An unwritten law of physics: Every town on this planet worth its salt has an Irish pub.
A fellow literate reprobate, Killer (no, really), is in the throes of Crystal Zevon’s I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life & Times Of Warren Zevon. He reports back with the following anecdotes about where a couple of Zevon’s songs came from.
In May 1975, with $480 dollars, Warren and his wife moved to Spain for about three months and ended up in Sitges. Once there, they found themselves in a bar called the Dubliner where the owner was an American ex-soldier of fortune named David Lindell. They become regulars, befriend David Lindell and Warren starts playing guitar there for spare change, drinks and food. One day Warren and David are bored and next thing you know, Warren and David have co-written a song: “Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner” is born. Check out David Lindell’s card (attached).
Wait, there’s more. There’s always more.
In the early ’70s Warren was the bandleader for the Everly Brothers touring band. He gets friendly with Phil. Phil likes to stay up late and watch old movies. One day Phil dares Warren to write a new dance craze song using the title from a 1930 movie called “Werewolf Of London.” Warren goes over to a friend’s house and tells him Phil’s challenge. The friend happens to have a guitar riff he’s been sitting on for a year with nowhere to put it. Another friend stops by. After some chemical and alcohol inducement, they decide to each write a verse. The whole song was written in 10 – 15 minutes. None of them think anything of it. It is done completely as a goof based on a challenge from Phil, so no one records it, writes anything down or plans to do anything with it. Just three guys killing time in the afternoon. When Warren’s wife tells them it’s a hit song, they look at her askance and say if she likes it so much she should write it down! Luckily she happened to have some paper handy. Otherwise, the song may have disappeared into the ether that day.
Who doesn’t like a nice Warren Zevon story in honor of St. Patrick’s Day? Erin Go Bragh! I’m Happy For To See You Home, Hurroo Hurroo!
Good stuff. I never knew any of this! Thanks for sharing it.