I was sitting in the Hollywood Hawaiian hotel

I was staring in my empty coffee cup

I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'

All the salty Margaritas in Los Angeles

I'm gonna drink 'em up...

I’ve never been a fan of 3 minute biographies of artists as way of introduction to their work, so I’m going to avoid that when talking about my love of ‘70s singer songwriting genius Warren Zevon.

Cutting and hilarious lyrics are sung with a voice that has the deep reverberations of the echo in an aircraft hangar and in the dive bar of my dreams he’s the person playing piano when I walk in at 3 o’ clock on a sunny Thursday afternoon.

His second album, the first real one, recorded in 1975 was produced by Jackson Browne and feature an impressive line up of an Everly brother, a Beach Boy, a couple of Eagles, Bobby Keys of The Rolling Stones Fame, Bonnie Raitt, three members of Fleetwood Mac AND the legendary guitarist Waddy Wachtel (X-Pensive Winos, Iggy Pop, Linda Ronsdadt).  With that much talent working together, you may think that the end result may sound convoluted and not aurally pleasing, and there you couldn’t be more wrong.

For proof look no further than the beautiful harmonies, strings and guitar licks on his ode to LA, Desperados Under The Eaves:

WZ went onto release a further eleven albums, his last ‘The Wind’ being completed during his battle with terminal lung cancer. If you ever feel like spending an extremely sad Sunday, the VH1 documentary chronicling his last months and the making of the album is embedded below.  It isn’t an easy watch, but it’s a touching tribute to someone who stared death in face and sang his heart out at him.