The Quick and the Dead
Warren, Bob, Joe, Hank and Townes
My instinct has always been to be happy, to look for laughter, to find the reverse side of the reverse side and to frustrate people like Tolstoy who said, "We are all mirrors dropped at birth and we are wounded in trying to put ourselves back together". The one time I went to see a counselor, I spent part of my 50-minute hour putting him on an exercise program.
Given this mindset, it intrigues me that I have always listened to singer/songwriters who experienced the bleak, dangerous and often desperate world that colored their songs. It was said of Townes Van Zandt "He looked into the abyss and saw the abyss" which doesn't sound too much like wellness. (I'd look into the abyss and see a potential swimming pool). Maybe I live vicariously through the pain of these men, maybe they have the courage, or insight, to go places I strive to avoid. I sense that they're honest and that pain is their muse, for as Montagne once said, "Happiness writes white".
Warren
I reflected on this after watching Warren Zevon's poignant, self-effacing and bleakly comic interview with David Letterman. Many 'Well' readers will not have heard of Warren Zevon and probably wouldn't like him if they did. His two most famous songs are "Werewolves of London" and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner". Twenty-five years ago, Warren was the Graham Greene of pop songwriters with a keen sense of geography and potential trouble spots in the world. In 2003, his 1982 song, "The Envoy", sounds strangely prescient:
"Nuclear arms in the Middle East
Israel's attacking the Iraqis
The Syrians are mad at the Lebanese
And Baghdad does whatever she please
Looks like another threat to world peace
For the Envoy."
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to download/play mp3 clip.
I loved some of his minor works, such as 'Desperados Under the Eaves'
"I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel
I was listening to the air conditioner hum
It went mmm, mmm
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At this point, the hum of the air conditioner gradually builds into a full orchestra and chorus. No one but Zevon would make an air conditioner an integral part of a song.
Death and dying were never far from his mind, from a song titled "I'll sleep when I'm dead" to his two most recent albums, "Life'll Kill Ya" and "My Ride's Here". Warren has incurable Mesothelioma but is philosophical about it. He said he lived like Jim Morrison but got an extra 30 years. 
He's using his final weeks to reach out to family and friends and squeeze out one more album (CD). There are messages to those he loves in his final songs. "If I can let someone know what I felt about them, that's more important than passing off some BS insight I've had about living on the planet". But when pressed by Letterman, Warren did have a message for the world. "Enjoy every sandwich".
Bob
In an extraordinary tribute, Bob Dylan shocked his dedicated followers when he included 3 Warren Zevon songs in his recent Seattle show, having never performed one in 40 years. It's unprecedented for Dylan to acknowledge another songwriter in this way. When the man with the most influential and extensive song catalogue of the past 50 years finds space to honor your songs, you could want for no other tribute.
After a brush with death himself a few years back with a form of pericarditis, Dylan is clearly aware of his own mortality. In an album called "Time Out of Mind" (a phrase from Zevon's "Accidentally Like a Martyr") Dylan's feeling of resignation is almost palpable.
"Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."
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But in spite of fame, wealth and an amazing catalogue of songs, Dylan continues to criss-cross the continents and allow us fresh glimpses of his genius in new songs and reinterpretations of old classics. Why does he keep working? He told us in one of his earliest songs.
"He not busy being born, is busy dying".
Joe
More and more these days I find myself raising a glass to commemorate the death of my favorite troubadours. On my birthday, December 22nd, Joe Strummer of The Clash died of a heart attack. Joe was the most articulate of all the punk rockers and his apocalyptic album, "London Calling", was named the most important album of the 80's by Rolling Stone. 
I loved everything about that album including reverential visual tribute to Elvis.
Twenty-five years before Enron, on the album 'Sandinista', Joe wrote,
"Cooking up the books a respected occupation
The anchor and foundation of multi-corporations
They don't believe in crime but expect that it exists
To understand what's right and wrong their lawyers work in shifts."
Maybe Joe just died of futility, for after railing against consumerism, advertising and the moneyed class (from which he came) for 25 years, he lived to hear "London Calling" used to sell Jaguars in TV commercials. Perhaps he just died of irony. In the song "Death or Glory", Joe opens with a crackling verse,
"Every cheap hood makes a bargain with the world
And winds up making payments on a sofa or a girl.
Love and hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands
Hands that slap his kids around 'cause they don't understand
That death or glory
Is just another story."
But he was always able to see beyond the futility and frustration, to the possibility that all the working class energy would be channeled into a noble cause and that the glory was still within reach. On the 12th of March this year, The Clash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; a little too late for Joe, but he was always ahead of his time.
Hank
For me the first day of the year is a time for resolutions, football and raising a glass to honor the passing of Hank Williams who died 50 years ago and Townes Van Zandt, whose life and early death mirrored that of Hank in many ways. Both men expressed themselves with their songs and both men used a variety of drugs and alcohol to numb their physical and existential pain. Hank left us with songs like "Cheating Heart", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Lost Highway" and "Jambalaya". 
His songs and passionate performances left their mark on generations of singer/songwriters. It was said of Hank Williams, "His genius was that he loved his audience and his audience knew it." In a song by David Allen Coe called "The Ride", the ghost of Hank Williams warns a young performer about the high price of fame.
"Boy can you make folks feel what you feel inside?
If you're big star bound let me warn you it's a long, hard ride."
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Townes
Townes Van Zandt was loved by everybody except Townes Van Zandt. He was a kind, whimsical, primitive poet with a reputation for missing performances, not completing recording sessions and generally being totally disinterested in the commercial side of the music industry. His addiction was a friendship without a friend. Townes knew there were no answers in alcohol but he seemed powerless to stop drinking himself to death. A number of years ago I was listening to Townes sing and it suddenly struck me he was telling us he'd soon be leaving this world.
"Days full of rain
Sky's comin' down again
I get so tired of these same old blues
Same old song
Baby it won't be long
'Fore I'll be tying on
My flying shoes."
I heard him sing this in Dallas and at the conclusion of the song a voice from the crowd simply said, "Amen, brother, Amen."
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The Romans told us that "In vino veritas" and the truth that booze revealed about Townes was that he was a gentle man who understood love, laughter and pain. Townes and his talents were not made to succeed in a world of agents and ambition and perhaps that's what endeared him to so many people.
"I don't know how to explain it - never got along with life very well."
Click to download/play mp3 clip of Townes speaking.
As a small legacy to his wife, Janine, and children he left a tape of songs to be released posthumously on a CD titled "A Far Cry From Dead". 
On it is one of my favorite Townes' songs, "To Live's to Fly".
"We all got holes to fill
Them holes are all that's real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own
The choice is yours to make,
The time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone
To live's to fly
Both low and high,
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes"
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The written forward to the recording is typical of Townes.
"Humans can't live in the present, like animals do. Humans are always thinking about the future or the past. So it's a veil of tears, man. I don't know anything that's going to benefit me now, except love. I just need an overwhelming amount of love. And a nap. Mostly a nap."
Rest in peace, Townes.
At one time or another Warren,
Bob, Joe, Hank and Townes all asked themselves the big question, "When I take my final bow who will I be?"
Moliere reminds us that, "Life is a play with a badly written third act", so, "Enjoy every sandwich" and remember that " To live's to fly, both low and high. So shake the dust off of your wings and the sleep out of your eyes."
An Extra Favorite Thing
Eliza Gilkyson has released a stunningly good CD called "Lost and Found". Eliza has been around for a while and it shows. Her songs have richness and maturity and feature some great musicianship. 
Her dad was a songwriter who made a decent living writing light and often sentimental songs such as "Greenfields" and "Memories are Made of This". Eliza's writing is in a completely different talent zone. It's interesting when our children catch up with us and then just blow us away. In her own words "I got into music for all the wrong reasons, more as a survival tool than anything else. But it served me more than I dared to imagine it ever would". "Lost and Found" is a CD without any filler or weak songs. The opening track is "Welcome Back". Yes indeed, welcome back Eliza.
Click to download/play real audio clip.
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