“The thing with these cases, it’s not usually songwriters that are suing songwriters,” he said. “I feel like in the songwriting community, everyone sort of knows that there’s four chords primarily that are used and there’s eight notes. And we work with what we’ve got, with doing that.”
Townsend’s heirs sued Sheeran in 2017 over alleged “striking similarities” between Ed’s hit “Thinking Out Loud” and the 1973 Marvin Gaye classic “Let’s Get It On.” However, Sheeran denied that “Let’s Get It On” was even a consideration. Rolling Stone notes that after a similar suit against Robin Thicke over another Gaye classic, the landscape changed, creating a climate wherein many more lawsuits are being issued for copyright infringement over the slightest similarities. This has prompted stars to seek clearances even when there are only superficial connections between songs.
“I had a song that I wrote for Keith Urban and it sort of sounded like a Coldplay song,” Ed himself admitted. “So I emailed Chris Martin and I said, ‘This sounds like your tune. Can we clear it?’ And he went, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. No.’ And on the song I made sure they put, ‘I think it sounds like “Everglow,” Coldplay.’ But he was just like, ‘Nah, I know how songs are written. And I know you didn’t go into the studio and go, I want to write this.’”
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It can be hard to commit to a Marvel movie because, like many people, it comes with an absurd amount of baggage. You can’t just put on Thor: Love And Thunder without first watching Chris Hemsworth parade around the galaxy a few times prior in various other installments. But that’s why Guardians of the Galaxyis a great middleman because you don’t need to watch the 31 previous MCU films in order to understand it. But you would benefit from watching two of them!
Guardians operates on a smaller scale than the rest of the Avengers crew. While Tony Stark and Peter Parker are galavanting around New York City, another Peter is bopping around the universe, aka Starlord, played by the busiest man in the universe, Chris Pratt. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 and 2 are both good introductions to the saga in their own little corner of space, safely tucked away from Captain Marvel and Co (for now). They do overlap, of course, but it’s not integral to understanding their storyline.
While you don’t need to venture into the many Marvel phases to watch the latest Guardians, watching Vol 1 and Vol 2 would give you enough context to actually enjoy the latest installment. Due to its emotionally-charged plot and certain storylines wrapping up, it’s best to watch the first two chapters in the Guardians saga before venturing into theaters for Vol. 3.
The good news is that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and 2 are both available on Disney+. There is also the holiday special from last year, which is more of a stand-alone storyline, but worth watching if you want to see more Kevin Bacon. Who doesn’t want to see Kevin Bacon?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters this Friday, May 5th.
Following a round of concerning reports that Jamie Foxx is still hospitalized after suffering an undisclosed “medical complication” last month and will be replaced by Nick Cannon as the host of Beat Shazam, Kevin Hart shared a promising update on Foxx’s condition. Hart delivered the news on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, and from the sound of things, Foxx is improving.
“The dope thing is that he’s getting better in his situation, and you know, everybody’s prayers, everybody’s love, energy — all that stuff is seen and felt,” Hart said. “So in this case, man, you just want the guy to get out of the situations and then get back home.”
As for the exact nature of Foxx’s medical emergency, Hart didn’t say out of both respect for the actor’s privacy and because he doesn’t know the “exact details as to what’s going on.”
“To my knowledge is there’s a lot of progression and a world of betterment,” he said. “So you know, my love, synergy, energy goes out to him. He’s needed, he’s necessary. I know that he knows that, and I know that he feels that, because there’s been an outcry, an outpour, of support in this regard. So I can only hope that it continues.”
Hart’s update arrives on the heels of an Instagram post from Foxx who thanked fans for their support. It was the actor’s first statement since being hospitalized.
“Appreciate all the love!!!” Foxx wrote. “Feeling blessed.”
Russia announced this week that a failed assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin had gone down at the Kremlin. Putin was not on the premises at the time that two drones landed on the presidential headquarters. He was being manly and vigorous somewhere else, and if it sound like I’m being a little too flippant, you might be correct. However, the footage of those drones has caused pause among experts, while Russia is already accusing the U.S. of being involved in helping Ukraine do the deed.
At issue, though, is the fact that Putin loves his propaganda and has even recently staged pseudo-celebratory welcomes for when he visits Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. As well, The Daily Beast points towards chatter that suggests how odd it is that residents reported drone sightings that were ignored by Russian security forces, basically because it was nighttime and a few days away from Victory Day celebrations. Here’s more:
The drones the Kremlin says were intended to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a late-night attack were reported by residents outside Moscow before they struck–but security forces shrugged off the sightings, according to a new report. The Russian Telegram channel Baza reports that residents of the Moscow region outside the capital phoned emergency services to warn about the incoming drones, but police dismissed the calls as unfounded panic.
Newsweek provides details from the experts at the Institute Of War, who believe that there’s no way that Russia could have simply dropped the ball on any legitimate attack on the Kremlin, and their conclusion is that this incident was a set up to justify more propaganda:
The ISW report asserts that “several indicators” suggest the attack was staged, noting that Russia recently enhanced “domestic air defense capabilities” while arguing it was “extremely unlikely” that Ukrainian drones could have thwarted “multiple layers of air defense” and be destroyed “in a way that provided spectacular imagery caught nicely on camera.”
Naturally, the ISW believes that Putin is laying groundwork for a larger draft by making Russian citizens fear that the war has arrived at their doorstep. That sounds terribly realistic, given that Putin has already carried out multiple massive drafts and faced backlash that would only increase without drastic measures, like a fabrication. Additionally, CNN has provided a full-on analysis (which is worth reading) of all the odd circumstances that don’t add up regarding the claimed assassination attempt.
Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.
Since the last update of this weekly R&B and Afrobeats column, we’ve received plenty of music and news from the genre’s artists.
After many calls, tweets, posts, and more, Miguel finally returned to the R&B world with his sultry new single “Give It To Me” while Halle Bailey delivered a shimmering rendition of The Little Mermaid “Part Of Your World.” Usher revealed that his absolutely down to perform at a Super Bowl Halftime Show and The Weeknd had a little back and forth with fans who had some complaints about Dawn FM. Elsewhere, SZA earned her first No. 1 album on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to “Kill Bill,” Chlöe performed songs from Ungodly Hour with Halle Bailey during her tour, and 6lack and Davido announced their Since I Have A Lover and Timeless tours, respectively.
Here are some more releases on the new music front that you should check out:
Rema — Rave & Roses Ultra
More than a year after he dropped his Rave & Roses debut, an album that place him in a new tier within afrobeats and music overall, Rema is back with its deluxe album. Rave & Roses Ultra checks in with four additional entries, one of them being “Holiday” which was released prior to the project. The remaining records showcase Rema’s versatility, but keep an eye on “Charm” which could become Rema’s next hit ahead of the summer.
Baby Rose — Through And Through
Let’s give a warm welcome to Baby Rose who is back with her first album since 2020’s To Myself. Her latest release, Through And Through, arrives with 12 songs and features from Smino and Georgia Anne Muldrow for a captivating body of work that Rose describes as “a reminder that everything, good and bad, is necessary, and every iteration of me deserves peace.”
DaniLeigh — “Tasty”
With producer BongoByTheWay by her side, DaniLeigh checks in with quite the bop. On “Tasty,” DaniLeigh stops the show to flaunt the qualities of herself that she and the men around her find irresistible. Their moments together leave men with a taste in their mouths that they’ll never forget, and that alone, is a badge of honor for the singer.
Amaria — All For You
Nearly two years after her debut project Bittersweet, Los Angeles’ own Amaria is back with her second body of work All Of You. Throughout the project’s seven songs, Amaria’s soft vocals tantalize the ears with a warmness that makes All Of You a heavenly listen. You can also relish in guest appearances from some extremely talented R&B acts in Destin Conrad, Amber Navran, and Phabo.
Aáyanna — “Won’t Cry”
This year has been a productive one for Avant Garden signee Aáyanna. The singer kicked things off with “Can’t You Take It” and followed that up with “Kill For Me,” and now she’s back with “Won’t Cry.” The gentle and emotive record finds Aáyanna wondering if the love was real in a relationship that is now over. Despite her questions and upset feelings, Aáyanna refuses to let the tears to fall.
Amir Obé — After
It’s been six years since we received a full-length record from Toronto singer Amir Obé, but good things come to those who wait and he’s back with After. The 13-track record tackles all corners of the alternative R&B landscape through gloomy records that accentuate the slip-ups and quarrels in love that Obé sings about with help from PARTYNEXTDOOR and Naomi Wild on the album.
Stonebwoy — 5th Dimension
When it’s all said and done, Ghanaian singer Stonebwoy will have one of the best afrobeats albums of 2023 with 5th Dimension. Its 17 songs are everything that we’ve recently come to love and appreciate within the genre: it’s vibrant, confident, and authentic. Stonebwoy masters the moments of love just as well as he does those of faith on 5th Dimension. Appearances from Stormzy, Jaz Karis, Davido, Mereba, and more also add to the sharp quality of the project.
Earlier this year, Nigerian singer Victony released a remix of his hit record “Soweto” with Don Toliver and Rema. Even before the song’s release, there was a lot of talk about who would appear on it as Omah Lay shared his own take on the record. Now, fans are able to relish in his version through a second remix of the track with more possibly on the way.
KiDi — “I Lied”
Ghanaian singer KiDi could have another project on the way in what would be a productive 12-month stretch for the singer. After a few singles following his 4 Play EP, KiDi is back with “I Lied.” The record is an honest account of his state of mind as he confesses to lying about his well-being in order to keep those closest to him from worrying about him.
Young Jonn — “Aquafina”
Fresh off a Home Session with Apple Music, afrobeats singer Young Jonn checks back in with “Aquafina.” It’s a solid follow-up to “Stamina” with Tiwa Savage and Ayra Starr as well as “Currency” with Olamide. Young Jonn uses “Aquafina” to detail the possibility of changes in love as time goes on. Through it all, Young Jonn simply wants honesty so that hurt feelings can be avoided as much as possible.
CD Rose — “God Speed”
Boston singer CD Rose returns with “God Speed,” her second single of the year. It’s an angelic record that glides with passion and honesty as CD Rose lets her fears and questions go with the belief that a higher power will take care of them. “Sometimes you just have to trust in something higher, something bigger than yourself,” she said in an Instagram post, adding, “and whatever that may be for you, has the power to show you bits and pieces of who you are.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Now, the 30-year-old musician is back with more. Today, he announced Live From Union Transfer, a vinyl-only live album from his performance at the Philadelphia venue. It features John Heywood on bass and vocals, Sam Acchione on guitar, keys, and vocals, Tom Kelly on drums, and Molly Germer on violin, keys, and vocals. It comes from his three-day sold-out run at Union Transfer from last November and is sure to build up anticipation for his forthcoming shows.
The 14-track record spans a short portion of his discography, mostly containing songs from the new record, as well as some from 2019’s House Of Sugar and 2014’s fan-favorited DSU.
This morning, Shaky Knees announced that Manchester Orchestra “will no longer be performing this Friday due to illness.” Their Piedmont stage slot will be occupied by Killer Mike instead, beginning at 6:30 p.m. local time and leading into Yeah Yeah Yeahs at 8:30 p.m.
The full list of set times is available on Shaky Knees’ official website. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. each day.
On Friday, Peachtree stage will welcome Songs For Kids (11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.), Matt Maltese (12:45-1:30 p.m.), Lovejoy (2:15-3 p.m.), Cautious Clay (3:45-4:30 p.m.), Grouplove (5:30-6:30 p.m.), Greta Van Fleet (7:20-8:30 p.m.), and The Killers (9:30-11 p.m.).
Come Saturday, May 6, Muse will also handle the Peachtree stage at 9:30-11 p.m. Tenacious D will perform on the Piedmont stage from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., and Soccer Mommy will perform on the Criminal Records stage from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 7, will see the likes of Hozier (6:30-7:30 p.m.) and The Lumineers on the Peachtree stage (8:30-10 p.m.), The Flaming Lips on the Piedmont stage (7:30-8:30 p.m.), and The Walkmen on the Ponce De Leon stage (7:30-8:30 p.m.).
See the full lineup as original announced below, and find more information about the 10-year anniversary festival here.
Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Post Malone is about to become the latest star to be honored with the Songwriters Hall Of Fame’s Hal David Starlight Award, according to Variety. The award honors “gifted young songwriters who are making a significant impact in the music industry with their original songs.”
Past winners of the award have included Lil Nas X, who received the award last year and gave a cheeky speech, Drake, Taylor Swift, John Legend, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer. The Hal David Starlight Award is named after the former Songwriters Hall Of Fame chairman and was created in 2004 inspired by his support of young songwriters.
Of this year’s honoree current SHOF chairman Nile Rodgers said, “Over the last few years I have had the pleasure of watching Posty become one of the biggest artists in the world and he’s done it by writing phenomenal songs. Way before Post Malone was a superstar, he was a great songwriter, and this is his first step into the Songwriters Hall of Fame!”
Meanwhile, this year’s class of Hall Of Fame inductees includes Glen Ballard, Gloria Estefan, Jeff Lynne, Liz Rose, Sade, Snoop Dogg, and Teddy Riley. The Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner is scheduled for June 15 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.
When Warren Zevon was nominated (for the first time!) this year for induction in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, I did not expect him to get in. The class was too strong, I thought. And Zevon — a long-dead singer-songwriter who never had a No. 1 hit or much of a media profile — was easily the least famous or successful person nominated. And fame and success tend to matter the most in these situations, I reasoned. (Artistic quality is also relevant, but only in relation to how well known you are.) Plus, his voice is weird, his past is problematic, and his songs are acidic and sardonic and pop unfriendly.
Don’t get your hopes up, I told myself.
But in recent weeks, against my better judgement, I let myself be optimistic. Zevon did well in the fan vote. Influential admirers like Billy Joel and David Letterman campaigned on his behalf. Experts who prognosticate about the Rock Hall predicted that he would make it. Hell, even I publicly endorsed the man.
Alas, my original instincts were correct. I am not about to slander any of the people who were inducted this week. There are all worthy honorees. They are legends, icons, geniuses … and also much more famous and successful than Warren Zevon. It really is as simple as that. In the end, there just aren’t enough people — at the moment! — who know about this guy.
Now, the very reason I even cared in the first place about Warren Zevon getting into the Rock Hall was that it would expose his music to a wider audience. But in order to get in the Rock Hall you must already have access to a wide audience. It’s the same Catch-22 that has kept countless other artists below the mainstream radar out of this institution.
But I’m not going to complain about this. Instead, I will do my part to fix the problem. For those who are unfamiliar with Warren Zevon, I have put together a guide to his music. I promise that once you hear the man, you will be interested. Because Warren Zevon is an extremely interesting person! What if I told you that his father was a bookie nicknamed “Stumpy” who was also a known associate of the gangster Mickey Cohen? How about the factoid that, at age 13, he befriended the great Russian composer Igor Stravinsky? Or that his songs have been covered by both Bob Dylan and GG Allin?
This is not just another boring classic rocker. Warren Zevon is one-of-a-kind and — if you excuse the cliché — the embodiment of whatever “rock ‘n’ roll” is supposed to mean.
So, let’s discuss his career!
ZEVON 101
The obvious starting point for neophytes is 1976’s Warren Zevon, his breakthrough second LP. Along with including several of his most beloved songs, it’s also the tone setter for the rest of his work. Warren Zevon is populated by the sorts of romantic outlaws, anti-social rejects, doomed dreamers, and heartbroken cynics that can be found on his other albums. And it is very much preoccupied with a film noir version of Los Angeles, where the glow of the sun and the klieg lights illuminate an underlying moral rot that is pervasive and profound. From here on out moral rot will be one of Zevon’s great subjects.
The record immediately established him as a “songwriter’s songwriter” in a city full of multi-millionaire musical bards. Produced by Jackson Browne — who befriended Zevon in 1968 back when he was floundering in a folk-rock duo with the comically twee moniker of lyme and cybelle — Warren Zevon features a galaxy of L.A. stars, including members of The Eagles (Don Henley and Glenn Frey) and Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham) as well as Bonnie Raitt and Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys. But if Zevon was accepted as part of an artistic community, he also made it clear that he was decidedly different from his peers.
As a writer, he was uncommonly sophisticated, both lyrically and musically. “The French Inhaler” is a dual narrative that simultaneously addresses the mythos of Marilyn Monroe and the failure of Zevon’s first serious romantic relationship. “Desperadoes Under The Eaves” — the consensus pick among fans and critics for his best composition — similarly manages to be a personal statement of resolve inspired by Zevon’s long professional wilderness period in the early ’70s and a broader observation about his debauched adopted hometown. As a piece of music, “Desperadoes” affects a near-orchestral sweep that drew upon his background in classical music. (Completing a symphony remained one of Zevon’s unrealized musical ambitions.) Elsewhere, he mocked the myopia of his peers in songs like “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” in which a Lothario complains about all of the beautiful women who just won’t leave him alone, and “Join Me In L.A.,” a sarcastic take-off on the utopian fantasies of Scott McKenzie’s hippie era anthem “San Francisco” from a decade prior.
But what really separated Zevon from the rest of the L.A. pack is a sensibility that feels adjacent to punk. This isn’t exactly true in a musical sense, especially on the relatively mellow Warren Zevon. (Though it should be noted that “Carmelita,” a country rock/mariachi hybrid about a heroin-addicted writer in love with a Mexican woman, was the one that GG Allin covered.) But the punk label does apply to Zevon in terms of attitude.
Zevon did not flatter the audience or present himself as an inherently sympathetic figure, and that made him an utterly untypical 1970s singer-songwriter. When his friend Jackson Browne wrote about the wreckage of his personal life, the process was ennobling — it made him seem sensitive and insightful. It felt like he was the hero of his songs. Zevon was not that kind of writer. He dragged his listeners directly into his personal muck, and he made the muck feel like muck. And this did not make him seem noble. In fact, he could be almost recklessly unconcerned with coming across like an asshole in his songs. This fearless candor in regard to the darkest parts of his life and psyche would become another trademark.
Warren Zevon was critically acclaimed and put him on the map, particularly after one of the era’s biggest pop stars, Linda Ronstadt, covered “Hasten Down The Wind,” “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” and “Carmelita” in 1976 and ’77. This allowed Zevon to live what he described in retrospect as “the noir life – vodka, drugs, sex.” And, not for the first or last time, that lifestyle almost killed him. (“I thought my days were numbered in fractions,” he later remarked.) It was during this period that he wrote the songs for his next LP, 1978’s Excitable BoyWhile Warren Zevon gave him prestige, the looser and harder rocking Excitable Boy made him an FM radio mainstay thanks to the title track, the riotous “Lawyers, Guns, And Money,” and especially “Werewolves Of London.”
The success of the latter track was something of a mixed bag. The song’s barrelhouse piano riff and Zevon’s snarling vocal spotlighted his charismatic swashbuckling side, but it was also a novelty tune that presented a somewhat reductive version of his music. On the album, “Werewolves Of London” is followed by one of his finest ballads, “Accidentally Like A Martyr,” which presents a “regretful introvert” counterbalance to Zevon’s hell-raising bravado on the previous track. This push-pull between his demons and his conscience is the main narrative thread running through his work. Raging Saturday nights are always accompanied by hungover Sunday mornings on Warren Zevon albums.
Excitable Boy did well, but it sold peanuts compared to Hotel California, Rumours, and all the other blockbusters his compatriots were making in the ’70s. Compared with his friends, Zevon would always be a marginal figure in the pop mainstream. And this — despite what some members of the Zevon cult might want to believe — was not a professional profile he enjoyed. He sought fame right up until the end of his life, when he cannily recognized that the tragic downturn of his health could be leveraged as a publicity opportunity.
For his final album, 2003’s The Wind — released just a week and a half before his death from lung cancer at age 56 — Zevon instructed his management to “use my illness in any way that you see fit to further my career right now,” according to the 2007 book I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon. (More on that book later.) His highest profile media appearance was an historic visit to The Late Show With David Letterman in October of 2002, in which he discussed his grim prognosis with the same gallows humor he long exhibited in his songs. (“I lived like Jim Morrison,” he confesses at one point, “and then lived another 30 years.”) He also coined the phrase that became his epitaph, “Enjoy every sandwich,” and sang three songs for what turned out to be his final public performance.
The album has the same self-conscious sense of mortality, as well as a sentimental streak that is absent from his other records. That, of course, is understandable given the gravity of Zevon’s personal circumstances. It would probably be dishonest for a man at the end of his life not to write a heartfelt farewell like “Keep Me In Your Heart.” Though The Wind also has moments that are simultaneously harrowing and darkly funny, like the cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” which starts off like a sick joke and then transforms into a literal plea for spiritual salvation.
The most heartwarming aspect of The Wind is the number of legends — Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Don Henley, Emmylou Harris — who turned out to help him make it, which bookends the album nicely with Warren Zevon. And while he didn’t live to see how The Wind was received, the publicity worked: The album went gold, and it garnered five Grammy nominations, including Song Of The Year for “Keep Me In Your Heart.” Zevon, posthumously, won two awards.
ZEVON ADVANCED STUDIES
While The Wind remains his most mainstream album, the inspirational “Enjoy every sandwich” aspect of his persona stands in stark relief with the self-destructive posture he struck in his prime. If you’re looking for that Zevon, head straight to 1980’s Stand In The Fire, a hellacious live album recorded the same year at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood.
The case for Zevon being the antithesis of the typical laidback L.A. singer-songwriter starts here. On the cover, a bleary-eyed photo of Zevon thrusting out his crotch makes him resemble the devil himself, an image entirely appropriate for the music contained within. Apparently the mood in the audience was pandemonium — audience members were literally brawling in the bathroom — and that translates to the action on stage, where Zevon acts like a cross of Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards, and the ’80s era shock talk show host Morton Downey Jr. After listening to Stand In The Fire, you might be amazed that Zevon didn’t die sooner.
The tour documented on Stand In The Fire was in support of Zevon’s fourth LP, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School, which failed to capitalize on the success of Excitable Boy. While it doesn’t have an obvious radio hit in the mold of “Werewolves Of London,” it does have “Play It All Night Long,” a classic anthem about a dysfunctional redneck family in which Zevon manages to make the word “brucellosis” sound musical. The rest of the album similarly eschews the accessible rock of the previous record for more inscrutable fare — delicate musical interludes commingle with the head-banging self-flagellation of the title track (the refrain of “swear to God I’ll change” was another personal mantra) and the eccentric New Wave pop of “Gorilla, You’re A Desperado.” The album’s weakest track, a limp cover of Allen Toussaint’s “A Certain Girl,” was the first single, which speaks to his questionable commercial instincts at the time.
In 1981, Rolling Stone put Zevon on the cover. In the photo, he’s posed spread-eagle in a manner that makes it look like he’s being ripped apart. That he was on the cover of at all was a minor miracle — not only because he was already past his commercial peak, but also because Jann Wenner had once vowed to ban him from his magazine after he witnessed a drunken and crazed Zevon acting out backstage at a Bruce Springsteen concert. But the frankly astonishing article, written by Zevon’s close friend Paul Nelson, promised that he was now on the straight and narrow. Though what ultimately stands out are the horrific details about the depths of Zevon’s addiction, which are shared with a level of honesty that would be unthinkable in a modern celebrity profile.
“From what I know about alcoholism,” he says at one point, “I’d say there’s nothing romantic, nothing grand, nothing heroic, nothing brave — nothing like that about drinking. It’s a real coward’s death.”
What’s amazing about the Rolling Stone piece is that Zevon’s substance abuse actually got worse in the mid-’80s. And you can tell when you listen to 1982’s The Envoy, a record so shrill and punishing in places that it can only be the product of a man who is gakked-up beyond all recognition. The song that seems most representative of his headspace is “Ain’t That Pretty At All,” a screaming expression of nihilism in which he declares “I’d rather feel bad than not feel anything at all.” But there are Sunday mornings here as well — “Let Nothing Come Between Us” is as sweet as “Ain’t That Pretty At All” is bitter. Pitched somewhere in the middle is “The Hula Hula Boys,” about a husband who is humiliated when his wife has her way with the hotel staff while on vacation in Hawaii. In true Zevon fashion, it’s a comic concept that he’s also able to play for genuine pathos.
After The Envoy, Zevon decamped to Philadelphia for an extended “lost weekend” that lasted until he sobered up in 1986. Now a decade removed from Warren Zevon, he was faced with the tall task of putting his life and career back together. The following year, he responded with one of his greatest records, 1987’s Sentimental Hygiene. Once again, his famous friends showed up: Neil Young plays guitar on the title track, Bob Dylan blows some harp on “Factory,” and Don Henley sings on “Trouble Waiting To Happen.” (Even Flea pops up to play slap bass on “Leave My Monkey Alone.”) But the most crucial guest stars are from R.E.M. — guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry act as his backing band, which gives the album a rougher and more youthful feel compared with the slick L.A. studio cats who populate his records from the Carter administration. (Three-fourths of R.E.M. also joined Zevon for the side project Hindu Love Gods, whose self-titled 1990 LP is a fun but minor curio with a cool Prince cover.)
As a writer, Zevon naturally addressed his tenuous sobriety directly in “Detox Mansion” and indirectly in “Reconsider Me,” a devastating ballad in which he promises to one of the many women he’s wronged that he will “never make you sad again / ‘Cause I swear that I’ve changed since then.” Anyone worried that a clean Zevon had lost his edge only had to listen to “Boom Boom Mancini,” a brutal story song about the real-life boxer who mistakenly killed the South Korean fighter Duk-koo Kim in the ring in 1982. Not the kind of figure that most songwriters would empathize with, but a quintessential Warren Zevon protagonist through and through.
By the end of the ’80s, Zevon didn’t have the budget to tour with a band. So he hit the road as a solo act and played any market that would have him. Known as a piano player, the acoustic troubadour era is captured vividly on 1993’s Learning To Flinch. In the case of “Splendid Isolation” – an all-time Warren Zevon song stranded on 1989’s Transverse City — he managed to improve on the studio version. An ode to the type of reclusive lifestyle to which he was drawn, “Splendid Isolation” shouts out Georgia O’Keefe and Michael Jackson as inspirations as Zevon slowly reveals the paranoia and loneliness endemic to the loner’s way of life.
Then again, Zevon was now forced by financial constraints to work by himself. On 1995’s Mutineer, he recorded at home and played most of the instruments. The result is a fascinating (and weirdly moving) combination of cheap, rinky-dink sonics and rich, mature songwriting. The title track became one of his most enduring songs, with covers by Dylan and Jason Isbell, among others. But Zevon’s version remains the most affecting, if only for how his voice breaks as he reaches for the high note in the chorus. A love song posed in the language of a crime at sea, “Mutineer” is about putting the person you love ahead of yourself, a sentiment delivered in a manner that somehow doesn’t come across as sentimental. The song is understated but attentive about the ways that committed partners communicate. Like when Zevon sings, “Grab your coat, let’s get out of here,” an invitation that is as casual as it is incredibly romantic.
The next Warren Zevon record, 2000’s Life’ll Kill Ya, is also the strangest in terms of what happened to him afterward. Released two years before his cancer diagnosis, it sounds like the work of a man who already knows he’s living on borrowed time. The signature track, “My Shit’s Fucked Up,” essentially predicted his own fateful doctor’s visit, and the surprisingly effective cover of Steve Winwood’s “Back In The High Life Again” sounds like a preview of The Wind. Calling the album prescient is a massive understatement, though the reality is that Zevon’s death obsession was just a byproduct of his overall reflective mood at the time. Take “Hostage-O,” perhaps the tenderest song ever written about S&M, which Zevon described as a sequel to “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.”
PH.D.-LEVEL ZEVON
One of the most interesting — and obscure — corners of Zevon’s career is his output in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when it was finally clear that he was never going to be rock star. Zevon reacted by making Transverse City, a quasi-concept album about cultural decay aided and abetted by omnipresent technology. Inspired by the cyberpunk science fiction of William Gibson, Zevon’s pre-internet musings occasionally are ahead of their time, especially the proto-social media portrait “Networking.” But the production inextricably bounds the album to its era, though like Neil Young’s Trans, the janky synth tones have aged from “bad” to “charming” over the course of time.
Zevon’s next studio effort, 1991’s Mr. Bad Example, was an attempt to retrench. Even more than Sentimental Hygiene, this record sounds like Zevon emulating the style of his ’70s records. Which is hardly a bad thing, even if the songs rarely reach that standard. This was the era when Letterman really emerged as a crucial benefactor, putting Zevon on his show on a semi-regular basis even if most of his audience only knew him as the “Werewolves Of London” guy. (This super-cut of Zevon appearances on Letterman’s show runs for an hour and 45 minutes, and is one of my most reliable “before bed” watches.) And Letterman kept up with his hero’s output — decades later, he still cited “Searching For A Heart” as a personal favorite.
If you have gotten this far, you definitely need to read Crystal Zevon’s I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead. In the annals of rock books, it is utterly unprecedented: Neither a straight biography nor an unauthorized tell-all, it is an oral history corralled by Zevon’s ex-wife that Zevon himself asked her to write before he died. And she responded by documenting his monstrous behavior — the substance abuse, the domestic violence, the womanizing, the self-interest at the expense of his family — as well as his genius artistry and post-sobriety kindness and sensitivity. It has to be the most complete biographical portrait that any public figure has consented to be put forward, and it mirrors the unflinching honestly of Zevon’s songs.
ZEVON EXTRA CREDIT
Warren Zevon feels like his proper debut, but his actual first album, Wanted Dead Or Alive, came out in 1970. The most well-known song, “She Quit Me,” landed on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack, but like the rest of the record, it sounds like generic late ’60s boogie rock. It took several more years of woodshedding before he mastered his own style.
The only other Zevon album that doesn’t really land is 2002’s My Ride’s Here, the rare example where his stylistic tics feel like shtick. (Co-writing a song with Mitch Albom probably didn’t help.) Then again, Bruce Springsteen recorded a cover of the title track for the 2004 tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich — The Songs Of Warren Zevon, so what do I know?
Much better is 2007’s Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings, which collects demos that were discovered posthumously from his pre-Warren Zevon era. While mainly of interest to die-hards, Preludes does include some pretty great previously unreleased songs, particularly “Studebaker,” a tribute to “a misbegotten car” that could be a metaphor for Zevon’s career.
Some of my favorite Zevon music isn’t on proper albums — the bootleg of his 9/29/82 gig in Boston plays like a longer and more nuanced version of Stand In The Fire, with excellent performances of songs from the bulk of his late ’70s and early ’80s albums. In terms of drama, it’s hard to beat this recording of a show in Milwaukee from the Life’ll Kill Ya era. The audience heckles him throughout, demanding to hear his early hits. But Zevon soldiers on, joking about how this will be his last tour.
If it were anyone else, the situation might seem pathetic. For Zevon, however, the environment is, if not ideal, at least nothing he can’t handle. A professional wrestler of inner demons, on his night he is triumphant over the external adversity. Even in defeat, he wins.
If you’ve always lived in a world with social media, it can be tough to truly understand how it affects your life. One of the best ways to grasp its impact is to take a break to see what life is like without being tethered to your phone and distracted by a constant stream of notifications.
Knowing when to disconnect is becoming increasingly important as younger people are becoming aware of the adverse effects screen time can have on their eyes. According to Eyesafe Nielsen, adults are now spending 13-plus hours a day on their digital devices, a 35% increase from 2019.1. Many of us now spend more time staring at screens on a given day than we do sleeping which can impact our eye health.
Normally, you blink around 15 times per minute, however, focusing your eyes on computer screens or other digital displays have been shown to reduce your blink rate by up to 60%.2 Reduced blinking can destabilize your eyes’ tear film, causing dry, tired eyes and blurred vision.3
ACUVUEhas been encouraging people to take time off social media and use their newfound time to see their vision, whether that’s becoming a makeup influencer, focusing on athletics or embracing their unique talents.
Upworthy caught up with influencer, YouTube star and contact lens wearer Amber Alexander to talk about how she balances her social media use. Recently, she took a social media break while visiting her sister.
“I was able to slow down time and take in each moment,” she told Upworthy. “Being on social media 24/7 always puts me in a very overwhelmed and anxious state of mind, so it was so refreshing to put my phone down and see life from a clearer perspective. Every moment felt more meaningful.”
“As soon as I put my phone away, I was able to really connect with my family and cherish our time together. I saw how my peace of mind improved when I took a break from social media,” she continued.
Alexander understands how social media can have a huge effect on her self-esteem and productivity.
“Scrolling through social media often leads people to compare their own lives, achievements, and physical appearance to people they see online,” she told Upworthy. “It is unrealistic and discouraging to see so many attractive, successful people online 24/7. Also, being on social media takes up so much time from our day that could be used socializing with real people, going outside, and working towards meaningful goals.”
ACUVUE is challenging young people to take social media breaks to pursue their purposes, visions, missions, and dreams through its Where Vision Meets Sight campaign. But the campaign from ACUVUE is about a lot more than just personal development. They’d like you to inspire others by sharing what you’ve done during your social media break by using #MyVisionMySight.
2Tsubota K, Nakamori K. Dry eyes and video display terminals. N Engl J Med. 1993;328(8):584. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199302253280817.
3Patel S, Henderson R, Bradley L, et al. Effect of visual display unit use on blink rate and tear stability. Optom Vis Sci 1991;68(11):888-892. doi: 10.1097/00006324-199111000-00010.
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