Late on a Saturday night I was thinking to myself. Was Hunter S. Thompson the Warren Zevon of writers or was Warren Zevon the Hunter S. Thompson of rock stars. The idea made me laugh inwardly because their writing styles and ability to draw from zany personal experience for outstanding material creates a definite parallel. The fact that the two were friends was no accident. Writer Carl Hiaasen is on record as saying, “Warren was close to Thompson, and their work shared a certain twisted energy.”
This post will begin where Hiaasen’s quote leaves off. It is exactly that ‘twisted energy’ that inspired the 1978 album Excitable Boy. Fittingly, today’s feature song ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ closed out this phenomenal album. It is one of my favourite records ever because it is a combination of witty, provocative, intelligent and musically speaking it has a depth that is not often rivalled in about sixty years of music. If I ever wrote a list of 25 albums any serious music fans should own, it would definitely include Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon. My list of must follow songwriters would include Zevon in the top three. The man was truly a genius. He also tested the bounds of acceptability in virtually every aspect of his life. Essentially, ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ serves as an epitaph for Warren Zevon’s life. He may not have been an international spy like the subject of the song but in truth the character is analogous to Zevon and his notorious lifestyle.
‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ was written by Warren Zevon in Hawaii late one night on wet cocktail napkins after a long day of “improbable and grotesque mischief”. The lyrics describe a series of impossible situations for a spy. It was inspired by cold war era mistrust so what you get is a series of crises that grow in level of desperation before Zevon utters the final line; “the shit has hit the fan,” and then once again pleads for his rescue team to send ‘lawyers, guns and money.’ It’s nothing fancy but it flows like chapters in the life story of a wannabe James Bond; or how about Archer? A good writer could turn this imagery into a movie and I am sure it would be highly entertaining. The soundtrack could be all Warren Zevon. It would be a cult classic…guaranteed. Here he is discussing ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ and elusive commercial success in an interview with Andy Kershaw of the BBC in 2000. It’s a cool excerpt where he describes the origin of ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’. Kershaw offers his own experience with the song which leads into a fantastic acoustic performance by Zevon, where he adjusts the lyrics slightly as a nod to the interviewer. Just awesome!
I post this on what would have been Warren Zevon’s 72nd birthday. I have been a fan since the early ‘80s and I could never understand why he didn’t gain more traction in the music mainstream. It’s not that it matters, I just found it baffling that someone with so much to say and such an effective way to say it, didn’t get more attention. I could rhyme off a litany of Warren Zevon songs that should be on any music fan’s playlist. He was revered by his peers. Artists like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks and Jackson Browne; just to name a few marveled at his brilliance as a songwriter and as a linguist. Springsteen and Zevon collaborated to win a Grammy on ‘Disorder in the House’. Not many people know that. This was a Zevon song. He invited Springsteen to play it with him on his 2003 release, ‘The Wind’, which was ultimately a celebration of Zevon’s life. Many of his friends dropped by to play on this incredible album. Zevon died of mesothelioma just two weeks after the album was released. I will leave it up to Bob Dylan to explain the Zevon mystique:
“His musical patterns are all over the place, probably because he’s classically trained. There might be three separate songs within a Zevon song, but they’re all effortlessly connected. Zevon was a musician’s musician.”
Here is my post from December which focusses on Warren Zevon’s impact on talk show giant, David Letterman.
Further to the idea that Zevon was a ‘musician’s musician’, his music was the subject of a 2004 tribute album called ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon. Interestingly, Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers cover ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ on that album. It seems Jakob’s father passed on his admiration to his son. My initial plan was to post the song from the tribute album, but I found one better on YouTube. The Wallflowers along with Warren’s son, Jordan performing the song on ‘Late Night with David Letterman’ in 2004, in an effort to promote the tribute. The two ‘sons’ share the vocals and just kill it. You can feel the adoration.
Here is a version by Meat Loaf. You get the usual theatrical take which really works when connected with his unique vocal prowess.
I could go on and on, but I will stop here. I am on a personal mission to spread the Warren Zevon legend and make sure his music never dies. Please accept the baton.
Ted Tocks Covers 
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