LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ Rare and Unreleased Recordings) - Fans of
Warren Zevon will now have a chance to learn more about his life and music when both a new 2CD set Preludes – Rare and Unreleased Recordings (Ammal/New West Records) and a provocative memoir, I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD: The Dirty Life And Times Of
Warren Zevon (Ecco/HarperCollins) narrated by Crystal Zevon are released on May 1, 2007.
Zevon, the iconic singer-songwriter died in 2003. He was internationally known for his hit songs including "Werewolves Of London" and his publicized race against terminal cancer to complete one last album, The Wind, a gold record, for which he posthumously won 2 Grammy® Awards.
Following his death, his son, Jordan Zevon, discovered 126 unreleased outtakes and demos in a piano-sized touring case. The 2CD set collects the best of these recordings. It features 16 songs, including 6 unreleased tracks "Empty Hearted Town," "Going All The Way," "Steady Rain," "Stop Rainin' Lord" "Studebaker" and "Rosarita Beach Café." All songs were recorded pre-1976 (the year Zevon's first album came out on Asylum Records). Gems include previously unheard versions of "Werewolves of London" and "Accidentally Like A Martyr". Also included is a second disc featuring 40 minutes of music interspersed with an interview between Warren Zevon and KGSR-FM's?Jody Denberg. All songs on disc 1 have been 24-bit digitally remastered.
Says Jordan Zevon, "I won't know for sure how he would have felt about this release until I meet back up with him in the 'great beyond', where I'll either receive a proud, fatherly hug or a posthumous ass-kicking. Truth is, it'll probably be both. But I'll take it all, wipe the blood from my chin and crack a smile. Just like Bogart would have. Just like my father did. Tough guy style."
The album is being released on the newly formed label Ammal Records recently formed by Danny Goldberg and New West Records. Goldberg previously worked with Zevon at his company Artemis Records which released the singer-songwriters last three studio albums. Goldberg said, "Working with Warren was one of the highlights of my personal and professional life and I am very grateful that Jordan has discovered these early recordings and chosen to let Ammal/New West release them."
One of Warren Zevon's final requests before he died was that his former wife and lifelong companion, Crystal Zevon, compile his memoir. I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon is the realization of that request. Told in the words of his musical accomplices, fellow-travelers, friends and lovers, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is a unique scrapbook of memories, stories and memorabilia from Zevon's wild and famed life.
Told in the words of Jackson Browne, Mitch Albom, David Crosby, Carl Hiassen, Lindsey Buckingham, and other legendary artists as well as family members and friends, I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD includes stories of drugs, women, insanity, creative highs and lows and charts the genius behind some of the most timeless songs in rock history.
Friend Jackson Browne says the book is, "A harrowing ride through the backstreets of the L.A. music business with the King of Song Noir. It reads like a rock and roll Rashomon, laying bare Zevon's unusual life and the outrageous times that produced some of the funniest, darkest, and most tender songs ever written."
