The next screed concerns the 35th anniversary of a badass performance by a most legendary badass.
I've been looking for an excuse to put him on here and today we have one.
Today's hero almost personifies the definition of Revered Cult Artist.
His 1970s records are worshiped in a way few songwriters ever provoke.
I remember seeing him on TV just before he died.
Weirdly, I got into his stuff right as he passed away in the early Oughts.
They just don't make songwriters like him anymore... if he showed up today at the record biz office with all his tunes and wild attitude, they'd call security.
I have a couple of friends that hold him as their favorite of all time.
Come on, we've all been in situations where we needed dad to send lawyers, guns and money to save us, am I right?
Anyway 35 years ago this evening, this character called Warren Zevon played this great club in Houston, Texas, where the stealthy soundguy surreptitiously taped a whole lotta shows.
Warren Zevon
Rockefellers
Houston, Texas USA
5.23.1985
01 Frank and Jesse James
02 Start Me Up
03 Poor, Poor Pitiful Me
04 Veracruz
05 Reconsider Me
06 Detox Mansion
07 Bill Lee
08 Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
09 Johnny Strikes Up the Band
10 Accidentally Like a Martyr
11 Tenderness On the Block
12 Boom Boom Mancini
13 The Factory
14 Werewolves of London
15 Not Fade Away
16 Lawyers, Guns and Money
17 announcements
Total time: 1:30:35
disc break goes after Track 08
Warren Zevon - guitars, piano & vocals
master soundboard cassettes of the early show, remastered by Mexminute in 2008
552 MB FLAC/May 2020 archive link
This one has it all -- all the trademark Zevon songs and madness are on full display -- and it's just the early set.
Whatever mayhem went on in the late set is lost to history, unfortunately.
Anyway I will be back midweek with more delectables, but you better not miss this audience with the Werewolves of Houston over which Mr. Z presided this day in 1985.--J.
1.24.1947 - 9.7.2003