Do you remember? We were shipwrecked together. Welcome to this bonus episode of Sound Opinions. I'm Jim DeRogatis. That guy over there, my co-host is Greg Cott. And if you want to be the first to hear our bonus podcasts, become a Sound Opinions member on Patreon, like Matt North from Chicago. Thanks, Matt! He says he's been a listener since XRT. Man, that's a lot. That's a lot of Jim and Greg. Polluting your brain, man. We owe you a beer, man. Come up with us at one of the clubs.
Greg and I have crammed our brains so full of music, so much music, that even if you've been listening since the XRT days, We've still got more to give you. You never know what's going to bubble up. Greg, give us a little hint of what you're going to add to the Desert Island jukebox. Well, Jim, I am going to reference, maybe not to my... Better health. The Rock Hall of Fame. And somebody who finally got in this year. Oh, okay. All right. Chubby Checker?
Oh, I'm excited. Won't be chubby. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I can't wait to find out who you're going to pay tribute to. More in a minute on Sound Opinions. Sound Opinions is supported by Goose Island since 1988. Goose Island's been brewing beers in the spirit of Chicago. You can find 312 Weed Ale, Big Juicy Beer Hug, and so many other limited releases at either of Goose's locations in Chicago.
Goose Island Beer Company, Chicago's Beer. Sprite, McFlurry, Big Mac Sauce, Double Dipped in Buffalo and Ranch, More Ranch, and Creamy Chili McCrispy Strip Dip. Welcome back to Sound Opinions. Greg, I have to illuminate. You know, neither of us believe in the idea of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. above and beyond the fact that it's very politically oriented who gets in who doesn't who's described as rock who isn't. It's like, it's like Groucho Marx, man.
I don't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member. The cooler people are outside, you know, sneering at who's inside. But who are you? Who were you thinking? Well, you know, I have to admit, I've been getting ballots since the 90s, and I've been voting, and, you know, I'm happy to. I'm happy to vote, you know, contribute.
whatever i can a lot of the people that i want to see get in aren't even nominated and the ones who are nominated inevitably i vote for them and they don't get in can i tell my story I voted one year in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was the year I was the deputy music editor at Rolling Stone. and such were my sins for getting myself fired from Rolling Stone that I was immediately drummed off and never invited to vote again. And it's a mysterious process. Nobody really quite knows
how you get on the selection committee, how you vote on, you know, who gets to vote, who doesn't, you know. At least the vote-picking process had the movie conclave. Yeah, but the ballot shows up every year in my mailbox. Now they're emailing it, and I'm happy to vote. This year I voted for Joy Division slash New Yorker. Of course they didn't get him. I think the one...
drive, a voter drive, if you can explain it that way, is why isn't Warren Zevon in, right? And I'm bemused somewhat by the passion that people bring to the fact that this is really important, you know? I don't. I don't think quite that way. I'm fine with it existing, whatever. If people want to get upset about it, though, that seems to be a little bit much.
Warren Zevon did not need the validation of the Rock Hall of Fame to be a great artist. And he was so cynical that I think he's one of the guys who would have laughed at the place. I think his daughter posted something the other day and said that, you know, hey, he'd be really happy, whatever. Maybe he would be. Warren, of course, died in 2003, a very young man, only 56 years old. Cancer had been eating him up.
for years um he's part of the 2025 class but he had to come in through the back door he didn't even he had to get one of those musical influence awards right as opposed to being voted in directly which is kind of He wasn't on the ballot this year is what I'm saying, but he did get voted in through this musical influence committee. Whoever's on that, I have no idea. But there you go. He's in. Okay?
And, you know, I'm happy for him. And, you know, wherever you are, Warren, you're finally in that place. He'd probably write a song, a pretty cynical song. That's what I'm thinking. He kind of based his whole career on being an outsider at their party. and the whole industry in general. The industry's self-regard is kind of opposite of what's in the songs. You know, what I liked about the guy... First of all, we sort of related to the outlaw status of his early songs. He kind of like...
He was kind of like a Hunter Thompson counterpart, musically. Total immersion in your subject matter is what matters. Art can be about something tragic, ugly, criminal, and therefore you have to live it. I'll sleep when I'm dead. I can't tell you how many times That theme song guided our youth, the way we conducted ourselves. We liked the idea of this chaos being your guiding force.
And there was a ton of songs in that vein. Rolling the Headless Thompson Gunner, Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me, Lawyers, Guns, and Money. Then that Paul Nelson interview in Rolling Stone, I don't know if you remember that one in 1981. where you kind of get a picture of the insanity that Zevon was living through. A lot of it brought on by drugs and alcohol. He just couldn't control it. He was repentant in terms of, I behave extremely badly.
But the one thing about Warren is that he was deadly honest in his songs. He was portraying himself as a bad guy in his songs, and he wasn't making excuses about it. Unflinchingly honest, you know, that whole...
Dylan Lyon and absolutely sweet Marie to live outside the law you have to be honest you know here was a guy who sort of lived his life as sort of like a a criminal you know and in a lot of ways he did a lot of criminal things you know morally speaking you know and he was deadly honest about it in his songs you know I interviewed him a bunch of times and he He said something like, all my songs are really about fear. You know, he was living with this hell and he was trying to figure out
You could say it's a cry for help, that sort of psychology cliche, you know, but it was all there. Did you ever read Susan Sontag's Play It Where It Lays? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I love that book. I think that was her first novel. She'd gotten famous writing essays, but that came out in the late 60s. And I really hear his second solo album, self-titled, 1976, is kind of a corollary to that, sort of the soullessness underneath L.A.
You know, glitz, right? That's what Warren was writing about. And there's that song Desperados Under the Eaves, you know, which kind of gussied up. His friend Jackson Brown gave it some strings and stuff like that. But underneath this, it's just a... one line after another. Even Jackson Brown couldn't make it feel light. I also like the idea that it references Desperado as the title of an Eagles song. I think he's kind of poking fun. You guys aren't Desperados. You're not Western Outlaws.
This is an ugly, soulless existence we live in. I'm in a tiki bar. I'm drinking myself to death. I'm broke and I'm drunk. And if California slides into the ocean like the mystics and statistics say it will, Very presaging the future line there. I predict this motel will still be standing until I pay my bill. There's no escape. It's funny, but it's also tragic as heck. I was sitting in this Hollywood Hawaiian hotel and he's just, he's slowly dying in front of our ears, right?
I was listening to the air conditioner hum. And then he hums the melody. And it's just like, that's the backing chorus. You're alone, drinking yourself to death in this bar. You're not going to live long enough. to catch Legionnaires from that air conditioner. I'm telling you, it's not happy-go-lucky stuff. Zeman was an amazing artist and also a tragic one.
And I'm going to play Desperados under the E is just in tribute to him. Okay, you're in the Rock Hall of Fame, but you've always been in my Hall of Fame, Warren. The fact that the Eagles got in before he... Still waking up. That's Warren Zevon, Desperados Under the Eaves on Sound Opinions. That is it for this bonus episode. If you would like to hear me and Craig do a classic album dissection of one of Zevon's greats, email us.
Visit us for more full episodes at soundopinions.org. To sponsor the show, email sponsor at soundopinions.org. The show is produced by Andrew Gill, Alex Claiborne, and Max Hatlam. Our Columbia College intern is Joe Pennington, and our social media consultant is Katie Cott. Thanks for listening.