Goodnight to Werewolves

Singer Warren Zevon, a personal favorite, died Sunday in Los Angeles from terminal cancer. [EW.com]. Zevon was the most acerbic member of the singer-songwriter scene that emerged in Los Angeles in the early 1970s and included Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. He first gained fame with Ronstadt's cover versions of tunes like ''Hasten Down the Wind'' and ''Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,'' then found success on his own with the 1978 hit single ''Werewolves of London."

Zevon rocked and lived hard and fast for years -- with a morbid sense of irony that characterized songs such as "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" -- then sobered up, pulled himself together and mellowed into middle age. When he gave up alcohol in the mid-'80s, Zevon said he did so to avoid drinking himself to death, something he characterized as a coward's way out. His song "Frank and Jessie James" is one I listen to every time I travel by airplane, for no particular reason, but it has become my own personal tradition over the past 20 years. And his "Lawyers, Guns and Money" graces this blog as the category title for my legal ramblings.

Warren, sleep well, my old friend.

 Posted by glenn