I'll sleep When I'm Dead: the Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon

Recommended by: Stephan J. Macaluso, Librarian
Stacks ML420.Z475 Z58 2008

Poetry, joy and sarcasm flowed from Warren Zevon’s imagination. Zevon was a gifted and intelligent songwriter and performer whose depth goes far beyond “Werewolves of London.” He was admired by David Letterman, Linda Ronstadt and Hunter S. Thompson. Zevon had profound demons: substance abuse, womanizing, OCD and odd, paralyzing superstitions. Even as a recovering alcoholic, he rode an uneasy rollercoaster of family issues, touring, and middle-list record sales; he died of cancer in 2003, when many believe he was at the height of his powers. Zevon’s life is uniquely memorialized here by his former wife and longtime friend, Crystal Zevon. She lets Warren's story unfold through interviews and statements from his collaborators and friends (Bruce Springsteen, Stephen King, Dave Barry and Billy Bob Thornton, to name a few), his family and through Warren’s diaries. The result is an insightful and riveting picture of one of our greatest songwriters. Be sure to listen to Zevon’s impressive output while you read!

Evening in the palace of reason: Bach meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment by James R. Gaines

Recommended by: Stephan Macaluso, STL Librarian
Call Number: Stacks ML410 .B1 G28 2005

The legend is told in nearly every music appreciation class: King Frederick II (“The Great”) of Prussia—himself an amateur composer and flautist—practically falls over himself upon hearing that the great J.S. Bach has arrived to pay Frederick a visit. Gaines paints this meeting in much darker tones. History reveals Frederick to be a substantially more brutish, if not brutal, character. And so his challenge to Bach (that he compose a counterpoint to an unmelodic theme of Frederick’s) can be seen less as pleasurable Enlightenment discourse, and more as a stare-down. Bach’s response: The Musical Offering, a complete set of canons and fugues on the seemingly-impossible theme.