“All over the place”: Bob Dylan on his love for Warren Zevon’s tormented songwriting
Something common in music is the image of the tortured poet. We see it frequently in artists like Bob Dylan, who appear to carry the world on their shoulders and subsequently need music as a creative outlet to help them bear the load. It’s often a misguided image, but it does apply to some people.
Bob Dylan is an artist who has always written with his heart on his sleeve. Whether he is composing songs about the world, politics, or his personal life, you are guaranteed unwavering honesty in every word. This vulnerable lyricism appealed to Dylan’s fans so much, and they still stand out as a definitive factor throughout his career.
Not only that, but Dylan’s melody was also incredibly inspirational. He was familiar with basic chord structure, and none of his songs broke boundaries when it came to what notes they used; however, the way he strung them together made them sound unique.
Dylan always had an ear for different inflexions when it came to music. He didn’t just incorporate it into his own sound, but he also enjoyed listening to other artists do something similar. One of these artists was Warren Zevon, someone whom he frequently praised because of his ability to straddle the lines between different emotions.
“’Join me in LA’ sort of straddles the line between heartfelt and primaeval,” said Dylan when discussing the work of Zevon, “His musical patterns are all over the place, probably because he’s classically trained.”
Zevon certainly fits the criteria of the tortured poet. His work straddled the line between different extremes because he was unpredictable by nature. While Zevon is frequently called an underappreciated talent and one of the unsung heroes of songwriting, it’s also no secret that he was quite troubled. Family members have commented about the fact he could be difficult to live with, and he was also intimidating, aloof and self-destructive.
His ex-wife Crystal Zevon has commented previously, saying, “He had tonnes of charisma, but when he didn’t want people coming up to him, he had charisma in reverse.” His daughter, Ariel, also had some discontent with Zevon. “He had no language for dealing with children,” she said. “As a teenager, I was angry that he wasn’t there for me as a kid, angry at him for mistreating my mom.”
Zevon was a fantastic artist whose gritty, rock ‘n’ roll-influenced songwriting helped to influence an array of different artists from around the world, including Bob Dylan. However, there is no escaping the fact that the sporadic nature of the emotions with which he used to write was a reflection of the sporadic nature of his emotions in real life. He embodied the idea of the struggling writer, as he had a lot of issues in his personal life, which was reflected in some music that had a specific bite to it.
The image of the tortured poet isn’t something that should be celebrated, as it usually comes at the expense of others. However, there is no escaping that there are some songwriters to whom it blatantly applies.
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