spacemonkeygaz.com

You may remember last week I introduced you to a singer named Paul Hewson, from Irish pop band You Too. Paul was fairly vocal on the subject of music piracy, and particularly angry that the illegal downloading of music from the internet was damaging the “creators” of the music. Well, genuine question here, what if the “creator” of the music is now dead? Surely downloading a dead man’s music doesn’t leave him any worse off. It’s sure as hell not damaging the creators. And why should the creator’s estate (widow, kids etc) get royalties for something they didn’t create? I refuse to buy anything John Lennon has written for fear that some of my hard-earned cash will end up in Yoko Ono’s pocket.

On a completely unrelated topic I came into ownership of Warren Zevon’s (Born 24th Jan 1947 — died 7th Sep 2003) entire back catalogue at the weekend. Now Warren Zevon (pronounced Warren Zeeeeevon in an American drawl) was a proper rock star. I’m guessing you’ve never heard of him, which is not surprising. But you know that Kid Rock song from two summers ago? The piano riff that plays all the way through it (da-dah, da-dah, da-dah-da-dah — yeah, you know what I mean) is from Zevon’s most well-known song Werewolves of London (which I’m not actually that keen on), but I digress.

Where was I? Ah, yes, Warren Zevon was a proper rock star. Marriage, divorce, alcoholism, finding out he’d been dropped by his record label from reading the Rolling Stone gossip column, drugs, rehab, collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Bob Dylan. Songs with titles like Life’ll Kill Ya, and My Shit’s Fucked Up, songs with subtle, political subthemes. And, as far as I’m aware, he never minced around on stage under a giant lemon mirrorball demanding we cancel third world debt.

In 2002 — having not been to a doctor in twenty years — Zevon was diagnosed with a form of inoperable lung cancer. In his final interview on the Late Show With David Letterman he said “I guess I made sort of a tactical error by not going to the doctor’s in twenty years. Just one of those phobias that didn’t pay off.” When asked if he knew something more about life and death now, he offered, “Enjoy every sandwich.”

I’m sure Zevon would have ticked all the boxes comedian Bill Hicks (another killed by cancer) looked for in a rockstar:

“I want my rockstars dead! I want them to fucking play with one hand and put a gun in their other fucking hand and go, ‘I hope you enjoyed the show.’ Bang! Yes! Yes! Play from your fucking heart! I am available for children’s parties, by the way.”

Are you listening Paul Hewson? Kelly Jones? A little self-destruction never hurt anyone you know.

At the risk of sounding a bit fucked-up, my favourite Warren Zevon song is ‘Excitable Boy’. The song is four simple verses, each of two lines, each line ending “He’s just an excitable boy” in which Zevon tells the story of a juvenile sociopath who (literally) gets away with murder because all through his life people shrug and say he’s just an excitable boy whenever he does wrong. When I first heard the song I thought it was hilarious. You may think it’s crude, offensive and insensitive. Being dense at understanding song meanings, I searched the internet for other people’s opinions. A few examples:

“A not so subtle dig at all these politically-correct liberal wankers who try to explain away bad behaviour with trite comments such as “he’s just an excitable boy”. Frankly, when someone’s evil, there’s no excuse – he/she should be locked up forever!”

“this song has something to do with the rise and fall of rock music as Zevon sees it.”

“This is him taking shots at those who try to make up excuses for what people do and try to excuse their behavior… cough terrorism cough”

“Excitable Boy seems more autobiographical than anything. No political stance on coddling the mentally disturbed. It strikes me more as a balance between wish-fulfilment and urge-denial.”

“like most of Zevon’s other songs: it’s just meant to be funny!”

“this song always spoke to me because i believe that there are people who should never be parents. it starts with the excuses made by the parents, and then society. when your child is a shit head, discipline him. when an adult man is a shit head, it may be a result of parenting, but it is not an excuse.”

“this song is just a witty ironic “joke” it has a catchy pop riff, the lyrics are goofy, and at the end he throws in the disturbing lyrics for their irony because you would not expect that in a catchy song. That is all, no liberal bashing, political commentary, or anything like that.”

In just eight lines he’s created something that people are still debating over 30 years after it was first released, and seven years after his death. I find this fascinating. Delving into his back catalogue I find that most of his songs are, on the face of it amusing and often crude ditties, but when you peel back the layers there are dark political, cultural and biblical references. Genius.

I’d be happy to think anyone would even remember me after I’m gone. If they give a fuck about anything I’ve ever written then great. But I need to write something first. This was New Year’s Resolution #2 (or NYR#2), you may remember. So far in 2010 I have added to my novel — drum roll please — zero words. But, I have done some ‘planning.’ Actually genuine planning. Not say-it-whilst-doing-that-wanky-inverted-comma-finger-thing ‘planning’ sense. I have actually done some quite crucial planning. Honest.

And I’ve lost 0.9kgs (NYR#1v2). That was Friday. Then I got pissed, twice, and ate a lot of food.

N.B. spacemonkeygaz.com lawyers have asked me to point out that I wouldn’t dream of downloading anything illegally. And if I do ever manage to write anything and get it published, you’d better not download it for free or I’ll tell Bono.

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