"THERE'S A SADNESS IN THE HEART OF THINGS"

.

.
[Originally published on 2005, Feb. 16th]
.
SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE
by Warren Zevon
released: 1987
.
Although I'm not a hardcore WARREN ZEVON fan, I owned several of his albums back in the era of Licorice Pizza (vinyl records). And I did catch him live once in the late '80s -- a fairly mundane performance, and this in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. When I sold off my LPs and made the transition to compact discs, his eponymous album was the only recording I reacquired.
.
On vacation this past July, I heard SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE in a store and bought a copy -- it having reminded me of my youth and those daze of "Liquid Sedation."
.
I've never listened to ZEVON so much for the music. He's not terrifically "melodic" much of the time and his sandpaper-edged vocals lack range. It's Zevon for the lyrics, for his wry take on life. He was Rock's Grim Reaper on Laughing Gas! Zevon's writing didn't just put angst on the table, it presented it as the entree, but usually with rich jocularity sauce ladled over the top for seasoning. A pint glass of arsenic with a "twist" of humor (or perhaps that ought to be "with a twisted humor"). He always gave us the WAR-IN-ZEVON: that interior knock-down, drag-out struggle of a warped man in a totally insane world.
.
Overall, this is the warped boy's hardest rocking disc. After a much publicized stint in rehab for drug and alcohol abuse, this was a "comeback" album designed to show that he had indeed gotten up off the canvas swinging! For me, the standout tracks are:
.
BOOM BOOM MANCINI -- A thunderous anthem to the lion-hearted, Youngstown, Ohio pugilist. It is driven by an appropriately over-amped, bruising guitar hook and uppercut! I can still remember the car radio announcement that informed me of Mancini's 14 round loss to Alexis Arguello in 1981. I bawled for the brawler. But then I was "LIQUIDATED" at the time -- some evil man at Dodger Stadium having sold me 2 beers an inning for 9 innings. (Don't hate me; I wasn't driving!) THE WAR-IN-ZEVON: "Some have the speed and the right combinations; if you can't take the punches, it don't mean a thing."
.
RECONSIDER ME -- A plaintive and moving ballad sung straight on the rocks, no "twist." THE WAR-IN-ZEVON: "If it's still the past that makes you doubt, darlin' that was then and this is now. Reconsider me."
.
BAD KARMA -- A very funny song about picking up the gauntlet thrown down by life and coming to grips with disillusionment. THE WAR-IN-ZEVON: "Was it something I did in another life? I try and try but nothing comes out right for me. Bad karma, killing me by degrees."
.
EVEN A DOG CAN SHAKE HANDS -- Ya gotta love the enthusiastic energy of this one. It starts out with "YEAH!! WOO-OOO!! HEEEEEY!!" Good stuffs about the tie-wearing parasites in the music biz. Now, if you've lived in L.A., you know that the San Fernando Valley is where you take up residence just prior to limping out of town with yer head down and yer tail tucked between yer legs. So it's pretty funny when our singer is warned to play the game properly or he'll "end up dead, living in The Valley someday". As though the two are synonymous. THE WAR-IN-ZEVON: "Abandon all hope and don't rock the boat, and we'll all make a few hundred grand. Everybody's trying to be a friend of mine. Even a dog can shake hands."
.
THE HEARTACHE -- Another ballad on the rocks, no "twist." The subject is unrequited love, which in common parlance means, "unsuccessful open-heart surgery." 'The Heartache' contains one of the greatest lines in song: "THERE'S A SADNESS IN THE HEART OF THINGS". This one line has haunted me ever since I first heard it in 1987. In all these years, not a month has passed that I didn't find myself silently reciting it in response to some unfortunate situation, or while merely contemplating the setting of the sun. If you don't get it, then consider yourself lucky and rejoice in your insensitivity. THE WAR-IN-ZEVON: "There's a sadness in the heart of things" ...of course! Why, it's only the most poignant moment on the entire album!
.
I would dig SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE a lot more if the songs that I don't care for, I felt merely neutral about. But I actively dislike DETOX MANSION, Zevon's noisy, irreverent attempt to make light of his drug and alcohol rehab. To plagiarize one of his earlier songs: It ain't that funny at all. The attempt at humor sounds forced. Many years ago I wrote a poem called 'The League Of Soul Crusaders' which included the lines, "THESE BOYS DON'T CRY WHEN THEY SHOULD / AND LAUGH WHEN THEY SHOULDN'T". I feel that 'Detox Mansion' is a good example of that.
.
One of my pet peeves in music is when lifelong Rock Stars with Champagne and Brie on their breath sing about the tough life of 'the working man'. Boys, give it a rest! Don't let your conscience convince you that we need to hear your understanding. If you want to sing to us about how difficult it is to have 13 groupies a night but only 2 hotel suites, or how the bad concert promoter forgot to remove the brown M&Ms from the backstage candy bowl, or how room service is too slow at the Hilton, fine. But don't be telling us about punching a time clock with the bossman looking over your shoulder! Don't gripe about the 8 to 5 'blue collar' life, because you don't know it like we do! (Are you listening Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon & Jackson Browne?) 
.
Zevon commits this cardinal Rock Music sin in the unconvincing and unmusical THE FACTORY. Aside from all that, the first four lines are poorly conceived: "I was born in '63 / Got a little job in the factory / I don't know much about Kennedy / I was too busy working in the factory." (Give that some real thought. What happened to the Child Labor Laws?!)
.
Overall, SENTIMENTAL HYGIENE is a very solid effort. His self-titled album 'WARREN ZEVON', however, remains his essential release. It includes his real masterpiece, DESPERADOS UNDER THE EAVES, and also CARMELITA, with its reference to the infamous "Pioneer Chicken Stand". Which, incidentally, once stood on the Southeast corner at Alvarado and Montana Streets in L.A., a few blocks north of Echo Park. The spot is now just the upper corner of the Vons Supermarket parking lot. But if any of you Zevon diehards ever make the pilgrimage to this "legendary" location, don't tell anyone that you heard from Stephen T. I hear the cops, a one-eyed bartender, and thirteen angry waitresses are still hunting for me.
.
~ Stephen T. McCarthy
.