… They took that piece of s- after we gave them “Tenderness on the Block” and “Johnny Strikes Up the Band”? Meanwhile, it’s the only hit we ever had.” “When Elektra picked `Werewolves’ as the single, Warren and I just about threw up,” recalls guitarist/producer Waddy Wachtel in the book. One amusing revelation: Excitable Boy‘s hit single, “Werewolves of London,” the infectious song Zevon is best known for, gave him little pleasure. She gathered comments from those who were most intimate with the rocker and weaves in tidbits from her ex-husband’s diaries, editing out only a few of the more salacious items. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead isn’t as slavishly detailed as one of the late Timothy White’s windy, pretentious and exhausting rock bios, but one of Crystal Zevon’s accomplishments is a conversational style rather than a lengthy narrative approach. As for the masses, only one of Zevon’s albums made the Top 10, 1978’s pop/rock classic Excitable Boy. Jackson Browne produced Zevon’s finest album (1976’s Warren Zevon) and remained loyal even when Zevon’s behavior tested his patience. On the music side, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen touted his songwriting. Thompson and Mitch Albom collaborated with Zevon on several songs. “He was always a magnet for unforgettable characters, but few could keep up with him,” Hiaasen writes in the book’s foreword. He drew admirers from the literary world The Miami Herald‘s Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry were close friends. The prickly, brilliant, witty, charming and insufferable artist was one of the few contemporary musicians to actually earn the tag “genius.” Yet when he died he left behind an underappreciated body of work. You want to like Zevon, but as you read reports of domestic violence, drunken rages and nasty comments, you have to wonder whether karma just played a natural role in his life and death. Reading the addictive diary-styled I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead tests a fan’s devotion. Before dying of cancer in 2003, he urged his ex-wife, Crystal Zevon, to write the definitive biography of his tumultuous life, and he asked her to leave out nothing. Warren Zevon was a complicated man to love and champion.
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