Play That Dead Man’s Song

Apologies for the recent spate of Warren Zevon related titles to these posts. I have been listening to sweet little else for the last week. I had passing familiarity with the odd album for a few years but recently acquired the entire back catalogue. Such humourous. satirical, biting lyricism I have not heard for quite some time. Needless to say I am enjoying it greatly and I would urge all of those of you whom are unfamiliar to do your darndest to allow one or two of his releases to come into your possession.

Zevon’s tale is a sad one and one which I dont feel I can do justice to today as I have a few other issues in mind. Therefore I will merely and humbly suggest a few possibilities for your consideration. Excitable Boy would be a great album for anyone to begin with, the album is the highlight as there is not one weak track in its brief but perfect 31 minute running time. It contains outstanding songs, such as Roland, The Headless Thompson Gunner, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Excitable Boy & Werewolves Of London. The latter being the theme song for Tom Cruise / Paul Newman crapathon The Color (sic) Of Money.

If you were feeling inclined to investigate any further, you could do worse with your squalid, pointless existence on this planet by finding yourself listening to Life’ll Kill Ya which is phenomenal, and that would not be a description that I would apply to many things. There are some tracks here that will infect you and have you returning for further listens, the likes of My Shit’s F**ked Up, I Was In The House When The House Burned Down & For My Next Trick I’ll Need A Volunteer.

One of my favourite standalone tracks is Play It All Night Long. So, for a dark, funny and oftentimes sad journey through a tremendous mind, go and constructively expand your music collection with some of Zevon’s back catalogue.
Aside from that, I must admit that most of my pursuits are literary. As some of you may know, I am currently pursuing a new path towards a very different career and so am using each day to try and educate myself in some aspect of classic and contemporary literature that I am as of yet unfamiliar with. I have taken to reading in two hour blocks and then alternating, to readjust my mind into transferring focus, content and interpretation methods.

Studying poetry is one of the most surprising things that has taken my interest. I was always, I may now shamefully admit, a little snooty about poetry, mostly taken in its modern context, however, I must say that upon a short bout of study and familiarising myself with pentameters and iambic structures and all that jazz, I am now taking great joy in my newly enlightened interpretational skills and am thoroughly enjoy the works of writers whom I have long held dear, such as Edgar Allen Poe, John Milton (Paradise Lost), Lord Byron and WH Auden, in a new and wonderful light. I feel all the better for it.

It is wonderful to take joy in something which you previously would have thought held no interest to you. It is on this basic principal that I am alternating my reading matter, a great deal of it has been selected from outside my usual comfort zone. Interspersing them with old and recent favourites. I have been greatly enjoying the novels of Albert Camus having just finished “L’Etranger” and “The Myth Of Sisyphus” although considered for most of his life a peer of Jean Paul Satre, his ideals are presented in a very different fashion, which will be repugnant to some and will evoke empathy in others. Stark, memorable books which I highly recommend. L’Etranger was the inspiration for the Cure’s “Killing An Arab”.

This becomes apparent when the protagonist is standing on the beach with a gun in his hand, and er, kill’s an Arab. I was pretty saddened I remember a few years back when I saw a reissued edition of Staring At The Sea, an early Cure singles collection, that I observed a sticker of no little size, containing a wordy disclaimer on how the song was not racist or in any way connected with the September 11th terrorist attacks. This puzzled the shit out of me I can tell you, seeing that the track was written in the late 1970′s. I think the fact that a disclaimer was required is what unsettles me the most. Are we really getting that stupid?

I saw There Will Be Blood last night and now want a Victorian Moustache. A big shouty one. It was wicked!!

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