Earlier this year, the late-great LA singer-songwriter Warren Zevon was finally inducted into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’. With a recording career that spanned twenty-three years, culminating in thirteen studio albums and a string of songs that became cemented in the very DNA of the singer-songwriter scene of West Coast America during the 1970s, Zevon delivered a unique style of writing. From his pulp-fiction imagination, which yielded terse, action-packed gallows-humoured tales that could sketch out an entire screenplay in little more than four minutes, to the vulnerability and longing of his ballads that immediately became timeless classics, he was the ultimate songwriter’s writer.
It had baffled many, fans and critics alike, that two decades on from his sad death from mesothelioma, Zevon had still failed to take his rightful place in the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’, so this year’s news was greeted as much with relief as celebration. The American TV host David Letterman inducted Zevon in the category of ‘Musical Influence’ during this month’s ceremony, where The Killers were joined by Zevon’s longtime guitarist Waddy Watchel to perform the classic song ‘Lawyers, Guns, And Money’, with Killers guitarist Dave Keuning performing the song using the guitar Zevon had presented to Letterman. When, where and how Letterman came to have the guitar is the subject of this week’s ‘classic Clips’ feature.
On the 30th October 2002, shortly after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, Zevon made his final public appearance on the late-night talk show ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’. Zevon had regularly appeared on the show over the preceding decade, as Letterman had been a committed fan since the early 1980s and, throughout the 1990s, despite the lack of commercial success, continued to invite his favourite songwriter back. In gratitude, Zevon gave Letterman a bit part on the album “My Ride’s Here”, telling him that he had been “the best friend my music has ever had”.
This particular episode was unlike any that had gone before, with the producers of the show proposing to Letterman that they break with the traditional approach of having two guests and instead devote the entire episode to Zevon. Needless to say, Letterman endorsed the idea. Prior to recording, Zevon pushed Letterman to prioritise humour over awkward questions during the conversation, and when the dialogue did turn more serious, and Letterman asked Zevon about the differences in recording music before and after the cancer diagnosis, Zevon famously responded by saying, “you’re reminded to enjoy every sandwich and every minute playing with the guys, and being with the kids”
Zevon closed the show by playing three songs from across his recording career, starting with ‘Mutineer’, followed by ‘Genius’ and finally ‘Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner’, and after the final note Letterman strolled out, shook his hand, and told him to “enjoy every sandwich” and the phrase would go on to be the title of a Warren Zevon tribute album. When the camera’s stopped rolling, Letterman made what, for him, was an unusual decision: to visit his guests’ dressing room. The two made small talk while Zevon packed away his guitar, the one he had earlier used on the show, and then handed it to his host as a gift, asking only that he take care of it. It was a request that caused Letterman to burst into tears.
Since the episode aired all those years ago, it has gone on to feature in numerous best-of lists. David Fricke of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine placed his performance of ‘Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner’ third in that year’s top music moments, while the same outlet ranked the episode as one of the best late-night TV moments. For Letterman, the whole experience was bittersweet, and to this day, he has never watched the episode back, feeling he had not done his friend justice.
Zevon died on the 7th of September 2003, outliving his prognosis by ten months, but leaving behind him a legacy that has continued to grow, for in truth, there has never been a songwriter like Zevon. Not before, and not since. And, oh, how we could do with him now, in these turbulent and caustic times that we live in today, he would have been brave enough to call it as he saw it; his undaunted appreciation of ironic absurdity, calling out the clowns and the cowards with the sardonic wit of a songwriting genius.
