Night talk
Feb. 25th, 2004 02:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oneirophreniaI can just sense the first faint stirrings of Spring in the air, a faint, subliminal freshness sneaking up my nose when I least expect it (and making me sneeze), as well as a fugitive warmth in the deep of night. The snow that lay on the ground all day has a sort of half-assed or defeated look to it, and today the concrete sky cracked open a bit and some sunlight trickled through--warm sunlight...not that frigid, glassy, midwinter glare that stabs you in the eyes like so many bright little needles and actually sucks the warmth out of you. Soon the Colt's-foot will be blooming (and I'll be really sneezing and spending my days in a Benadryl haze), and I'll have to break out the wildflower guides and get up into the mountains to see what's stirring up at Ohiopyle before the unwashed hordes of weekenders from the lowlands start tromping about the place.
On a more melancholy note, though...I finally picked up Warren Zevon's final album, The Wind, today. I tried listening to it at work but...I just couldn't make it all the way through. No, it's not a bunch of unimaginably sad songs--most of them, in fact, such as "My Dirty Life and Times" and "The Rest of the Night," are totally rocking fun-time jams on the same level as "Excitable Boy" or "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"--but...the fact that Warren was struggling to put out this one last album before the lung cancer got him is still really apparent in the music. His voice breaks sometimes. And even though he shuffles off the stage with a cynical grin on his face and a sly shrug, songs like "El Amour de Mi Vida" and "She's Too Good for Me" are still very, very hard to listen to....You know, I've loved Warren Zevon's music since I was a kid and didn't even know who the fuck he was--just "that guy who does the werewolf song and that song about Mohammed's radio"--and I always knew that he'd depart the stage before I did (since he was obviously a lot older than me). but I never thought it would be this damned soon. It's a damn fine album, though--probably one of his absolute best--and I know I'll soon be able to enjoy it just like anything else without the mistiness, but for now....
Every damn one of my musical or literary idols died far too young--most often as a result of their bad habits. No wonder I try to shy away from the serious booze these days....I just hope that when my turn comes to board the big black train I'll leave behind a body of work that will keep me alive forever in the hearts and CD players of others.
On a more melancholy note, though...I finally picked up Warren Zevon's final album, The Wind, today. I tried listening to it at work but...I just couldn't make it all the way through. No, it's not a bunch of unimaginably sad songs--most of them, in fact, such as "My Dirty Life and Times" and "The Rest of the Night," are totally rocking fun-time jams on the same level as "Excitable Boy" or "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"--but...the fact that Warren was struggling to put out this one last album before the lung cancer got him is still really apparent in the music. His voice breaks sometimes. And even though he shuffles off the stage with a cynical grin on his face and a sly shrug, songs like "El Amour de Mi Vida" and "She's Too Good for Me" are still very, very hard to listen to....You know, I've loved Warren Zevon's music since I was a kid and didn't even know who the fuck he was--just "that guy who does the werewolf song and that song about Mohammed's radio"--and I always knew that he'd depart the stage before I did (since he was obviously a lot older than me). but I never thought it would be this damned soon. It's a damn fine album, though--probably one of his absolute best--and I know I'll soon be able to enjoy it just like anything else without the mistiness, but for now....
Every damn one of my musical or literary idols died far too young--most often as a result of their bad habits. No wonder I try to shy away from the serious booze these days....I just hope that when my turn comes to board the big black train I'll leave behind a body of work that will keep me alive forever in the hearts and CD players of others.
