Warren Zevon
The Wind

THE REVIEW

Attentive music enthusiasts and readers of music magazines will not have missed, over the past year, the tragic story of Warren Zevon and his “The Wind,” released by Artemis Record in 2003. Warren, the renowned singer-songwriter from Chicago, where he was born in '47, began working on the album in the summer of 2002. A few weeks later, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a few months to live. He could have abandoned everything, fallen into despair, or recorded a compassionate musical testament; I would have understood and sympathized. But he didn't. “He chose the harder path, and that made all the difference.” He decided, together with his lifelong friend and producer Jorge Calderon (whose interview is featured in major music magazines for the release of a making-of), to continue with his original idea.

A strong and powerful album of rock, folk, and country, full of pride and dignity. This strength and determination, bequeathed to the album, compelled me to review and recommend this album to you. I confess I'm not an early fan of Zevon, perhaps a late one, and I have to thank a good review and my trusted record store for this sweet discovery at the end of 2003. Moreover, I haven't listened to his old albums yet (so it's hard to make comparisons with previous works), but I've done my research and love “The Wind” viscerally. I hope this suffices to speak with authority and share at least some of my enthusiasm with you.

The first thing that strikes about the album is the rich list of friends who rushed to assist him, with the most notable being Springsteen (his solo in “Disorder in the House” is amazing), Jackson Browne, and Bob Thornton (though the list could go on). I adore the musical vitality of the album, even though country isn't exactly my genre, and the same space is allocated to rock tracks and more folk romantic ballads. Similarly, I'm struck by Warren's words, never tragic, never yielding, filled with the desire to spend the final weeks normally, doing what he always loved: good music.

“Normal” under such circumstances is perhaps the hardest state of existence to live in, and maybe that's the point of the powerful and engaging rock track number 8: “…Why leave now? Let’s party the rest of the night!...”. Among the most beautiful songs are the Dylan cover “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door” and the concluding ballad “Keep Me in Your Heart.” The latter hosts Warren's only poignant request:

“Sometimes when you’re doing simple things around the house
Maybe you’ll think of me and smile…
keep me in your heart for a while…”.

I've been told that despite the two Grammys, it's not the best album of his career; still, it deserves that glory he never sought from history, and at the very least (however small that may be) my 5 stars.