Mohammed’s Radio

The Egyptian riots have caused some bloggers to post references to Warren Zevon’s song Mohammed’s Radio.  I clicked on the link which took me to a YouTube page with clips of Warren performing and some interviews.  I learned that David Letterman was a huge Warren Zevon fan.  If I had known that when Warren was alive I would have watched Letterman more than the one time I did back in 1983 or so.

I still remember the first time I heard Warren Zevon.  I was walking through a grill in the Student Union at UK and Roland the Headless Warrior was playing on the juke.  I literally stopped in my tracks and listened.  Then I went over to the juke box, found the song and dropped my dime or quarter or whatever it was and played it again.  I was completely hooked.

A day or so later I went down Rose Street and bought my first Warren Zevon album.  I played it to death.  Bought another one and played it to death.  None of my housemates liked it.  Nor did any of my visitors. Yet, it had an impact on me.

Few years later in Denver I was at a party and someone played Excitable Boy.  I started singing and folks looked at me like I was crazy.  (Which I was.  My voice is an instrument of torture, but it is the only one I have.)  The guy having the party came over and said, “You like Warren?”  I said, I love his music. He said, “He comes to town all the time, we will go hear him.”

I never did. I meant to, but just never did.  I think the last time he was in town it was out at the Bluebird on Colfax (after it stopped being a porn theater) and I had read he was sick so I should have gone.  I didn’t. Work. Family. Ballgames. An absolute aversion to rock concerts and the politics, dope, hippies, and crowds play into me not going.  Ever.  Then he died and  I cried.  I loved his music that much.  I didn’t cry when Kennedy (either one) was shot. They were democrats after all.  I didn’t cry when Lennon died, he was English and a doper. I cried when Reagan died. I cried when Jimmy Stewart died.  I cried when Miles Davis died. I cried when Warren Zevon died and I never did see him in concert.

I have long thought my greatest failing as a father was not imparting the love of the right type of music to my daughters.  Geez, one of them even bought an M&M CD once. (I destroyed it. Paid her for it though.) I have seen their iTunes purchases and my wife’s for that matter and I messed up.  None of them like Beethoven or Handel or Chopin or Liszt.  They hate opera. They are ok with Elvis and some country, but the wrong type of country.  They like Faith Hill and those girls who insulted President Bush rather than Waylon, Willie, Johnny, George, and Loretta. I suppose they tolerate Doc Watson (I remember they loved Frogy Went a Courting and Muskrat when they were little, but they don’t listen anymore.) and their taste in rock is appalling.  My wife is stuck in the 70’s which had its highpoints I suppose with David Bowie, Grand Funk, early Bruce, Warren! but generally it stinks. Anyway I think this is an area where I failed, but I guess one can’t be perfect. Maybe they will change.

My favorite Warren Zevon tune?  Is it the Hockey Song (which I played for Brian Engblom and was written with Hunter Thompson), Desperados Under the Eaves, Carmelita, This Time I Have to Leave, or the French Inhaler?  No, I think it is Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead.  Why? It is funny, about Hunter S Thompson and how many rock songs were the inspiration for a movie?   A terrible waste of a movie, but it is beautiful to look at, has great actors and shows off many parts of Denver. I miss Warren.

I never saw Elvis and I never saw Warren.  Wish I had.