[2008-05-06] Warren Zevon "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" book by his wife Crystal with forewor

Linda · **Posted:** Sun Apr 29, 2007 4:29 am

From Publishers Weekly
For those who know them, the brilliant, dark songs of Warren Zevon (1947-2003) inspire nothing short of adoration; for those who don't, this stunning biography of the irrepressible rock 'n' roll singer/songwriter should send them sprinting to the nearest record store. By taking an unexpurgated, oral-history approach to Warren's life, his former wife and lifelong friend Crystal has crafted a sharp, funny, jaw-dropping rock biography that's among the best of the sub-genre. Provocative and unflinching, her account distills Warren's journal entries and the author's exhaustive interviews with 87 family members, business associates, band mates, fellow musicians and former lovers into a chronology ranging from Warren's ancestry to his death, at age 56, from lung cancer. The impetus for the book was Warren himself-he implored Crystal to tell his story and to "promise you'll tell 'em the whole truth, even the awful, ugly parts." The awful, ugly parts turn up often: Warren's addictions (to alcohol, drugs and sex), personal demons (intense obsessive-compulsion and commitment-phobia) and paternal shortcomings (to him, kids were nuisances) all get plenty of play here. But so does Warren's music, for which peers like Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Schaffer offer plenty of insight. This top-notch biography is a must-read for fans, and a highly rewarding read for anyone interested in a close look at the life of a modern rock icon.

From Booklist
Warren Zevon was greatly admired for writing some of the most intelligent and literate songs in rock. Probably best known are the darkly humorous "Werewolves of London" and "Excitable Boy." He was a rock 'n' roll wild man, whose unconventional life his ex-wife Crystal's oral-history-style biography makes as iconoclastic in the telling as it was in the living. Among the tellers are members of Zevon's family, and friends and colleagues including Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bob Thornton, Dave Barry, and Stephen King. They comment on his often dissolute lifestyle, his drinking and subsequent sobriety, his off-the-wall humor, the diagnosis of the inoperable lung cancer of which he ultimately died in September 2003, and, of course, his remarkable songs. His behavior was not always laudable--for example, he was a notorious womanizer--but he remained true to himself. This often searing, humorous, and brutally honest book captures him at his best and his worst. Another appropriate friend, crime novelist Carl Hiaasen, contributes a foreword.

Product Description
When Warren Zevon died in 2003, he left behind both a fanatical cult following and a rich catalog of dark, witty rock-n-roll classics that includes "Lawyers, Guns, and Money," "Excitable Boy," and the immortal "Werewolves of London." He also left a trove of misadventures and anecdotes, a veritable rock opera of drugs, women, celebrity, high times, and hard ways. As Warren once said, "I got to be Jim Morrison a lot longer than he did."

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is an intimate and unusual oral history of one of our most original and distinctive rock-and-roll antiheroes. Narrated by his former wife and longtime co-conspirator, Crystal Zevon, the book draws on over eighty interviews with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Stephen King, Billy Bob Thornton, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and countless others who came under his mischievous spell. The result is a raucous and moving tale of love and obsession, creative genius and epic bad behavior. Told in the words and images of the friends, lovers, and legends who knew him best, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead captures Warren Zevon in all his turbulent glory.

Hardcover:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060763450/?tag=imwan-20

Paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060763493/?tag=imwan-20

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

I met Mrs. Zevon in Boulder this past summer - what a nice woman. I ended up e-mailing her because I felt like I'd completely stumbled over what I was trying to say and came across as a jerk, although she assured me that wasn't the case.

What I'd said was, when I first saw the book, I was disappointed to find out that the book followed a format very similar to the Tom Shales book about Saturday Night Live. I thought the SNL book was not so good. The Zevon book, though, worked wonderfully. There are lots of great stories, and a lot of stuff I'd never heard before. What a testament to Warren that he asked Crystal to tell the unvarnished truth, and what a testament to her that she did. She did say that there were a couple bits left out, but there's a bit about Eleanor Mondale that was left in that...well, let's just say I'd like to meet her.

Alan

Stephen Serber · 18 Oct 2006

This is a terrific book and a very fast read

[2008-05-06] Warren Zevon "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" book by his wife Crystal with forewor

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