I was thinking about my favorite songs, and while there's loads of them, this is the first song that I can recall really hitting me in a deep emotional place. Warren Zevon was a genius lyricist/songwriter, who handled his own death with dignity and humor that was breathtaking — if you've never seen it, run to YouTube and find his final appearance on The Letterman Show from shortly before he left this mortal coil. It's a real travesty that he's only well-known for one damn song as he was a national treasure. (Zevon was the first, and only artist I sent a fan letter to. It was a drawing I did of a werewolf eating in a Chinese restaurant when I was a kid. He never wrote me back, but I didn't hold it against him.)
An interesting side-story with the song: Zevon and Bob Dylan seemed to have a bit of an insider trade-off with the lyrics. Zevon wrote: "We made mad love. Shadow love. Random love. And abandoned love. Accidentally like a martyr. The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder," likely a reference to Dylan's "Abandoned Love." Dylan seemed to repay the mention by titling his 1997 album Time Out Of Mind referencing this bit: "The days slide by. Should have done, should have done, we all sigh. Never thought I'd ever be so lonely. After such a long, long time. Time out of mind." Dylan also covered "Accidentally Like A Martyr" live in concert a number of times.
4 comments:
all well and true - until the very last sentence, that is.
I'm not sure Dylan covered Accidentally Like A Martyr even once
after Warren's passing. He did, of course, cover the song a number
of times during his 2002 fall tour (along with a bunch of other
Zevon songs), after Warren had announced his terminal illness. At least
one time, at the Wiltern Theatre in L.A. Warren was in the audience.
Dylan gave him a salute from the stage.
I happened to be at that show.
cheers,
Thomas
Thanks for the comment, Thomas. I think it was a mistake on my part that Dylan covered it many times, and after Zevon's death (I since edited the post), though it does seem like Bob covered it at least once live since Zevon's passing but still trying to confirm if that's true.
According to Bobdylan.com ALAM was played 22 times between 4th October & 22nd November 2002. Bob has not played it since.
11/22/02 twas the last performance according to bobdylan.com
https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/accidentally-martyr/
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