Warren Zevon

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. 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.

3 classic Zevon broadcasts SAUSALITO 1978, BOSTON 1982, CLEVELAND 1992 ALL HOUSED IN ELEGANT 3CD BOX SET The perennial cult hero, Warren Zevon amassed and extraordinary body of work across his 30-plus year career, but remains a sadly underappreciated performer and composer of some of the best songs to have emerged during his working life. Tragically cut down in his prime by the ravishes of cancer, Zevon nevertheless left a recorded legacy which is still the subject of huge critical acclaim and cult status. This triple CD set collects together three fascinating radio broadcasts of live shows performed by Warren during his heyday, one each from the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s.

Conventional wisdom has it that rock & roll is the aural embodiment of youth culture, but as more artists who've devoted their lives to playing the stuff grow older, they've struggled to reconcile maturity with the recklessness of the music. No surprise, then, that few if any have had the courage to do what Warren Zevon did with his 2000 set Life'll Kill Ya – create a concept album about aging, disease, decay and ultimately death. "My Shit's Fucked Up" and the title tune are bleakly witty but unblinking glimpses into the abyss of mortality, "Don't Let Us Get Sick" is a sadly hopeful prayer against the inevitable, "Porcelain Monkey" chronicles Elvis Presley's long slide into fatal irrelevance, and the cover of Steve Winwood's "Back in the High Life Again" transforms the song into a picture of a man struggling to convince himself he's going to get out alive.