Warren Zevon is WILDLY Underrated
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- Опубліковано 20 жов 2024
- Warren Zevon's Desperados Under the Eaves has one of the finest codas, and certainly the most underrated, in rock/popular music, and some really interesting/weird/genuinely brilliant lyrics.
This is a video about how the song does what it does, and how it fits into the album on which it appears. Along the way, I talk about Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Pink Floyd's the Wall, and a bunch of other stuff.
The song is one of the rare examples of through composition in popular music (or at least the first half is).
Enjoy!
#songwriting #music #warrenzevon
A really deep analysis, nothing quite like that on UA-cam. Also very enjoyable.
Isn't songwriting one of the strangest things? I always have the feeling that everything has been done before but the lyrics and vocals make it unique.
Like the escape through the communion with the air conditioner. Not that many people can relate to what being an alcoholic musician in Hollywood must feel like and if it relevant to their daily lives, but connecting to something that felt alien before and now allows to make the whole world a song transcends everything.
By the way, I would love to see you analyze some songs that don't use repetition of lyrics. There must be some ballads but right now, none come to mind. I'm actually always struggling to use choruses and codas. How essential are they to songs, anyway?
Looking forward to new episodes and also to listening to the old ones. :)
Thanks so much for your kind comment! Very appreciated.
Yes, I agree! I often think, 'what even IS songwriting?'. It's obviously composition - to some extent - but it's not just that. It's not just lyric writing either... And someone can be a brilliant musician, while being a terrible songwriter. Or vice versa!
So what is it? (I'm actually going to do a video on this topic at some point soon 😅 )
@@bigyellowpraxis Your questions are making me various curious about the next video!
It may be a fringe case but I think it actually sheds some light on what songwriting is: I believe one can actually be a songwriter without making neither the music nor writing the lyrics. The key is to bring both together so as to create something that is more than its parts. The songwriter to me is either someone who is doing both the music and the lyrics or someone who is bringing everything together.
How is it usually done in the music industry? I think there is a great division of labour there.
Ahh, well, it won't be the NEXT video 😅 In fact it may not be for a little while, as I have a fair few planned already, but it's on the cards.
The music industry is such a huge thing that there's no real way to generalise how it is done. It's really different across situations, bands, genres, countries etc.
Everything I do on this channel really boils down to a love of songwriting above anything else (I talk a bit about instrument playing and other stuff, but it's songwriting first). So ultimately, every video is on some level asking that question 'what is songwriting?' but I definitely want to tackle it more directly soon!
I enjoyed your review of 'Desperados Under the Eaves.' It's a song which I've given much thought to myself. There are just a couple details that I thought that I might add if you're interested:
First, I believe that there's importance to the theme from 'Frank and Jesse James' repeating in 'Desperados.' Whereas the plano-based version has an adventurous feel to it -- one which we would expect in those wonderful westerns which were such fun and represented a sense of freedom and endless possibilities -- the same theme in 'Desperados' sounds sad and exhausted. The spirit of adventure is gone and the possibilities have been fulfilled, showing themselves to have been nothing more than empty promises.
Frank and Jesse James, who were desperados themselves, were the romantic ideal of the west. As part of that ideal, California was seen as the promise land. (Part of the mythos of American was that one could always go further west and start anew; reinventing oneself.)
By the time the album reaches 'Desperados,' however, we've gone as far west as we can go. There's no more room to start anew; to reinvent.
I'll add that as with many other Warren Zevon songs, 'Desperados' has an expressionistic quality to it. So the descriptions of the protagonist mirror his inner psychological state. There's a sense that the entire universe has conspired against him. ('...like the mystics and statistics say it will...' -- i.e., as is predicted both by the natural and the supernatural worlds -- the universe will have one final cruel joke saved for him at his expense.)
Let's examine that third verse which contains the song's title:
'Don't the sun look angry through the trees?' -- The sun has become personified, appearing as one would expect an angry, unforgiving God to be.
'Don't the trees look like crucified thieves?' -- Christ, an innocent man who was also literally God the Son, had been crucified with two thieves (i.e., desperados) on each side of him. One confessed his own guilt while the other refused to. The Good Thief Christ promised would be in paradise with Him. Which thief is our protagonist? I suspect not the good one who was forgiven.
Then Zevon hammers home the point by saying, 'Don't you feel like desperados under the eaves? Heaven help the one who leaves.'
Is it that our protagonist has not been forgiven? Or is it more accurate that in refusing to accept forgiveness, he has left God? It seems ironic for him to say 'Heaven help the one who leaves' when the very act of leaving makes it so that he has refused the help of heaven.
Finally, we come to a point where the protagonist declares that '...except in dreams you're never really free.' (Being awake -- i.e., reality -- has become a nightmare. It's only in dreams where he feels free, a reminder of that lost freedom represented by 'Frank and Jesse James.')
Finally, the line is repeated about the sun looking angry is repeated, only now it is more direct and personal. 'Don't the sun look angry at ME.' (This feels like an unambiguous judgment of him personally.)
The air conditioner humming, I believe, is a final example of expressionism. It has taken on characteristics of how he is feeling emotionally and psychologically. So where does he turn now that all of the dreams are exhausted and all potential has been spent? There is no future anymore. Only nostalgia for the dreams of the past. 'Look away down Gower Avenue' -- the street which contains the dream factories where people go to escape.
Obviously, I consider Zevon to be a musical and lyrical genius. So few artists that I know of are so complete; so thorough in exploring complex themes poetically (by which I mean saying a lot with very few words) and also musically through structure. I could have said more about this song, but I won't bother to tax your attention more than I already have. Thank you for having read this far. (Because much of this is a first-draft consolidation of my ideas on this song, I hope that I made it easy enough to understand.)
Wow - thanks for the long and interesting reply! Definitely appreciate in depth comments, so don't worry about it being too long or hard to understand!
I was initially going to touch on a couple of the issues you mention, though quite as eloquently - some stuff about Jesse James and the ideal of the west unfortunately had to be left on the cutting room floor. The video was at risk of getting too long already!
I actually had a bit of a different take on the 'except in dreams you're never really free' line. To me it's directly linked with the line before: 'and I'm trying to find a girl who understands me' - it's a bit of a complaint about his relationship, on one level. On another though, it's just expressing a sort of resignation towards reality, after all, it's true! We are never free, except in dreams
Interestingly, pretty much the same idea is expressed briefly in Dead Poet's Society, by Robin Williams' character. He says: 'But only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be'. I had misremembered the line as being a quote from an actual poet (I had assumed Donne or something), but while researching this episode (and thinking of making the link), realised it was written for the film.
It kind of feels like such an obvious point to make, that I spent a bit of time trying to find other iterations of it in literature, but couldn't find anything! I wonder if the Dead Poet's Society writers knew Desperados? Or maybe it's just coincidence?
Anyway this is the brilliance of Warren's songwriting: there are tonnes of different ways to look at it, and different ways to enjoy it.
Thanks for watching!
Brilliant analysis of the lyric which compliments the content of this video. Well done!! Chuck
This video is the most brilliant I have seen in a long time!
I only got to see Zevon live once (Warwick University), it was a year after his cancer diagnosis, so quite emotional. It was a solo gig, just his small diminutive figure, all in black, centre stage. He put on a great performance, covering many of his albums. A wonderful, but sad memory.
Thanks for this. I really love Warren songs. Would love to hear more analysis of his songs.
Glad you liked it!
I might do more Warren songs in the future!
I'm grateful for music nerds. As someone who plays and sings and writes we appreciate being appreciated not that I'm anywhere near an artist as Warren. What is great about this track as you needn't all this data to love and appreciate this music and its lyrical content but this added data deepens this appreciation.
Thanks so much for your comment, and thanks for watching 😊
One of my favorite tunes, thank you for this video.
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it. As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of the song too. I think it's just brilliant. Don't forget to hit like and subscribe if you want to see more similar content! :)
I hear despair and hope at the same time. Genius.
You never forget the first time you hear the "Air Conditioner Symphony"! It also gets better every time you hear it, I'm pretty sure of that!
Absolutely agree! First time I heard it was a bit of a *what the f-' moment. But it's great!
@@bigyellowpraxis It's the way something as mundane as "mmm" pivots into that epicness! Warren trained with Igor Stravinsky as a kid so when you know that somehow it all makes sense.
Great analysis. Did you know Bob Dylan name checks the Gower Av section (and Carl Wilson) in Murder Most Foul?
the song is F major so i think the chords youre referencing assume capo on 3rd fret? i just noticed at around 8:30 when i saw the E minor.
I was actually trying to find the extended version of this song to play along with it when this video popped up and i decided to give it a listen.
I wouldn't have considered it through composed but this is an interesting look at the song and I see what you're getting at.
I don't think Warren is as under rated as he is under promoted. I think he just made a few too many enemies in them music biz with his early antagonism (see R&R HoF drama) to get the kind of commercial love he deserved and still deserves.
gone too soon, but there's still more time for him to have a proper renaissance.
great video.
Look away done Gower avenue...