The Wind
Warren Zevon
Bruce Springsteen, Ry Cooder, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Joe Walsh, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty
Artemis Records, 2003
1 CD
Catalogue #: 51156
EAN: 0699675115623
UPC: 699675115623
You save: 20%
Personnel: Warren Zevon (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, piano, keyboards); Jorge Calderon (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, tres, bass, maracas); Bruce Springsteen, Brad Davis (electric guitar, background vocals); Mike Campbell (electric guitar); Ry Cooder (guitar, slide guitar); Tommy Shaw (12-string guitar, background vocals); Randy Mitchell (slide guitar, background vocals); Joe Walsh (slide guitar); David Lindley (lap steel guitar, saz, background vocals); Gil Bernal (saxophone); James Raymond (piano); Reggie Hamilton (upright bass); Luis Conte (drums, bongos, congas, maracas, percussion); Don Henley, Jim Keltner, Steve Gorman (drums); Dwight Yoakam, Billy Bob Thornton, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty (background vocals).
Producers: Warren Zevon, Jorge Calderon, Noah Scot Snyder.
THE WIND won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. "Keep Me in Your Heart" was nominated for Song Of The Year and for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. "Disorder in the House" won for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and was also nominated for Best Rock Song.
With the specter of a terminal lung cancer diagnosis hanging over his head, Warren Zevon responded by rallying to make THE WIND, an album that found him working with longtime collaborator and friend Jorge Calderon, shortly after getting the news. The result is a tight group of 11 songs wrapped up in a year, despite a diagnosis that only gave Zevon three months to live. Along the way, plenty of famous names--both friends and fans--pitched in, including Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Dwight Yoakam and Don Henley. Allusions to his situation are naturally sprinkled throughout, whether it's partying in the face of doom ("The Rest of the Night"), using a self-penned blues song to look back with no regrets ("Rub Me Raw"), or pledging his eternal love ("El Amor De Mi Vida"). Even Zevon's cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," avoids the pitfall of sentimentality as he can be heard bellowing "open up, open up" in the background of the song's chorus sung by Tommy Shaw, John Waite, and Billy Bob Thornton. "Keep Me in Your Heart" finds Zevon subtly asking just that, in a dignified manner guaranteed to mist up the eyes of even the most jaded person.
Tracklist
Warren Zevon
Though he came out of the '70s Southern California scene and was championed by Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon's music is far more dark and sardonic than that background would suggest. The quintessential troubadour-with-an-attitude, he's sung about guns, death, and cattle disease (seriously) with a biting sense of humor and a musicality that's attributable to his early classical training. He's probably the only rocker who studied with Stravinsky. He blazed away through the '80s and '90s, doing some of his best work at the turn of the century, but he was cut down by cancer in 2003, leaving behind the album THE WIND as his farewell.
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen came out of New Jersey in the early 1970s sounding like a cross between Bob Dylan and early Tom Waits, backed by the rambunctious E Street Band. After toughening up his sound, Springsteen created his 1975 masterpiece, BORN TO RUN, which garnered critical acclaim for its blend of Spectorian grandeur and street poetry. Nine years later, BORN IN THE U.S.A. made him a worldwide superstar with its beefed-up stadium-rock sound. Along the way, he's produced such low-key acoustic-based milestones as NEBRASKA and THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD, never losing the blue-collar ethos that is central to his vision. His 2002 album, THE RISING, is considered one of the finest artistic responses to the 9/11tragedy produced in the event's immediate aftermath.
Ry Cooder
L.A.-based guitarist Ry Cooder learned from the best, getting lessons from legendary bluesman Rev. Gary Davis at an early age. In the mid 1960s, he formed pioneering blues-rock band the Rising Sons with Taj Mahal. When that dissolved, he became an in-demand session player for everyone from Captain Beefheart to Randy Newman. He worked with the Rolling Stones in the late '60s, and nearly became Brian Jones's replacement. Over the years he released numerous quirky solo albums venturing into folk, blues, country, and even Hawaiian music. In the late '90s he instigated the Buena Vista Social Club project, getting veteran Cuban musicians together and presenting their sound to the world via shockingly successful albums, concerts, and a documentary.
Don Henley
Don Henley came to prominence as drummer, singer, and songwriter with legendary 1970s country-rockers the Eagles, who virtually defined the laid-back, West Coast pop/rock sound of their era. After the group split, the ever-cantankerous Henley toughened things up considerably with his solo work. He made a splash straight out of the gate with the wry social commentary of "Dirty Laundry" from his 1982 debut album. He went on to even greater acclaim with 1984's "Boys of Summer" and his landmark 1989 album, THE END OF THE INNOCENCE, an elegiac affair that did for the late '80s what the Eagles did for the '70s. Henley reunited with his Eagles pals in 1994 for the "Hell Freezes Over" tour. The band would continue to play together sporadically for the next decade.
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne was part of the mid-'60s Orange County, CA folk scene that also included Tim Buckley, Steve Noonan (one of the first to record Browne's compositions), and Greg Copeland (for whom Browne later produced an album). After having songs cut by everyone from Nico to the Byrds, Browne embarked upon a highly successful solo career, becoming the premier sensitive singer-songwriter of the '70s Los Angeles studio-rock scene that included Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. Browne's commercial fortunes waned a bit when his writing veered from the personal to the political, but the quality of his work has never waned.
Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh is one of rock's most lovably odd figures. As a member of the James Gang and as Bernie Leidon's replacement in the Eagles, Walsh's page in the rock-history books was firmly secured before he ventured out on his own. Yet both his solo material--a likeable mix of radio-rock riffage and mellow good-time fare--and his quirky yet unpretentious personality made him into a unique stand-alone pop-culture figure. Walsh continued to record and play music into the new millennium, and made frequent appearances on the Drew Carrey show during the 1990s. Walsh was a candidate for President of the United States in 1980. He was roundly defeated by Ronald Reagan.
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris first came to public attention as Gram Parsons's singing partner, but her solo career took off after his passing. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, she was a major force in progressive country, championing the works of great songwriters like Townes Van Zandt and Paul Siebel. By the '90s, the eclecticism that she'd always practiced came to full bloom in the hands of producer Daniel Lanois, especially on her milestone 1995 album, WRECKING BALL.
Tom Petty
Tom Petty is part of rock's gentry, and his recordings with the Heartbreakers are placed in the pantheon of "heartland rock" along with Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger et al. However, he was originally regarded as a part of the "new wave" of the late 1970s for his hooky-but-unadorned pop-rock. Though he began as a Bob Dylan/Byrds acolyte, he quickly became his own man. Along with Dylan, Petty went on to perform with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne in the short-lived supergroup, the Traveling Wilburys. Both solo and with his top-flight Heartbreakers, Petty became a standard-bearer for roots rock into the 21st century.
