Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon sings 6 Bob Dylan songs

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]This is a song by my hero
– Warren Zevon (intro to Dark Eyes in Cleveland, 2000)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

We have done a couple of posts earlier of Bob Dylan doing Zevon’s songs, This time we look at Warren Zevon’s renditions of Bob Dylan’s songs. He has done quite a few and they are wonderful.

We found 6 Dylan songs in his repertoire, if there are more, please tell me in the comments.

Let’s start with the first of Warren Zevon’s Bob Dylan covers, If You Gotta go, Go Now. He was in a duo called Lyme and Cybelle and they did this interesting interpretation:

Let us now listen to his heartbreaking performance of Knocking on Heavens Door from his last album, The Wind:

Warren Zevon – Knocking on heavens door (audio):

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Bob Dylan: Accidentally Like A Martyr (Warren Zevon)

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

bob-dylan - warren zevon

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]The phone don’t ring
And the sun refused to shine
Never thought I’d have to pay so dearly
For what was already mine
For such a long, long time

We made mad love
Shadow love
Random love
And abandoned love
Accidentally like a martyr
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

‘Accidentally Like a Martyr’ was released on Warren Zevon’s brilliant 1978 album “Excitable Boy”

warren zevon exitable boy

BF: Who are some of your favorite songwriters?
Bob Dylan: Buffett I guess. Lightfoot. Warren Zevon. Randy. John Prine. Guy Clark. Those kinds of writers.
~Bob Dylan (to Huffington Post – May 2009)

original version:

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January 24: The great late Warren Zevon was born in 1947

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]All the salty margaritas in Los Angeles
I’m gonna drink ’em upAnd if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill
~Warren Zevon (Desperados Under the Eaves)
—
Few of rock & roll’s great misanthropes were as talented, as charming, or as committed to their cynicism as Warren Zevon.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Live in Passaic NJ, 1982 (The Full Concert):

BF: Who are some of your favorite songwriters?
Bob Dylan: Buffett I guess. Lightfoot. Warren Zevon. Randy. John Prine. Guy Clark. Those kinds of writers.
~Bob Dylan (to Huffington Post – May 2009)

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January 18: Warren Zevon released Excitable Boy in 1978

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

“The further these songs get from Ronstadtland, the more I like them. The four that exorcise male psychoses by mock celebration are positively addictive, the two uncomplicated rockers do the job, and two of the purely “serious” songs get by. But no one has yet been able to explain to me what “accidentally like a martyr” might mean–answers dependent on the term “Dylanesque” are not acceptable–and I have no doubt that that’s the image Linda will home in on. After all, is she going to cover the one about the headless gunner? A-”
– Robert Christgau

Excitable Boy is the third album by Warren Zevon, it was released in 1978. It includes the top 40 success “Werewolves of London”. The album brought Warren to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career. A remastered and expanded edition was released during 2007.

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Classic Bootleg: The Offender Meets the Pretender (Warren Zevon with Jackson Browne)

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]The Offender Meets the Pretender is a widely-bootlegged Dutch radio program featuring songs by, and interviews with, Warren Zevon alongside his friend and colleague Jackson Browne. The recordings are from Zevon’s first tour in 1976/77, shortly after the release of his self-titled second album, which included guest appearances in the middle of Jackson Browne’s concerts.
–Warren Zevon Wiki[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Live at the VPRO Studios, Hilversum, the Netherlands; December 8, 1976
  • Live at RAI Congrescentrum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; December 9, 1976

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Listen: Warren Zevon @ Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA – April 22, 1980

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]…. this performance captures a classic Warren Zevon show, when many believe he was at the height of his creative prowess. Near the start of the show, Zevon steps up to the microphone and exclaims: “It’s great to be back in Philadelphia… And it’s great to be in a rock and roll band!” Then, he launches into a blistering version of his hit, “Excitable Boy,” with all the bravado of a pool hall punk. A song about a high school age sociopath’s murderous prom night, this is a prime example of Zevon’s extremely macabre outlook. Later in the show, he reminds the audience: “This is one of the best audiences I have ever seen; I may go berserk!”
–concertvault.com[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Tower Theater
Philadelphia, PA
April 22, 1980

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