Zevon replied, "Just how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich." Track listing Īll songs written by Warren Zevon, except where noted.
Stream ad-free with Amazon Music Unlimited on mobile, desktop, and tablet. Letterman asked Zevon if there was anything he understood now, facing his own mortality, that he didn't before. Listen to your favorite songs from Enjoy Every Sandwich - The Songs of Warren Zevon by Various artists Now. The album's title comes from an interview Zevon did on the Late Show with David Letterman following Zevon's having been diagnosed with terminal pleural mesothelioma. It includes two unreleased Zevon songs: "The Wind," sung by actor Billy Bob Thornton and "Studebaker," sung by Warren's son Jordan Zevon. The trouble is, the man who wrote "Play It All Night Long," "Detox Mansion" and "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" merited something more along the lines of a Friar's Club Roast, in which a little bile got mixed in with the words of love, which truly was the sort of world Warren Zevon wrote about.Jorge Calderón, Evan Frankfort, Brendan O'Brien, Ken Stringfellow, Twangtrust, and Waddy WachtelĮnjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon, released in 2004, is a tribute album to the late Warren Zevon by many famous musicians. Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon is the musical equivalent of a testimonial dinner in which a number of folks who knew and loved Zevon share warm memories of their friend. Zevon believed life should be lived to the full, hence his motto ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich’. Personal favourites include The Hula Hula Boys and Gorilla You’re A Desperado. And while some artists on-board throw a few more rough edges into their performances - Steve Earle's nicotine-rasp version of "Reconsider Me," Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt's sharp run through "Poor Poor Pitiful Me," and a minimalist acoustic take on "Splendid Isolation" from Pete Yorn - even these sound oddly defanged, and there are several flat-out misfires, such as Bob Dylan's poorly recorded meander through "Mutineer," and Adam Sandler's karaoke-style reading of "Werewolves of London." Significantly, the album's two strongest tracks are the ones that truly capture Zevon's wild hair spirit - an admirably eccentric take on "Monkey Wash, Donkey Rinse" from David Lindley and Ry Cooder, and a blazing and noisy assault on "Ain't That Pretty at All" from the reunited Pixies. Despite their poor sales figures, each album tended to contain a few little gems. For the most part, Enjoy Every Sandwich focuses on the kinder, gentler Warren Zevon, and while the artists in question perform the songs with obvious passion and admiration, Don Henley's "Searching For a Heart," Jill Sobule's "Don't Let Us Get Sick" and "Keep Me in Your Heart" by Jorge Calderon and Jennifer Warnes speak of a sweetness that wasn't at all representative of the man's work.
Given Zevon's recent passing, it should surprise no one that a handful of his friends, family and admirers have assembled a tribute album, but while Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon brims with obvious affection and good will for its subject, in this case that's something of a problem. While Zevon could write with tenderness and compassion when the spirit moved him, he was more likely to sound sarcastic, spiteful, venomous, and generally announce (loudly and with enthusiasm) that the emperor was naked given the appropriate subject, and he wasn't afraid to take on his friends and collaborators when so inclined. The covers/tribute album ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon’, from 2004, gets a regular listening here.
Like many fans, one of the things you can always love about the music of Warren Zevon has been his frequent refusal to play nice.