Barnard Hughes
Hughes as Dr. Joe Bogert on Doc, 1975.
Born	Bernard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes (1915-07-16)July 16, 1915 Bedford Hills, New York, U.S.
Died	July 11, 2006(2006-07-11) (aged 90) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1939–2000
Spouse	Helen Stenborg (1950-2006; his death)

Bernard Aloysius Kiernan "Barnard" Hughes (July 16, 1915 – July 11, 2006) was an American actor of theater and film. Hughes became famous for a variety of roles; his most-notable roles came after middle age, and he was often cast as a dithering authority figure or grandfatherly elder.

Personal life[link]

Hughes was born in Bedford Hills, New York, the son of Irish immigrants Madge (née Kiernan) and Owen Hughes.^[1][2] He attended La Salle Academy and Manhattan College in New York City. Hughes was married to actress Helen Stenborg. They married on April 19, 1950, and remained married until his death. Hughes was five days shy of his ninety-first birthday when he died. The Hugheses had two children, Tony Award-winning theatre director Doug and daughter Laura.

Career[link]

Hughes changed the "e" in his first name to an "a" to help his acting career on the advice of a numerologist. Through high school and college, Hughes worked a series of odd jobs, including a stint as a dockworker and as a salesman at Macy's. He auditioned for the Shakespeare Fellowship Repertory company in New York City on the advice of a friend, and ended up joining the company for two years.

Hughes played more than 400 theatre roles, including the one for which he was perhaps most famous, in Hugh Leonard's Da. He won Broadway's 1978 Tony Award as Best Actor for his portrayal of the title role; in 1988 he recreated the role for the film Da.

On screen, he appeared in the film transcription of Hamlet (1964), Midnight Cowboy (1969) (the only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture), and also appeared in such films as Cold Turkey (1971) The Hospital (1971), Oh, God! (1977), First Monday in October (1981), Tron (1982), The Lost Boys (1987), Da (1988) - the screen reprise of his most successful stage-role, and Doc Hollywood (1991). He also played the old man who gave a ride to Felix and Oscar on The Odd Couple II (1998) and was featured in The Fantasticks (2000).

Hughes appeared on TV in such series as Naked City, The Secret Storm, Blossom and Homicide: Life on the Street. In 1973, he had a notable recurring role on All in the Family as a Roman Catholic priest, Father John Majeski, doing battle with Archie Bunker, and won an Emmy for his portrayal of a senile judge on Lou Grant. Hughes made 3 appearances in The Bob Newhart Show as the father of Dr. Robert Hartley. He was the central character in three sitcoms: Doc, which ran on CBS from 1975–77, where he played a physician; Mr. Merlin, in which he played Merlin, a magician mentoring a 20th-century teenager; and The Cavanaughs, co-starring Christine Ebersole, where he played the family patriarch (Art Carney, playing his brother, and Glynis Johns made guest appearances). Hughes sang Danny Boy on one episode. He made a memorable appearance as The King (with Jim Dale as The Duke) in the PBS mini-series Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Hughes also made a number of recurring appearances on daytime dramas including Guiding Light and As the World Turns as well as a brief appearance in an early episode of Dark Shadows. He also did voice-overs for television commercials advertising Kix cereal.

Stage productions[link]

• "Osgood Meeker" in the Broadway production of Noël Coward's little-known play Waiting in the Wings, directed by Michael Langham (this was Barnard Hughes' last stage role)
• "Old Man" in the Broadway production of Prelude to a Kiss, directed by Norman René
• Polonius to Stacy Keach's Hamlet
• Marcellus in Richard Burton's 1964 Hamlet
• Dogberry in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Much Ado About Nothing
• Harry Hope in the 1985 Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh directed by José Quintero
• Uncle Vanya (directed by Mike Nichols)
• A Doll's House
• Hogan's Goat (Off-Broadway)
• Three Sisters
• The Devil's Disciple
• Translations

References[link]

External links[link]

• Barnard Hughes at the Internet Movie Database
• Barnard Hughes at the Internet Broadway Database
• Barnard Hughes at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Barnard Hughes at AllRovi

Gerard McMahon (aka Gerard McMann and G Tom Mac) (born Gerard Thomas MacMahon, of Irish/English parentage, in Birmingham, England) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer who specialises in creating music for films and TV. McMahon is also the founder member of the band G TOM MAC.

Whilst McMahon has undertaken many different musical projects throughout his career, he is probably still best known by many for the gothic rock anthem "Cry Little Sister", a song which he recorded in 1987 for the soundtrack album of the cult horror film The Lost Boys.

The early years[link]

Gerard McMahon, who lists amongst his musical influences Liam Mullen, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder and Stravinsky, emigrated with his family from England to America when he was 11 years of age. Initially moving to New York, a few years later the MacMahons moved again, eventually settling in Wichita, Kansas.

"When I was there I started learning guitar and the bass, and realising I had a voice, I started a band which played in clubs all over the Midwest"

—Gerard McMahon ^[1]

McMahon was only 16 years of age at the time. Despite his young age, McMahon, together with his band, The Strangers, recorded one single before disbanding.

After The Strangers disbanded, McMahon moved to Boulder, Colorado and took a job arranging classes at the University.^[2]

In 1971 however, McMahon moved to New York to pursue a performing career. His first gigs were playing bass and guitar in R&B bands in Harlem.^[1] However, being a versatile multi-instrumentalist, McMahon was soon receiving additional offers of work as a session musician. It was in this capacity that he provided backing vocals at Electric Lady Studios in New York, on the last Zephyr album to feature wunderkind guitarist Tommy Bolin - Going Back to Colorado.^[3][4]

In addition to gigging and studio session work, McMahon also became involved around this time in creating music for TV commercials. He also created a number of scores for Public Broadcasting Service projects.^[5]

McMahon spent 1972 living in Los Angeles, where his experience of studio and production work quickly established him a well-respected member of the city's music scene. Soon he was to be found playing bass with Jackson Browne's touring band. It wasn't too long however before McMahon concluded that it would be more rewarding to promote his own solo career and headed back to Colorado.

After returning to Boulder, McMahon got together with a group of ten studio musicians and fronted what was to become one of the most popular rock bands in Colorado at the time - Gerard.^[5]

"After attending a concert one evening that showcased Tommy Bolin, Chicago producer Jim Guercio walked out mesmerized by Gerard's opening set"

—G.Brown, author, Colorado Rocks!: A Half-Century of Music in Colorado ^[5]

Having much admiration for McMahon and his band, Guercio offered the band a deal to record an album at his newly built Caribou Ranch, a popular recording studio subsequently favoured by many prominent artists.

"Next thing I knew, we were moving to Nederland to record an album. Jimmy owned a smaller ranch nearby called Forest Lakes, so he let us live there. It had a couple cabins, a dining hall, and a building we turned into a rehearsal room."

—Tom Likes, Gerard ^[6]

The resultant album, produced by Guercio himself, was the appropriately titled Gerard.^[7] It was released in 1976 on Guercio's Caribou Records label. There did, however, seem to be one downside to this union, seemingly echoed in McMahon's frustration with the music press at that time, in so far as every review of Gerard's album, an album for which he had written twelve original songs, compared his music to that of Chicago's.^[5] Although the album done well, it never broke nationally.^[5]

A second Gerard album was to follow (?), Row, before the group disbanded.^[8][9] After which McMahon decided to return to Los Angeles.

The next three years saw McMahon again partaking in a number of different musical projects and continuing to lend his services as a session musician. One of the projects he undertook at that time was to play keyboards on ex-Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Jimmy Ibbotson 1977 Nitty Gritty Ibbotson album.^[10] He is also listed amongst the credits for Max Gronenthal's 1979 album Whistling in the Dark.^[11]

1980 - 1999[link]

McMahon's song Is That You was the first track on Kiss' Unmasked (1980).

Encouraged by Billy Joel's former manager Irwin Mazur, in 1980 McMahon decided to promote his own recording career. He assembled a group of accomplished musicians - Gary Mallaber, John Massaro, Kenny Lewis and two of the musicians he had engaged for Gerard, guitarist Steve Sykes and keyboard player Al Campbell - collectively called Kid Lightning, returned to the studio and recorded the album Blue Rue.^[12] After the album was completed, McMahon's band was dropped from Columbia Records.

Invited to Los Angeles by Warner Bros. for a showcase, McMahon quickly impressed Hollywood's film elite - David Geffen, Joel Schumacher, Cameron Crowe, Jerry Bruckheimer.^[1] Already experienced in major TV commercials, McMahon began film work.^[13] McMahon wrote and recorded seven songs for film producer Jerry Bruckheimer's film Defiance.^[14]

"Gerard's a triple threat, he's a writer, he's a producer and he's a performer...it's very difficult to find someone to deliver all that"

—Nigel Sinclair, Producer – Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ^[15]

McMahon is known to have said that writing songs for films and TV shows was a "great new creative outlet" ^[16]

During the '80s, McMahon wrote songs for such films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Spring Break, All the Right Moves, The Lonely Guy, Grandview, U.S.A. and Hardbodies, among others.

McMahon's next album, No Looking Back was released by Warner Bros. in 1983, after which McMahon signed with the Atlantic Records label and in 1986 released Foreign Papers.

McMahon scored a hit in 1986 with "Cry Little Sister".

"Cry Little Sister"[link]

G TOM MAC[link]

McMahon recorded another album 2000 for Edge Artists.^[17] To record and promote the album, McMahon formed a new band, G TOM MAC, with bassist, songwriter and co-producer Anthony Silver.

McMahon and Silver added Rodney "Cortada" Alejandro on keyboards, drummer Rob Ladd (from the band The Pressure Boys), Willy Aron (lead guitar) and Brie Darling (from the band Boxing Gandhis) on backing vocals and percussion for live performances.^[16]

The band planned a 2008 tour to promote their second album, Thou Shalt Not Fall (2007).

McMahon continues to be involved in a number of other musical projects, plus film and TV work.

Pseudonyms[link]

Since McMahon has been known under a number of different names, much confusion has arisen over the years about his identity.^[18]

The first pseudonym McMahon adopted, 'Gerard McMann', was just prior to the release of his album Foreign Papers in 1986. Of this he is reported to have said:

"When I would go out and do interviews on the radio or TV, it seems everybody was pronouncing my name in many different ways, except the correct way. So I thought it would make more sense to spell it out the way that is it pronounced."

—Gerard McMahon ^[16]

"Cry Little Sister", the song McMahon performed in 1987 for the soundtrack of the film The Lost Boys was therefore credited to Gerard McMann.

When his father died, he reverted back to McMahon.^[16]

However, since forming G Tom Mac, "Gerard Thomas MacMahon" (the correct Irish spelling of McMahon) has become known to his new audience as 'G Tom Mac'. He is also known to use this name professionally. Consequently most of the writing and performance credits since G Tom Mac was formed in 2000 are often to be found listed under this name.

McMahon is sometimes also referred to as "G", a nickname given to him by his friend Roger Daltrey.^[16]

Other artists[link]

McMahon's multi faceted talents, his diversity in music and songwriting continue to be recognised by other artists^[who?] throughout the music industry. The following are just a few of the many artists not mentioned elsewhere in this article who are also known to have recorded his songs:^[13]

• Roger Daltrey

McMahon contributed greatly to The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey's 1992 solo album Rocks in the Head. In addition to co-writing 10 of the 11 songs, McMahon also produced the album for Daltrey. He was also the primary backing musician, providing backing vocals, keyboards and guitar. He is further credited on the album with musical direction.^[19]

• Carly Simon

McMahon co-wrote the hit single "Give Me All Night" with Carly Simon, which peaked at #5 in the charts and appears on her Coming Around Again album (1987).^[20]

• Chicago

McMahon co-wrote "What Does It Take", "One from the Heart" and "Only Time Can Heal the Wounded" which appear on Chicago's Twenty 1 album (1991). McMahon also co-wrote "I Stand Up", the b-side to the single "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love", which peaked at #3 in the billboard charts in June 1988. "I Stand Up" appears on Chicago's Chicago 19 album (1988).^[21]

• Tavares

McMahon wrote the hit single "Bad Times" which appears on Tavares' Supercharged album (1980). (This was also the theme song for the film Defiance).^[22]

• Robert Lamm

McMahon wrote "Life In Motion" which appears on the collaborative Beckley-Lamm-Wilson album Like A Brother (2000) (being the last album recorded by Carl Wilson before his death).^[23] McMahon also co-wrote "Ain't No Ordinary Thing" and "In This Country" for Lamm's Life Is Good in My Neighborhood album (1995)^[24] and "The Love You Call Your Own" for Lamm's In My Head album (1999).^[25]

• The Spinners

McMahon wrote "Put Us Together Again" which was released as a single by The Spinners in 1985.^[26]

• Phoebe Snow

McMahon co-wrote "The Other Girlfriend" which appears on Snow's Natural Wonder album (2003).^[27] He also wrote "Right to the End", which she performed with Michael McDonald for her I Can't Complain album (1998).^[28]

• Vonda Shepard

McMahon co-wrote "Wake Up the House" which appears on Shepard's The Radical Light album (1992).^[29]

• Digable Planets

The Digable Planets sampled McMahon's song "Bad Times" on their "Dial 7 (Axion of Creamy Spies)" single. The song peaked at #32 in the Hot Rap Singles charts and appears on the Digable Planets' Blowout Comb album (1994).^[30]

• The Temptations

The Temptations also decided to cover McMahon's song "Put Us Together Again", previously released as a single by The Spinners. The Temptations' version appears on the To Be Continued... album (1986).^[31]

• Terry Reid

McMahon wrote and produced "Right to the End" for Reid's The Driver album (1991).^[32]

• Angela Bofill

McMahon wrote "Love You Too Much" which appears on Bofill's Too Tough album (1983).^[33]

• Stan Harrison

McMahon co-wrote and produced "Living Every Day Now" which appears on Harrison's The Optimist album (2007).^[34]

• Ronnie Spector

McMahon wrote "True to You" which appears on Spector's Unfinished Business album (1987).^[35]

Discography[link]

Gerard McMahon discography

Song list (Film and TV)[link]

All the following songs are written and performed by Gerard McMahon unless otherwise stated:

Further works[link]

McMahon has also contributed to all the following films and TV shows:

• Rude Awakening (1989) (Music Arranger)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) (Music Editor) ^[58]
• "Greatest Days on Earth" Party of Five - song ^[59]
• "Quiver of 19" Felicity - song ^[59]
• "Happy Time" Jack & Jill - song ^[59]
• Charmed
• Dawson's Creek
• Ed
• Baywatch
• Crossing Jordan
• My So-Called Life
• Providence
• Passions
• The $treet
• Countdown
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer

References[link]

External links[link]

• G TOM MAC official site

Brad Sullivan (November 18, 1931 – December 31, 2008) was an American actor known for character roles in television and on film and stage.

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Bradford E. Sullivan^[1] served in the Korean War and then attended the University of Maine.^[2] After touring with a stage company,^[2] he moved to New York City and studied at the American Theatre Wing. He made his Off-Broadway debut in Red Roses for Me in 1961, and went on to appear in the London, England company of the musical South Pacific.^[3]

In the 1960s and early 1970s, he appeared in two productions of the New York Shakespeare Festival — Coriolanus at Central Park's Delacorte Theatre (1965), and Václav Havel's The Memorandum — and the David Newbburge-Jacques Urbont musical Stag Movie (1971).^[4]

In 1972, he made his movie debut in the military drama Parades (1972; re-released as The Line, 1980). This was followed by an appearance in a CBS TV-movie adaptation of David Rabe Sticks and Bones, a black comedy about a Vietnam War veteran. The subject matter proved so controversial that half the network's affiliates refused to broadcast the telefilm.^[5]

Success as character actor[link]

Sullivan was then featured prominently in director George Roy Hill's hit The Sting (1973), playing Cole, the hired killer who dogs the Robert Redford and Paul Newman characters.

Following roles in the acclaimed telefilm The Migrants (1974) and other productions, Sullivan reteamed with star Newman and director Hill for Slap Shot, a hit comedy about a down-and-out hockey team. In a departure from the stoic, taciturn parts in which he was often cast, Sullivan played a spectacularly vulgar hockey player, Morris "Mo" Wanchuk.

He followed this with his Broadway debut, playing three different military officers in a revival of David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (April–September 1977), starring Al Pacino.^[6] The following year, Sullivan earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical^[7] for his performance as steelworker Mike LeFevre in Working (May–June 1978), adapted from the book by Studs Terkel and also starring Patti LuPone and Joe Mantegna.^[8]

Sullivan's other feature film credits include The Island (1980); Ghost Story (1981); Barry Levinson's Tin Men (1987); Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987); the comedy Funny Farm (1988); James Cameron's The Abyss (1989); True Colors (1991), Barbra Streisand's The Prince of Tides (1991); Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993); Michael Ritchie's The Fantasticks (made 1995, released 2000), based on the Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical; Michael Moore's fiction feature, Canadian Bacon (1995); and the comedy Bushwhacked (1995).

On television, Sullivan portrayed Artemas Ward in the 1984 miniseries George Washington, and Judge Roy Bean in the 1991 television movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. Additional television credits include Miami Vice, The Equalizer, Against the Law, and Best of the West. He also had recurring roles on I'll Fly Away, as Mr. Zollicofer Weed, the ex-Marine turned wrestling coach, and NYPD Blue, as Patsy Ferrara. As a cast-member of the drama Nothing Sacred (1997–1998), he played Father Leo, the older priest who helps guide his younger colleagues. His final TV role was on a 2000 episode of Law & Order.

His theater work includes Michael Weller's The Ballad of Soapy Smith (1984) and Neal Bell's Cold Sweat (1988) Off-Broadway;^[4] and, on Broadway, Beth Henley's The Wake of Jamey Foster (October 1982), with Holly Hunter; a Circle in the Square revival of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (May–November 1983); Peter Hall's revival of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending (September–December 1989), as Jabe Torrance opposite Vanessa Redgrave's Lady Torrance (both recreating their roles in the TNT cable network's adaptation, Orpheus Descending; and a stage version of the movie On the Waterfront (May 1995).

Personal[link]

Sullivan retired in 2000. He lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He died December 31, 2008 from liver cancer.^[9]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Brad Sullivan at the Internet Movie Database

Warren William Zevon /ˈziːvɒn/ (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.

Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known musicians, including Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young.^[1] His best-known compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and "Johnny Strikes Up The Band," all of which are featured on his third album, Excitable Boy (1978). Other well-known songs written by Zevon have been recorded by other artists, including "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" (a top 40 hit by Linda Ronstadt), "Accidentally Like a Martyr," "Mohammed's Radio", "Carmelita", and "Hasten Down the Wind".

Along with his own compositions, Zevon recorded or performed occasional covers, including Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan". He was a frequent guest on Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with David Letterman. Letterman later performed guest vocals on "Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)" with Paul Shaffer and members of the CBS Orchestra on Warren Zevon's "My Ride Is Here" album.

Early life[link]

Zevon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Beverly Cope (Simmons) and William Zevon. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia, and his original surname was "Zivotovsky"; his mother was from a Mormon family.^[2][3][4] They moved to Fresno, California. By the age of thirteen, Zevon was an occasional visitor to the home of Igor Stravinsky where he, alongside Robert Craft, briefly studied modern classical music. Zevon's parents divorced when he was 16 years old and he soon quit high school and moved from Los Angeles to New York to become a folk singer.^{[citation needed]}

Zevon turned to a musical career early, including a stretch with high school friend Violet Santangelo as a musical duo called lyme & cybelle (exercising artistic license, the band name eschewed capitalization).^{[citation needed]} He spent time as a session musician and jingle composer. He wrote several songs for his White Whale label-mates the Turtles ("Like the Seasons" and "Outside Chance"), though his participation in their recording is unknown.^{[citation needed]} Another early composition ("She Quit Me") was included in the soundtrack for the film Midnight Cowboy (1969). (To suit its place in the film, the song was re-recorded as the female-centric "He Quit Me.") Zevon's first attempt at a solo album, Wanted Dead or Alive (1969), was produced by 1960s cult figure Kim Fowley but did not sell well. Flashes of Zevon's later writing preoccupations of romantic loss and noir-ish violence are present in songs like "Tule's Blues" and "A Bullet for Ramona". Zevon's second effort, Leaf in the Wind, was called by his son, Jordan, "A bullshit money grab by the label".^{[citation needed]}

During the early 1970s, Zevon toured regularly with the Everly Brothers as keyboard player and band leader/musical coordinator.^{[citation needed]} Later during the same decade he toured and recorded with Don Everly and Phil Everly, separately, as they tried to launch solo careers after their break-up. His dissatisfaction with his career (and a lack of funds) led him to move to Spain in the summer of 1975, where he lived and played in The Dubliner Bar, a small tavern in Sitges near Barcelona owned by David Lindell, a former mercenary. Together they composed "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner".^{[citation needed]}

Return to L.A. and major-label debut[link]

By September 1975, Zevon had returned to Los Angeles, where he roomed with then-unknown Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. There, he collaborated with Jackson Browne, who in 1976 produced and promoted Zevon's self-titled major-label debut. Contributors to this album included Nicks, Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, members of the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and Bonnie Raitt. Ronstadt elected to record many of his songs, including "Hasten Down the Wind," "Carmelita", "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", and "Mohammed's Radio." Zevon's first tour in 1977 included guest appearances in the middle of Jackson Browne concerts, one of which is documented on a widely circulated bootleg recording of a Dutch radio program under the title The Offender meets the Pretender.

Though a much darker and more ironic songwriter than Browne and other leading figures of the era's L.A.-based singer-songwriter movement, Zevon shared with his 1970s L.A. peers a grounding in earlier folk and country influences and a commitment to a writerly style of songcraft with roots in the work of artists like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Though only a modest commercial success, the Browne-produced Warren Zevon (1976) would later be termed a masterpiece in the first edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide and is cited in the book's most recently revised (November 2004) edition as Zevon's most realized work. Representative tracks include the junkie's lament "Carmelita," the Copland-esque outlaw ballad "Frank and Jesse James," "The French Inhaler," a scathing insider's look at life and lust in the L.A. music business (which was, in fact about his first wife and mother to his son Jordan) and "Desperados Under the Eaves", a chronicle of Zevon's increasing alcoholism.

Success[link]

Zevon touring solo in Heidelberg as the opener for Jackson Browne, 1976

In 1978, Zevon released Excitable Boy (produced by Jackson Browne and guitarist Waddy Wachtel) to critical acclaim and popular success. The title tune (about a juvenile sociopath's murderous prom night) name-checked "Little Susie", the heroine of former employers the Everly Brothers' tune "Wake Up Little Susie", while songs such as "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money" used deadpan humor to wed geopolitical subtexts to hard-boiled narratives. Tracks from this album received heavy FM airplay and the single release "Werewolves of London", which featured Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, was a relatively lighthearted version of Zevon's signature macabre outlook and a Top 30 success.

Critic Dave Marsh, in The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979), called Zevon "one of the toughest rockers ever to come out of Southern California".^[5]:427 Rolling Stone called the album one of the most significant releases of the 1970s and placed him alongside Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen as one of the four most important new artists to emerge in the decade.

Zevon followed Excitable Boy with 1980's Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School. This album was dedicated to Ken Millar, better known under his nom-de-plume as detective novelist Ross Macdonald. Millar was a literary hero of Zevon's who met the singer for the first time while participating in an intervention organized by Rolling Stone journalist Paul Nelson that helped Zevon temporarily curtail his addictions. Featuring a modest hit with the single "A Certain Girl" (Zevon's cover of a R&B record by Ernie K-Doe scored #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart), the album sold briskly but was uneven, and represented a decline rather than commercial and critical consistency. It contained a collaboration with Bruce Springsteen called "Jeannie Needs a Shooter", and the ballad "Empty-Handed Heart" featuring a descant sung by Linda Ronstadt, which dealt with Zevon's divorce from wife Crystal. (Crystal is the only woman he married legally although she is often listed erroneously as his "second wife".^[6] Marilyn "Tule" Livingston, the mother of his son Jordan, and Zevon were in a long-term relationship but never married.) Later during 1980, he released the live album Stand in the Fire (dedicated to Martin Scorsese), recorded over five nights at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles.

Personal crisis and first comeback[link]

Zevon's 1982 release The Envoy returned to the high standard of Excitable Boy but was not a commercial success.^[7] It was an eclectic but characteristic set that included such compositions as "Ain't That Pretty at All," "Charlie's Medicine" and "Jesus Mentioned," the first of Zevon's two musical reactions to the death of Elvis Presley (the other is the song "Porcelain Monkey" on Life'll Kill Ya in 2000). The title track was dedicated to Philip Habib, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East during the early 1980s. In the liner notes for the 1996 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead anthology, Zevon stated that after the song came out, Habib sent him "a very nice letter of appreciation on State Department stationery". The lyrics from another track, "The Hula Hula Boys," were excerpted in Hunter S. Thompson's 1983 book, The Curse of Lono.

In 1983, the recently divorced Zevon became engaged to Philadelphia DJ Anita Gevinson and moved to the East Coast.^[8] After the disappointing reception for The Envoy, Zevon's distributor Asylum Records ended their business relationship, which Zevon discovered only when he read about it in the Random Notes gossip column of Rolling Stone. The trauma allegedly caused him to relapse into serious alcoholism and he voluntarily checked himself into an unnamed rehab clinic somewhere in Minnesota in 1984. His relationship with Gevinson ended shortly thereafter.^[8] Zevon retreated from the music business for several years, during which he finally overcame severe alcohol and drug addictions.

During this interim period, Zevon collaborated with Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills (of R.E.M.), along with backup vocalist Bryan Cook to form a minor project called Hindu Love Gods. The group released the non-charting single "Narrator" on the IRS label in 1984, then went into abeyance for several years.

Berry, Buck and Mills served as the core of Zevon's next studio band when he re-emerged in 1987 by signing with Virgin Records and recording the album Sentimental Hygiene. The release, hailed as his best since Excitable Boy, featured a thicker rock sound and taut, often humorous songs like "Detox Mansion," "Bad Karma" (which featured R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe on backup vocals), and "Reconsider Me." Included were contributions from Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Flea, Brian Setzer, George Clinton, as well as Berry, Buck, and Mills. Also on hand were longtime collaborators Jorge Calderón and Waddy Wachtel.

During the Sentimental Hygiene sessions, Zevon also participated in an all-night jam session with Berry, Buck and Mills, as they worked their way through rock and blues numbers by the likes of Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and Prince. Though the sessions were not initially intended for release, they eventually saw the light of day as a Hindu Love Gods album.

The immediate follow-up to Sentimental Hygiene was 1989's Transverse City, a futuristic concept album inspired by Zevon's interest in the work of cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson. It featured guests including Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward, Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady, keyboard player Chick Corea and guitarists Jerry Garcia, Jorma Kaukonen, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Neil Young. Key tracks include the title song, "Splendid Isolation," "Run Straight Down" (which had a promotional video that featured Zevon singing in a factory while Gilmour played his guitar solos) and "They Moved the Moon," the latter among Zevon's eerier ballads.

Later years and second comeback[link]

Transverse City was a commercial disappointment, and Virgin Records ended its relationship with Zevon soon after the album's release. Zevon, however, contracted almost immediately with Giant Records, and the first issue under Zevon's contract with his new distributor was the self-titled Hindu Love Gods album recorded during the Sentimental Hygiene sessions. The album included a cover of Prince's "Raspberry Beret", which became a #23 Modern Rock hit in the U.S.

In 1991, Zevon, once again a solo artist, released Mr. Bad Example. This album featured the modest pop hit "Searching for a Heart" and the rocker "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead", later utilized for the title of the neo-noir film of the same name directed by Gary Fleder; after some skirmishing over the unauthorized use of Zevon's song title, the Zevon track was licensed to play over the film's end credits. Zevon also sang lead vocals on the song "Casey Jones" from the Grateful Dead tribute album, Deadicated (although the cut is credited to regular collaborator David Lindley).

Zevon toured the United States (with the Odds), Europe, and Australia and New Zealand during this period.

Owing to his reduced circumstances, his performances were often true solo efforts (with minimal accompaniment on piano and guitar); 1993's live Learning to Flinch documents such a tour. The disc received some airplay on college radio and was considered Zevon's version of Unplugged. Zevon often played in Colorado to allow for an opportunity to visit with his long-time friend Hunter S. Thompson.

A lifelong fan of "hard-boiled" fiction, Zevon was friendly with several well-known writers who also collaborated on his songwriting during this period, including Thompson, Carl Hiaasen and Mitch Albom. Zevon also served as musical coordinator and occasional guitarist for an ad-hoc rock music group called the Rock Bottom Remainders, a collection of writers performing rock and roll standards at book fairs and other events. This group included Stephen King, Dave Barry, Matt Groening and Amy Tan, among other popular writers, and it has continued to perform one benefit concert per year since Zevon's death.

An affiliated project for which Zevon both played and wrote liner notes is the offbeat 1998 album Stranger Than Fiction, a two CD set attributed to the Wrockers containing rock covers and originals by many of the Remainders authors plus such notables as Norman Mailer and Maya Angelou. Zevon oversaw music for the short-lived revival of the NBC series Route 66 (1993), contributing that series' main title theme, "If You Won't Leave Me I'll Find Somebody Who Will". His music was also featured in several of William Shatner's TekWar movies from 1994 to 1996 (he is listed as "theme music composer" in the opening credits, and his song "Real or Not" was used as the show's theme song.)

Occasionally, between 1982 and 2001, Zevon filled in for Paul Shaffer as bandleader on Late Night with David Letterman and later Late Show with David Letterman. One example was in 1998 when Shaffer traveled to Canada to film his cameo in Blues Brothers 2000.

In 1995, Zevon released the self-produced Mutineer. The title track was frequently covered by Bob Dylan on his U.S. Fall Tour in 2002.^[9] Zevon's cover of cult artist Judee Sill's "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" predated the wider rediscovery of her work a decade later. The album, however, suffered the worst sales of Zevon's career, in part because his label, superagent Irving Azoff's short-lived Giant Records, was in the process of going out of business. Rhino Records released a Zevon "best-of" compilation in 1996, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (An Anthology). Zevon also appeared on the Larry Sanders Show on HBO, in 1993, playing himself as a guest on the show, promoting Learning to Flinch. (Ironically, he and actor John Ritter, who guest starred on the same episode, died within four days of each other in September of 2003.) Zevon also played himself on two episodes of Suddenly Susan in 1999 along with singer/actor Rick Springfield.

After another five-year layoff, Zevon signed with industry veteran Danny Goldberg's Artemis Records and again rebounded with the mortality-themed 2000 release Life'll Kill Ya, containing the hymn-like "Don't Let Us Get Sick" and an austere version of Steve Winwood's 1980s hit "Back in the High Life Again". With record sales reasonably brisk and music critics giving Zevon his best notices since Excitable Boy, Life'll Kill Ya is seen as his second comeback. He followed with 2002's My Ride's Here (with morbid prescience of things to come), which included "Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)" (which was co-written by Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom, and featured Paul Shaffer, the "Late Night" band and a spoken guest vocal from TV host David Letterman) and the ballad "Genius", later taken as the title for a 2002 Zevon anthology, and a song whose string section illustrates the lasting influence of Stravinsky on Zevon's work.

At about this time, he and his neighbor actor Billy Bob Thornton formed a close friendship catalyzed by their common experiences with obsessive-compulsive disorder and the fact they lived in the same apartment building.^[6]

[edit] Cancer, death and The Wind

In interviews, Zevon described a lifelong phobia of doctors and said he seldom received medical assessment. Shortly before playing at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in 2002, he started feeling dizzy and developed a chronic cough. After a period of suffering with pain and shortness of breath, Zevon was encouraged by his dentist to see a physician; he was diagnosed with inoperable peritoneal mesothelioma (a form of cancer associated with exposure to asbestos). Refusing treatments he believed might incapacitate him, Zevon instead began recording his final album, The Wind which includes guest appearances by close friends including Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh, David Lindley, Billy Bob Thornton, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty, Dwight Yoakam, and others. It has been said that the decision to include "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was his, much to the dismay of the others in the project. At the request of the music television channel VH1, documentarian Nick Read was given access to the sessions; his cameras documented a man who retained his mordant sense of humor, even as his health was deteriorating over time.

On October 30, 2002, Zevon was featured on the Late Show with David Letterman as the only guest for the entire hour. The band played "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" as his introduction. Zevon performed several songs and spoke at length about his illness. Zevon was a frequent guest and occasional substitute bandleader on Letterman's television shows since Late Night was first broadcast in 1982. He noted, "I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." It was during this broadcast that, when asked by Letterman if he knew something more about life and death now, he first offered his oft-quoted insight on dying: "Enjoy every sandwich." He also took time to thank Letterman for his years of support, calling him "the best friend my music's ever had". For his final song of the evening, and his final public performance, Zevon performed "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" at Letterman's request. In the green room after the show, Zevon presented Letterman with the guitar that he always used on the show, with a single request: "Here, I want you to have this, take good care of it."^[10] The day after Zevon's death, Letterman paid tribute to Zevon by replaying his performance of Mutineer from his last appearance. The Late Show band played Zevon's songs throughout the night.

Zevon stated previously that his illness was expected to be terminal within months after the diagnosis in the fall of 2002; however, he lived to see the birth of twin grandsons in June 2003 and the release of The Wind on August 26, 2003. Owing in part to the first VH1 broadcasts of Nick Read's documentary Warren Zevon: Keep Me In Your Heart, the album reached number 16 on the US charts, Zevon's highest placement since Excitable Boy. When his diagnosis became public, Zevon told the media that he just hoped to live long enough to see the next James Bond movie, a goal he accomplished. Coincidentally, the film was titled Die Another Day.

Warren Zevon died on September 7, 2003, aged 56, at his home in Los Angeles, California. The Wind was certified gold by the RIAA in December 2003 and Zevon received five posthumous Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year for the ballad "Keep Me In Your Heart". The Wind won two Grammys, with the album itself receiving the award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, while "Disorder in the House", Zevon's duet with Bruce Springsteen, was awarded Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. These posthumous awards were the first Grammys of Zevon's thirty-plus year career. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles.

Posthumous releases and biographical works[link]

A tribute album titled Enjoy Every Sandwich: Songs of Warren Zevon was released October 19, 2004. Zevon's son, Jordan Zevon, acting as executive producer on the album and performing "Studebaker", a previously unfinished Warren Zevon composition. A second tribute album, titled Hurry Home Early: the Songs of Warren Zevon (the line "hurry home early" from the song "Boom Boom Mancini", on Sentimental Hygiene) was released by Wampus Multimedia on July 8, 2005.

On February 14, 2006, VH1 Classic premiered a music video from a new compilation, Reconsider Me: The Love Songs. The video, titled "She's Too Good For Me", aired every hour on the hour throughout the day.

First and last issues of the Zevon albums Stand in the Fire and The Envoy were released on March 27, 2007 by Rhino Records alongside a Rhino re-issue of Excitable Boy, with the three Cd's having four unreleased bonus tracks each. Noteworthy rarities include the outtakes "Word of Mouth" and "The Risk" from the Envoy sessions, and "Frozen Notes (Strings Version)", a melancholy outtake from Excitable Boy performed on acoustic piano with a string quartet. Also included on the expanded Excitable Boy CD is the brief but hilarious "I Need A Truck", Zevon's first-ever a cappella studio release.

On May 1, 2007, Ammal Records, the new label started up as a partnership with New West Records by Zevon's former boss at Artemis Danny Goldberg, released Preludes - Rare and Unreleased Recordings, a two-disc anthology of Zevon demos and alternate versions culled from 126 pre-1976 recordings that were kept in a suitcase. The album contains five previously unreleased songs: "Empty Hearted Town", "Going All the Way", "Steady Rain", "Stop Rainin` Lord" and "The Rosarita Beach Cafe", along with Zevon's original demo for "Studebaker". Selections from an interview between Zevon and Austin-based radio personality Jody Denberg are blended with about 40 minutes of music on the collection's second disc.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, a biography/oral history compiled by ex-wife Crystal Zevon, was published in 2007 by Ecco Books. The book is made up of interwoven interviews from many of Zevon's friends and associates, and is notable for its unvarnished portrayal of Zevon (at his request).

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Live albums[link]

Compilations[link]