Let's Get the Excitable Boy into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame




Warren Zevon is dying of cancer. Here's a petition to get him into the Hall of Fame:


Here's a repost of my tribute poem to Zevon:

My Ride's Here


The eternal Thompson gunner,
still wandering through the night...


keepin' up the fight
for love and justice
'neath the indifference of heaven.


It’s nighttime in the switching yard.
I hear Maria callin'.
Saying Veracruz is…
Dyin'.

I thought I heard somebody singin'

Time to place those lawyers, guns and money
In the ground, you excitable one.
That usherette, too.
Bones and all.
And draw blood
No more.

Sweet and soulful.

Time to pawn your Smith-Corona
And your Pioneer Chicken Stand
Let the worms have them--
This temporary cover
'Fore the meeting with the Man.

O don't it make you wanna rock n roll?

You stood in the fire
Your face all aglow
Listen' to Mariachi static
On a burnin' radio.
All night long.

Gorilla wrestling with an angel.
Zevie strikes up the band.

Dry your eyes my little friend
Crank that dead man’s song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long
Hut!

Milton's holding his sides.
Lord Byron's packin' too.
Perhaps you'll meet in Denver
With plenty still to do.
Hut!


And Carmelita will be there.
To wake you for your meals.
Accidentally like a martyr
Someone's paid your bill.
Hut!

Gentle rain
Falls on desperadoes
All life flows
As you take that holy ride
yourselves to know
And comtemplate eternity.
In the sea.
Hut!


And I know your ride’s here.
It's Patty with the hearse
One more Figure to slay
One more burst.
And the seraphim shall
Lift you on your way.
Hut!


The eternal Thompson gunner,
still wandering through the night...
In walks the Village Idiot
His face all aglow singin':
We’re all gonna meet up at Lee Ho Fook’s.
And our hair will be perfect.
And aflow with tenderness on the block.


Thank you, Zevie.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Peace and Goodwill to All--you too, Z

Collage for Joe

Joe Strummer of the Clash died from a heart attack at the age of 50.

How’d you get so rude and feckless
you been drinkin’ brew for breakfast
rudie can’t fail i wasn't born so much as i fell out
nobody seemed to notice me
we had a hedge back home in the suburbs
over which i never could see there is a rose
i heard the people who lived on the ceiling
scream and fight most scarily Washington bullets
Spanish bombs in Andalucia O mi corazon
hearing that noise was my first ever feeling
that's how it's been all around me there is a rose
should I stay or should I go now?
Well I gotta job but it don’t pay i need new clothes
i need some today but without all these things i can do
without your love i won't make it through
did you stand by me no not at all
every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world
and ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl
love 'n' hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands
the hands that slap his kids around
'cause they don't understand how death or glory
is just another story when you’re working for the clampdown
we don’t like the strangers hangin about across the world
we’re gonna mow ‘em down there is a rose
I went to the market to realize my soul
Everybody wants to rule the world
what I need I just don’t have
Must be something we get from birth
I can no longer shop happily
Said you felt trapped well some things you can explain away
but my heart aches me still this day he who fucks nuns
will later join the church all my cryin’ all my sufferin’
I aint good enough, I ain’t clean enough to be him
it makes you feel big now you drift until you brutalize
you made your first kill now in these days of evil
working for the clampdown every cell in Chile
will tell the cries of the tortured men remember Allende,
and the days before, before the army came
please remember Victor Jara, in the santiago stadium,
es verdas - those washington bullets again? O mi corazon!
Charlie don’t surf and we think he should
Charlie don’t surf for his hamburger mama
Charlie’s gonna be a napalm star
should I stay or should I go now?
It’s up to you not to heed the Call Up
'N' you must not act the way you were brought up
Who knows the reasons why you have grown up?
Who knows the plans or why they were drawn up?
All the young people down the ages
They gladly marched off to die
Proud city fathers used to watch them
Tears in their eyes
There is a rose that I want to live for
Although, God knows, I may not have met her
There is a dance an' I should be with her
There is a town - unlike any other
Somebody got murdered I don’t wanna die
Those who will kill will die as in Heaven as in Hell
Across the world we’re gonna mow em down
We know your money you like it well
this is a public service announcement know your rights
number 1: you have the right not to be killed murder is a crime!
unless it was done by a policeman or aristocrat
number 2: you have the right to food money
providing of course you don't mind a little humiliation,
investigation and if you cross your fingers rehabilitation
wang! young offenders! know your rights
number 3: you have the right to freeeee speech
as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it.
Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah Rock the Casbah.
How you gonna come when the kick in your doors?
It’s up to you not to heed the call up.
After all my cryin’ and sufferin’ I aint good enough
I aint clean enough to be him
The reign of the super powers must be over
So many armies can't free the earth
Soon the rock will roll over
Africa is choking on their Coca Cola
It's a one a way street in a one horse town
One way people starting to brag around
You can laugh, put them down
These one way people gonna blow us down
at 55 minutes past eleven there is a rose...

All words by Joe Strummer; Rest in Peace, Joe.
Thanks to Marc at Enthusiasmfor the pic.

Swim

Hostility oozes from
The tears of a tree;
Sappin’ us not of strength
But uprootin’ beauty
Bred in the rape of innocence
And the lap of cruel injustice
We carry it with us
Wherever we go;
Ragin’ rippin’ ghosts
Tearin’ at unseen roots
Ready to explode
To protect and kill
What we love most;
Is this humanity
Begettin’ more humanity
Or all-too-humanness?
Oh I need you friend
To know the difference.

Now the last tree’s bare
From all the diggin’ there
The last shadows fall
The future dangles on the wall
Curlin’ around the past
Just breath on the glass
Why is it so difficult to know
And master our own shadows

Sometimes I come with a sword to you
To pierce your armor through and through
Only to pull it out of myself;
The river runs blood red and wild
Oh to swim and not to drown
Where so many have washed up before
Past the dead and dyin’ to the shore--
Where children are always in bloom
Hangin’ from treetops with real roots
Laughin' at alchemists who
Dance on forgotten tombs.