mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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the wind
The Wind Released: 2003 Rating: 8/10 Track listing: 1. Dirty Life And Times/ 2. Disorder In The House/ 3. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door/ 4. Numb As A Statue/ 5. She’s Too Good For Me/ 6. Prison Grove/ 7. El Amor De Mi Vida/ 8. The Rest of The Night/ 9. Please Stay/ 10. Rub Me Raw/ 11. Keep Me In Your Heart/ Against all odds, lung cancer diagnosed Warren Zevon lived long enough to see his last farewell and his final album be finished. And when listening to it, it doesn’t seem like an album written by someone lying on his death bed. Instead there are live-in-the-studio sounding party rockers such as “Disorder In The House” featuring Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty-echoing “Numb As A Statue”. There are some nice country flavored ballads about lost love which could be directed to Warren’s health, but not necessarily (especially notable is the first verse in “She’s Too Good For Me”). Maybe that’s one of album’s biggest problems. Most of songs sure sounds nice and heartfelt and never too offensive, but at the same time fails to move the listener very much on a deeper level. Still, the stronger songs helps pushing up the rating a notch and the vocal delivery on “Please Stay” is probably the most moving on not only this the album, but maybe on any album released so far in 2003, and "Rub Me Raw" sure got the right rhythm going and Joe Walsh's slide guitar along with the vocals sure will grab you and never let go. Good blues! Zevon never reached the huge masses, but he did get respect from his colleagues and some of them are helping him out here. Already mentioned Springsteen, but also the fantastic Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, T. Bone Burnett, Tom Petty and Don Henley among many others too. They all pull at the same direction with the best intentions and hopefully helps Zevon get the bigger audience he always deserved. The Wind could be a very good place to start for newcomers. The only let down is the cover of his friend’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”. Yes, it’s performed really well, highlighted by a nice guitar solo, but you just don’t cover songs like that. I can see how it made sense to him at the state he was in and all, but there should be some kind of law about covering such songs. If there was a law, it would be against it, to quote Homer J. Simpson. I guess some people never learn. Now, excuse me while I step outside for a cigarette.
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