years about being nervous playing
the song in the Deep South, but apparently Southern Man quite liked it.

David Letterman, among other distinctions, has pointed out that no
other songwriter would think of using "brucellosis" in a lyric. He
certainly could have made the same remark about "jizz".

Shining though all this misery, however, is a spirited anthem to rock
and roll, one every fan can appreciate: "Turn those speakers up full
blast, play it all night long." City or country, music is the great
common denominator that can, at its best, bring people together.

The supporting cast on PIANL is stellar: David Lindley on guitar and
lap steel, Leland Sklar on bass and Rick Marotta on drums (these two
are present for all the BLSIDS tracks except for the two string
interludes), and Warren himself doing a turn on string synthesizer,
used to good effect here. Jackson Browne, eschewing producing duties on
Warren's third Elektra/Asylum album in five years (leaving them to
Warren and Greg Ladanyi), provides the harmony vocal.

The year 1980 was a productive one for Warren and for us as well. We
not only got to hear an excellent new album, not as successful as
Excitable Boy two years earlier but in the opinion of many superior to
it, but we also were blessed with hearing the two classic rockers on
that album, PIANL and Jeannie Needs A Shooter, performed live on the
Stand In The Fire record that same year.

These days, I rarely turn the speakers up full blast, but with songs
such as these, I do blast them much more than a little. And that's
still a lot.

Categories to date
--------------------------
Addiction and Recovery: 1
Family: 1
Geopolitical: 1
Love-Gone-Wrong: 2
Mortality: 1
Satire: 2
Social Commentary: 4
Sports: 1

[JFH]

I can't remember where but I remember Warren saying that if he had to
say which of his songs was his favorite it would be PIANL due to David
Lindley's guitar playing and he liked to imagine himself playing like
Dave. After a Dave Lindley concert I asked Dave what he thought about
Warren making those comments, he said he was surprised and honored. I
also asked him if he thought as highly of his playing on that song as
Warren did. His response was that he was very proud of it and went on to
describe in technical terms I didn't understand what made it so special.

[donn...@hotmail.com]

I always enjoyed the fact that PIANL quoted a song (Sweet Home Alabama)
that quoted another song (Southern Man). A response song to a response
song, and I don't know of any others like that.

It would be great if Neil Young wrote a new song to complete the
circle...or if someone else quoted Zevon and kept the thread going, but
it's been awhile now.

[Howard Roseman]

Thanks for sharing that. On Vancouver Island last summer, I rushed over to
the "Meet the artist" booth after Lindley played, only to be told he had
done his bit before the set because he had to catch a plane. I wanted to
tell him how much we had enjoyed his rendition of The Indifference of
Heaven.

[Joanne Corsano]

My two cents' worth on "Play It All Night Long," a couple of weeks
late. I've confessed here before that I'm initials-challenged, and
when I see PIANL, it looks like it should have something to do with a
piano, so I vaguely think of "Piano Fighter," but know that's wrong
from the context. This thread will help me remember what song that
really stands for.

During the solo shows of 1999 and 2000 when playing this song, Zevon
used a device that recorded one strum of his guitar and then played it
back, over and over, providing a rhythm guitar track while Warren
played lead guitar over it. Who can tell me what that gizmo is
called? It was an effective technique that easily could have been
overused, but wasn't. He used it on only two songs a night.

I saw folk singer Christine Lavin in concert around that same time and
she *did* overuse this playback device. She was by herself also but
by the time she'd finished recording and playing back fragments of her
vocals it sounded as if there was a full chorus on stage. It very
literally ruined her show.

Joanne

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[Howard Roseman]

> I saw folk singer Christine Lavin in concert around that same time and
> she *did* overuse this playback device. She was by herself also but
> by the time she'd finished recording and playing back fragments of her
> vocals it sounded as if there was a full chorus on stage. It very
> literally ruined her show.
>
> Joanne
>

If you were sitting close to her during that performance, I hope she
couldn't read your mind!

[Joanne Corsano]

>> I saw folk singer Christine Lavin in concert around that same time and

>> she *did* overuse this playback device. ... It very

>> literally ruined her show.
>>
>> Joanne
>>
>
>
>If you were sitting close to her during that performance, I hope she
>couldn't read your mind!
>

Whuh? I don't get it. Is she a known telepath? I think Christine
Lavin is *very* funny on record, but in concert she was terrible. Oh,
well.

[ImT...@aol.com]

> >
> Whuh? I don't get it. Is she a known telepath? I think Christine
> Lavin is *very* funny on record, but in concert she was terrible. Oh,
> well.
>
> Joanne
>
>

I think she did a song a long time ago about being glad her boyfriend
couldn't read her mind...because she was crazy about him she went to
the opera with him and ate sushi and other things that he liked to do
but she hated and she didn't want him to know...I think it was "It's A
Good Thing He Can't Read My Mind" or something similar, but it was (I
think) the title song to one of her albums from probably at least 15
years ago.

Garry

[Howard Roseman]

Sorry, I thought this song was better known than it obviously is. Someone
turned me onto Christine Lavin years ago and I've always enjoyed her quirky
sense of humour. Here are the lyrics:

I am at the opera
I don't like the opera
But he loves the opera
And I love him
I follow the libretto
I follow the conductor
When I follow the plot
My head begins to spin
I don't understand a word
Even when it's English
Everyone around me says
This is divine
I don't like the opera
but look I'm at the opera
It's a good thing
He can't read my mind.

(Yes, he's a wonderful Parsifal
and she's the best Tundra I've ever seen)

Look at me I'm skiing
When I do not like skiing
But he loves skiing
And I love him
I rent the boots and poles
I shiver in the cold
I'm charging down the mountain
Risking life and limb
There's no exhilaration
I am only feeling terrified
Everyone around me's having
Such a great time
I do not like skiing
But look at me I'm skiing
It's a good thing
He can't read my mind.

(Yes, exhilarating is just the very word
I was thinking of... scared of heights?
Oh no, not me)

I am not complaining
I'm just making observations
Expanding your horizons
Is a sign of maturation
Now I tolerate cigars
'Cause he's a smoker
I'm playing chess
Though I confess
Sometimes I long for poker.

I am eating sushi
When I do not like sushi
But he loves sushi
And I love him
I'm poking with a chopstick
At a living breathing fishstick
Oh my God!
I think it's trying to swim
Some say eating sushi
Is like chewing on your own cheek
Or sucking down a bucketful
Of tentacled slime
I do not like sushi
But look I'm eating sushi
It's a good thing
He can't read my mind.

(Yes, this is a very interesting texture
What is it? Ohhhhh....)

So if you see me in the sushi bar
See me in the mezzanine
See me on a ski slope
Looking scared
Hey don't feel sorry for me
I must be in love
Why in the hell else
Would I be there?
Before I met him life was dull
I never took any chances
Now I leap at every opportunity I find
I do not like sushi
I do not like skiing or the opera
Maybe I will in time
Maybe I will in time

(Seconds? Sure I'd love some
Mmmmmmm, yum!)

[Joanne Corsano]

>Sorry, I thought this song was better known than it obviously is. Someone
>turned me onto Christine Lavin years ago and I've always enjoyed her quirky
>sense of humour. Here are the lyrics:
>
>I am at the opera
>I don't like the opera
>But he loves the opera
>And I love him

{snip}

Okay, yup, I know that song. That song is utterly brilliant. That is
a feminist song because it satirizes to us women how ridiculous our
behavior can be *if* we base it on wanting to please our men. It's
very, very funny.

Nobody has yet told me what that gizmo is called, the one that
Christine Lavin used to make it sound like the Bitchin' Babes and a
whole lot of other backup singers were on stage with her. The same
gizmo that WZ used to such good effect on two songs, including "Play
It All Night Long."