Search - Warren Zevon :: Life'll Kill Ya

Almost a prediction of what was coming.

A. Kataryniak | NJ | 08/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hadn't heard this album until much after Warren's last album, The Wind. Inspired by the book "Dirty Life and Times" I have since gone back and poured through his entire catalog. Its amazing to hear this album now that Warren is gone and hear how much of it relates to what was on the horizon for him at the time. (His battle with cancer) In the book, Crystal Zevon relates how at least the last song (Don't let us get Sick) was penned by Warren in direct reference to his illness, but a song like "Back in the High Life" is just wierd. Its recorded almost as a sad version compared to Winwood's original and it basically forsees the end of Warren's life as it was thrust back into the spotlight on a very sad note.



"Dirty Little Religion" probably didn't have as much insight when it first came out either. I don't believe much of Warren's sexual exploits were all spelled out before hand like they were later in the book.



"Life'll Kill Ya" is so ironic that Warren is probably still laughing about it somewhere.



"Fistfull of Rain" and "Ourselves to Know" are 2 very well written songs. They represent a more positive and hopeful vain but aspects of them are relevant to the fact that Warren would only live a few more years although he didn't know it at the time.



The album on a whole is great but its impossible to describe it all in one sense. "I was in the house.." and "For my Next Trick.." are classic Zevon. They move well with a great sound and the lyrics just give you an image that no one else can. The first 5 tracks are like Warren's signature. It couldn't be any one else.



"Hostage-O" is the strangest song on the album. Its sort of creepy in a way even bordering on disturbed. Still its not like I can't listen to it. I think it represents another aspect of his troubled life that we all learned about more only after his passing."

Life'll Kill Ya

Kennard V. Wilson | Albuquerque, NM USA | 05/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"He definitely knew what he was talking about!!! ;-) One of his better albums. As always, his lyrics are great. My favorites are "I was in the house when the house burned down, Life'll kill ya, and Dirty Little Religion.""

For this trick, he needs no volunteers

J. L LaRegina | New Jersey | 06/16/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Those who know every Warren Zevon record will note his LIFE'LL KILL YA is the only one where the cover photo shows him smiling, looking even approachable. On his other album covers, Zevon appears distant, if not unfriendly.



LIFE'LL KILL YA is the second Warren Zevon post-five year layoff comeback record. His first, 1987's SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE, is a great C.D., boasting guest musicians such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Brian Setzer, Don Henley, and members of R.E.M. and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. The 2000 release LIFE'LL KILL YA is Warren Zevon on everything save the drums & percussion of Winston Watson and the superb bass played by long-time Zevon collaborator Jorge Calderón. In FLAK magazine S. B. Kleinman says of LIFE'LL KILL YA, "it's by far the sparest studio album [Warren Zevon]'s ever made," and that holds true through the final two Zevon albums, 2002's MY RIDE'S HERE and 2003's THE WIND.



I think Warren Zevon smiles as he does on the LIFE'LL KILL YA cover because he knows this music is as memorable as anything he's done, restrained arrangements notwithstanding and maybe part of his plan. Limiting musical layers, Zevon lets the tunes command the toe-taps while the lyrics, as witty as but more lucid than you expect, reach you. But while his '87 comeback SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE got radio airplay and sold reasonably well, LIFE'LL KILL YA did not catch on; although I followed Warren Zevon since the late 1970s, I was not even aware of this C.D. when it came out in 2000. The only LIFE'LL KILL YA song I've heard in public is "Fistful of Rain," which the N.P.R. interview program ON POINT uses its opening once per day when coming out of a break. My review of LIFE'LL KILL YA is but the ninth on this web site. The public missed a gem.



Not that one can rate art like CONSUMER REPORTS magazine does appliances, but if you have not heard any Warren Zevon C.D.s, LIFE'LL KILL YA is as good a place to start as even WARREN ZEVON or EXCITABLE BOY, the two titles his fans would probably name as his best.



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