The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

I've written in the past about how sometimes a film will hit me in such a way that I'll watch it over and over again as if I'm somehow addicted to it.  Most of the time, I have no idea why.  I can explain why I like the movie, but the reason for my desire to re-watch it many times over never ceases to elude me.  Perhaps the fact that I can't explain why is what fascinates me.  I like the mystery of it.

I first became aware of this phenomenon in 2000 when I couldn't seem to stop watching the movie Grosse Pointe Blank that I had recently purchased.  But if I'm honest with myself (and you, the reader), I went through the same thing in 1996 with Blazing Saddles.  When I think about it, I think I first experienced it in 1990 with this week's film.

It was one of Dad's favourites.  I remember him renting it a year or two earlier.  I watched it with him and while I enjoyed it, I wasn't as enamoured with it as I would later become.  But that summer, I saved up my money to buy a VHS tape of The Blues Brothers to give to him for Father's Day.  We watched it again that afternoon and something clicked for me.

While I could tell he was excited to now own it, I think my sister Heather and I watched it more than he did.  We would literally come home from school in the afternoon and pop it in the VCR.  We memorized the dialogue and would recite it while watching the film (as long as she got to be the character of Jake).  I still remember most of it.  I'll be she does too.  But it has, over the course of my life, played a prominent part in it, popping up here and there, whether I need it to or not.

In the eleventh grade, my English teacher assigned the class to give a report on the last movie we'd watched.  It shouldn't be any surprise that, for me, it was The Blues Brothers.  Given the fact that my English teacher always gave me the impression that she felt she was actually teaching Sunday School rather than English, I made up a lot of B.S. about the religious symbolism I picked up in the film.  I think I referred to it as "deeply spiritual."  35 years later, I've actually reached a point where I believe my own line of B.S.  I do find the film spiritual in a weird way.  It could be the strange alchemy of music and comedy, both of which I find healing to the soul.  While I doubt either Dan Aykroyd or John Landis had that in mind when they wrote the script, I do consider it one of the most spiritual movies I've ever seen.  What really makes me laugh is that in 2010, the Catholic Church actually endorsed the movie as being a "Catholic classic" and deemed it appropriate for all Catholics, in spite of its R rating (for language, which I have issues with, but that's another story).  According to Reuters, the film joins a list of other Church-approved cinema classics such as Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.  I figure when the Catholic Church essentially agrees with something that I had been saying for twenty years at that point, something is seriously amiss somewhere.

During my junior year of college, the residence hall in which I lived and worked as an R.A. was putting on a lip sync contest.  During our Hall Council meeting the night before, my friend Anthony--possibly an even bigger Blues Brothers fan than I am--looked over at me and said, "Do you want to do 'Rawhide' and 'Stand By Your Man'?"  I said, "Sure."  We had less than 24 hours to prepare the routine.  "Stand By Your Man" was not on the film's soundtrack.  Somebody had to dub it from video tape to audio tape for us with Cab Calloway's introduction from later in the movie tacked on at the beginning (this is how we had to do it in the '90s, folks!).  Somebody else even managed to procure a whip for me to crack (I refused to ask any questions on that one).  I had to basically wear two stage costumes as I was also doing a solo number and had that costume on underneath my suit and tie.  Our individual daily schedules didn't even give us a chance to rehearse.  But both Anthony and I knew the film so well, we didn't need to.  After our--if I may humbly say--rather rousing performance, Anthony paraphrased another classic film and said to me, "Rehearsals?  We don't need no stinking rehearsals!"  We placed second in the group category.

The film was released in theaters to commemorate its 35th anniversary in 2015.  I was so pleased that I got to finally see it on a big screen.  I was even more pleased that I got to see it with Dad who introduced me to what, to this day, is still one of my favourite movies.  The following year, he was in home hospice.  Mom, Heather, and I squeezed into the bedroom with him and we all watched it together.  It was the last film the four of us watched together as a family.

(I was kind of hoping that they would release it again this year for its 45th anniversary, this time as part of a Carrie Fisher double feature, alongside The Empire Strikes Back which was released the same year.)

So this week, I submit my very first film addiction.  The first movie based on a "Saturday Night Live" routine, it was directed by John Landis and starred John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, John Candy, Kathleen Freeman, Steven Williams, Armand Cerami, Charles Napier, Frank Oz, Steve Lawrence, and Henry Gibson, with performances (both acting and musical) by Cab Calloway, James Brown with James Cleveland's Southern California Community Choir and Chaka Khan, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, and the Blues Brothers Band--Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Tom "Bones" Malone, Willie "Too Big" Hall, Murphy Dunne, Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, and "Blue" Lou Marini.  Featuring not one, but TWO of the greatest car chases ever filmed (making it, at the time, the most expensive comedy ever made), originally released in 1980, please enjoy The Blues Brothers.  I recommend making it a Thanksgiving tradition.  Wish I could still dance like that.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember, people, that no matter who you are and what you do to live, thrive, and survive, there are still some things that make us all the same--you... me... them... everybody!  Everybody!

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

Some years back in one of these weekly ramblings, I talked about getting my driver's license and driving on my own for the first time.  I had discovered on my car radio a station out of Bloomington, Indiana (WTTS, 92.3 FM), that played a wide range of music that seemed to appeal to me--both classic and contemporary rock, as well as blues, including deep album cuts that most stations don't play.  As I believe I pointed out then, it was the only time in my life I heard Billy Joel's "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" on the radio.

One summer during my college years, the station played a song by an up-and-coming artist--one of those that's hard to categorize by genre.  Pop, rock, "alt" country (whatever the hell that is), folk, blues--he kind of blended it all.  I identified with the lyrics to the song, so much so that it became sort of an unofficial anthem of my college years--I don't know why exactly.  I've never been arrested, I didn't drink at all at that point in my life, I've never smoked anything stronger than a Cuban cigar, to this day I've never looked at Madonna's book (let alone read it), and my old man never referred to me as a "no good punk."  I think I just liked the everyman feel of it.  30 years later, I still do.

The song was called "Alright Guy" and it was performed by Todd Snider.  As much as I loved hearing it on the radio in my early 20s, weirdly, I kind of forgot about it after I left home and moved to--of all places--Bloomington.  Some years ago, likely while drinking on a Saturday night and posting to Facebook, I found myself thinking about songs I heard on WTTS repeatedly during my college years.  I recalled the song and was delighted to find a video on YouTube, which I promptly posted on my page.  Unusually for me, I never felt inspired to explore more of Snider's music.  This was the only song of his I ever knew and it's slipped in and out of my musical consciousness periodically over the last 30 years.

I read this week that Todd Snider died last week at the age of 59.  When I first saw the article, I have to confess that I couldn't quite place the name.  It sounded familiar to me, but I thought I might be thinking of Todd Rundgren.  As I read the article and stumbled upon the song title "Alright Guy" (what turned out to be his biggest song), it all came flooding back to me.  I felt compelled to check out more of his music, especially after I read that he was friends with and influenced by the likes John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Jimmy Buffett.  In fact, Buffett actually signed him to his record label, Margaritaville Records, a subsidiary of MCA.  I discovered that that "everyman" feel that I initially identified with in "Alright Guy" came across in his other works--even in cover versions of other artists' songs.  His most recent album, High, Lonesome and Then Some., was just released in October.  I'm quite taken with his music and look forward to exploring more.  I only wish I'd done so while he was still alive.  Well... better late than never, I guess.

So in honour of Snider and collegiate nostalgia, I submit this week's album.  Released in 1994 on Margaritaville Records it was produced by Tony Brown and Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer bandmate Mike Utley, who also played keyboards.  The album was comprised of songs that Snider had been performing at the Nashville nightclub The Daily Planet.  Featuring "Alright Guy" as well as the hidden track which also became a minor hit, "Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues," please enjoy the late, great Todd Snider with Songs For The Daily Planet.

(Sadly, the video to "Alright Guy" that's included in the YouTube playlist is in its edited MTV form.  I also included a link to the uncensored version of the song because I find most censors to be dopes and dicks--although I'm sure some are alright guys.)

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents a Bonus Album of the Week! (One From the Vault!)

I originally wrote and posted what follows on Facebook on 20 August, 2022.  A lot of it was plagiarized verbatim (from me, by me) from a "Song of the Week" (the "Album of the Week" predecessor) that I emailed to friends and family sometime in 2009.  About a month ago, the album was re-issued in a special 50th anniversary, yellow vinyl edition.  I just finished listening to it a few minutes ago.  I didn't listen to it for a month because it's one of those records that needs to be appreciated under particular circumstances, which finally popped up earlier this evening.  Thought I'd re-share it here...

 

Do yourself a favour right now. Look out your window. Is it dark outside? If not, it may be better if you wait until it is to read this. If you're reading this in a room with no windows, it probably doesn't matter all that much, I suppose. But this week's album and accompanying "sermon" need to be appreciated in a certain ambiance. Or at least that's what this humbly pretentious wannabe writer is hoping for.

 

I used to take late night walks all the time before I had problems with my hips. I still like to do it occasionally, but I don't do it as often as I used to/should. There is a spot on the campus of Indiana University that I loved to go to when I lived in Bloomington, particularly at night, particularly in the fall.   I liked to go there just to ring in the new day. It's the one place I never have to worry about being disturbed for any reason. In fact only two other people would ever think to look for me there and, well, frankly, they're not likely to be interested in doing so.

 

There is something mystical and magical about the night. Is it just me or does the night--specifically that extraordinarily fine line between today and tomorrow--seem more alive than any other time of the day?

 

Whether we realize it or not, I think we've always had a strange fascination with the night. Nocturnal activities are what many of us live for. That's when most of the things that end up meaning the most to us occur. If you look back at your lives, I'm willing to bet that more than half of your fondest memories occurred after dark. It could be just staying up drinking and talking with old friends, it could be a hot date that turns into something hotter later, it could be a formal occasion such as your senior prom, it could be a five hour phone conversation, it could be a night out with family, it could just be a night out. Whatever the circumstances and no matter how meaningful they are, they probably wouldn't have been as exciting if they had occurred during the day.

 

The night sometimes makes us do things we might not normally do. I swear to you, one night at the stroke of midnight, I actually walked outside stark naked and howled at the moon. Looking back on it, I'm not sure why I did it. Maybe I just wanted to be able to say many years later that I'd done something that crazy. Come to think about it, I'm not even sure the moon was out that night.

 

It's an exciting and almost dangerous time. This is the time when it's safe for our deepest, darkest secrets to come out of hiding. We can tell the night all those things we can't tell the day because if the sunlight is allowed to strike those deep, dark secrets, then the rest of the world can see what we work so hard to keep from it. But at night, we can truly be ourselves.

 

I'm also a fan of restaurants and diners that stay open twenty-four hours a day. In my younger days, I would occasionally hop on over to the nearest Steak and Shake for some late night Berry Berry Cobbler a la mode. Unfortunately, Steak and Shake (at least back then) didn't serve French toast. So I would occasionally have to drive way out of my way to the Waffle House which did. Even though it's my favourite breakfast food, I still think French toast tastes best after midnight.  Which brings us to this week's album...

 

No singer inhabits the night quite as naturally or as organically as Tom Waits. His music has provided us over the years with many late night glimpses into the late night--songs full of bars and strip clubs and all night diners and cheap booze and enough cigarette smoke that you could get lung cancer just from listening. With a soul filled with jazz and beat poetry, a language filled with adjectives and a voice of whisky-soaked gravel, it is virtually impossible to listen to Tom Waits's music while the sun is shining. Even his album covers, especially the ones from the 1970s, look like they would turn to dust in broad daylight.

 

This week's particular nocturnal submission is his third album (and the rare live performance). Please enjoy 1975's "Nighthawks At the Diner," which seems to focus precisely on that. I've always been particularly curious about the song "Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)." I'm still trying to figure out if "In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson" is a secondary title or if he actually did eat eggs and sausage in a Cadillac with Susan Michelson. These are the kinds of thoughts that go through my head late at night...

 

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

 

Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

"The future ain't what it used to be."

--Yogi Berra (1925-2015), baseball legend and philosopher

This past Wednesday, I had the pleasure of seeing Back to the Future in a theater to celebrate its 40th anniversary.  Putting aside the fact that the film is that old, it was an oddly moving experience.  Obviously, I've seen the movie many times over the years, but I hadn't seen it in a theater since its original release.  Before going, I noted the date (5 November) and realized that I would be seeing the movie on the 70th anniversary of the day that Doc Brown slipped and hit his head and came up with the idea for the flux capacitor.  I still marvel at what one can achieve with a head injury.

I've often written in these weekly "sermons" about the "transportative" quality of music (my word, copyright pending)--that strange ability to transport you to another time and place, even if it's just in your own mind.  I don't think I ever realized it before, but films can be as transportative as music.  Watching it on that big screen, I felt like I was eleven years old again and completely entranced with the magic of movies.  I couldn't wait to start sixth grade to tell my friends about this really cool movie I saw--twice!--over the summer starring the guy from "Family Ties."

Seeing it again, I noticed things that I wouldn't have noticed when I was a kid and probably couldn't have noticed watching it on a television screen over the years.  For example, when Marty McFly first walks into the diner and encounters his father, he reaches into his pocket and puts some change on the counter.  If you look among the coins, you'll see a guitar pick.  (I've also frequently wondered how many of those coins were minted after 1955.)

I've always appreciated the filmmakers' attention to detail with regards to the whole idea of the "space-time continuum"--how actions taken by characters in the film can change certain things between the beginning and the end of the movie--like the name of the mall, or the portion of the ledge on the clock tower that broke under Doc's weight.  I don't know why it never occurred to me that Doc hanging off of the clock face was an homage to the 1923 Harold Lloyd film Safety Last!--especially given the fact that Doc had a clock that depicted it in his collection that could be seen at the very beginning of the film.

The whole experience made me nostalgic for my childhood and the 1980s in general.  Watching those parts of the movie set in what was then the present, I found myself wondering if you can still find Kal-Kan dog food or Pepsi Free--not that I would go out and buy either of those things.  I don't have a dog and the only thing more disgusting than Pepsi Free was Diet Pepsi Free, which can also be seen in the film.  It was interesting for me to see how much things changed between 1955 and 1985, but it was almost surreal to see how things have changed between 1985 and 2025.

The one thing I've always credited the film for was my love for the music of Huey Lewis & The News who wrote not one but two songs for the film's soundtrack, receiving an Academy Award nomination for "The Power of Love."  In fact, Lewis also had one of cinema's greatest cameo appearances, telling Marty's band through a bullhorn that they're "just too darn loud."

Nominated for three other Oscars--winning for Best Sound Effects Editing--the film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, who also co-wrote it with Bob Gale, and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson in what could arguably be described as "career-defining performances."  This week, I can't help recommend one of the biggest movies of my youth, Back to the Future.

As I said in my album rant, I'll be taking next week off from these for personal reasons but will return in two weeks.  Until then, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

Tonight, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is holding its annual induction ceremony.  Every year when the inductees are announced, more than one journalist has to comment about how old they feel because it doesn't feel like it's been long enough for certain artists to be inducted.  Which I totally get.  I sometimes feel old myself when I see artists getting in who were popular when I was in college--or even later, as is the case with this week's album selection.  I have to remind myself that I'm not as young as I used to be--some may argue that I never was.  When some of my favourite artists like The Beatles, The Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel were inducted they were younger than I am now.  But the only criterion that I'm aware of for induction is that at least 25 years has to have passed since the artist released their first commercial recording.

Every year, each class of new inductees brings a surprise.  From the country, rap, and even jazz artists that we don't necessarily think of as rock musicians, to the artists that we can't believe were not inducted years ago (I mean, seriously?  What was the holdup with Joe Cocker and Cyndi Lauper?), the list always sparks some kind of discussion--like how is Warren Zevon still not in?

I was taken aback by the induction of the artists behind this week's album.  I didn't realize they had been around long enough to be inducted.  I seem to recall being introduced to them by my cousin Aaron when we lived together many years ago.  Although I've never been as obsessed by them as I have been with some other artists, I've always liked their music.  I've always felt it was just... solid.  They were clearly influenced by blues and "classic" rock, which is what I've always been primarily drawn to.  They had a hard-driving feel to their music that I've only really heard in a few other artists.  Frankly, I dug it.

Formed in the late 1990s in Detroit, the group consisted of only two members--Jack White who sang and played guitar, piano, and keyboards, and then-wife Meg White who also sang and played drums and percussion.  The couple divorced in 2000, but continued to work together until 2009, releasing their last album in 2007.  Since their breakup, Jack has gone on to quite a solo career.  I've always admired him for everything he's done to further the public's appreciation of music, primarily through his label, Third Man Records.  Meg largely withdrew from public life, but I think it's safe to say that she's still considered one of the best and most influential drummers of this century.

This week's album is their third.  Released originally in 2001 and again the following year on a new label, it was their first mainstream success.  I always liked it because it features two songs--"Fell in Love With a Girl" and "We're Going To Be Friends"--that I first heard in movies.  (I've always found this is another great way to expose myself to new music.)  Please enjoy 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The White Stripes with their album White Blood Cells.

I will be taking next week off from writing these for personal reasons, but I'll be back in two weeks.  Until then, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and, as always, please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you!

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

Last week, in my "sermon" on The Exorcist (and I know how weird that phrasing sounds--perhaps that's why I wrote it that way), I mentioned how faithful the film adaptation was to the original novel.  I gave full credit on this to William Peter Blatty who wrote both the novel and the screenplay.  My mother the librarian always (well... almost always) believed that the book was better than the movie.  By and large, I think most people tend to agree with that sentiment.  By and large, so do I.  But the more books I read and the more films I watch, the more I realize that they are in fact two different media--even two different art forms.  The older I get, the more I tend to look at the book and the movie as two distinct entities and it may be unfair to compare the two.

I probably should have come to this realization in college.  I was taking a class in media writing.  We were tasked with writing a screenplay based on an existing piece of literature.  I chose a short story written by Jimmy Buffett titled "I Wish Lunch Could Last Forever," perhaps my favourite story from his book Tales From Margaritaville.  In the process of writing it, I discovered why the movie often differs from the book.  Oftentimes the written word doesn't translate easily into a visual medium.  It's sometimes necessary to make alterations in order to make it work in a different format.  For my short story adaptation, I actually added a character of a journalist who is interviewing the main character for a magazine article.  She basically tells the story to him.  I seem to recall that  I also tweaked the ending a bit--I didn't change the ending or anything, I just enhanced it somewhat.  I don't know whether my professor ever read the original short story, but he gave me a B on it (perhaps even a B+.  It's been a few decades, I honestly don't remember).  I always thought of sending it to Buffett to see what he thought of it, but I think I was just too embarrassed to do so.

These days, I find that one of the highest compliments that can be paid to a film that is based on a book is to say it was faithful to the source material.  Obviously this is not a prerequisite for a film's success--many of the Bond films, especially during the Roger Moore era, were little to nothing like the Ian Fleming novels of the same name.  Sometimes endings get changed--such as it was in The Natural--just because the audience would be disappointed.  Sometimes details get altered or omitted--such as it was with the 1941 adaptation of The Maltese Falcon--in order to avoid being labeled "indecent" (and, for the most part, that version of The Maltese Falcon was a faithful adaptation).

This week's film has always puzzled me.  I went to see it opening night in 2014 just because I was fond of the cast (and I have quite the crush on Tina Fey).  Until the opening credits rolled, I didn't realize it was based on a novel.  Honestly, I had forgotten that little detail until it was released on DVD.  I had enjoyed the film enough that I wanted to own it.  For some reason, I went through one of my temporary "addictions" and found myself watching it many times over.  I was reminded of the fact that it was based on a book during those many viewings, which prompted me to buy a copy of the book.

When I read it, I was taken aback for a number of reasons.  There were many elements that were left out of the movie, which would have possibly made it run over three hours in length.  That's easy enough to overlook and forgive.  What caught me off guard was how unlikable the characters in the book were.  By the end of it, I understood why they were the way they were and they actually became more likeable by that point.  The book was also very well written which made me want to finish it.  But I found I liked all the characters much more in the movie than in the book.  I can only assume this was due to the actors who played them.  When I watch the movie, I want everything to work out for the characters.  It's a lot harder to root for them in the book.

Under normal circumstances, these differences wouldn't have concerned me at all--different media and all that.  The main reason I was thrown off by this was the fact that Jonathan Tropper wrote the screenplay to the film based on his own novel.  Aside from the issue of not wanting to make a three hour family drama, I can't understand why someone would alter their own work that much in adapting it.  He even changed the surname of the family from Foxman to Altman.  I've lost track of how many times I've watched the movie over the last decade.  I have, however, only read the book once.  While I can't say one is necessarily better than the other, I think it's safe to say I do like one over the other.

The film stars Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn, Connie Britton, Rose Byrne, Timothy Olyphant, Dax Shepard, Ben Schwartzman, Debra Monk, and Jane Fonda--hard not to like that cast.  Directed by Shawn Levy, please enjoy This Is Where I Leave You.

 

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

 

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

This week's album and accompanying "sermon" was inspired by an article in The New York Times this week... as well as the fact that yesterday was Hallowe'en.  While doing subsequent research, I discovered that I misinterpreted what I'd read.  Last week, one of my favourite songwriters was honoured with a tribute concert in Los Angeles.  It was a four-and-a-half hour affair featuring many artists performing the songs of the inimitable Warren Zevon.  The show was organized by Zevon's son Jordan, longtime collaborator Jorge Calderón, and lifelong friend and fellow performer Jackson Browne.  Zevon, who died in 2003, is set to be honoured by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with their musical influence award during their annual induction ceremony next week.  He is not, as I originally understood, being inducted as a performer himself, which is, in my opinion, a gross oversight that should have been rectified years ago.  Still, I guess this is better than nothing and better late than never.

I first became aware of Warren Zevon through David Letterman.  During his late night tenures at both NBC and CBS, if bandleader Paul Shaffer was away for some reason, Zevon would often fill in and would also appear as a musical guest when he had something to promote.  In his career, he only had one commercial hit, 1978's "Werewolves of London" from his album Excitable Boy.  To this day, it's the only song of his I've ever heard on the radio--and it's not even his best one.  In a career lasting nearly 35 years, he wrote songs that ran the gamut of emotions and looked at much of life with a dark sense of humour and sharp wit--things that don't typically produce "radio friendly" tunes.  As Jackson Browne said after the tribute concert, "Listening to all these songs, it occurred to me that Warren never pandered at all.  He never dumbed down for anybody or tried to write a hit. He just wrote and went on writing the best songs he could until the moment he was gone. That was his singular achievement."

Having a somewhat dark (described by many as "inappropriate") sense of humour my own self, I tend to appreciate it in others--I'm especially drawn to it in popular culture.  Even his song titles dripped with an attitude that has been described as "sardonic" by more than one music journalist over the years--songs like "I Was in the House When the House Burned Down," "Disorder in the House," "Things To Do in Denver When You're Dead," and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," which I've always felt is perhaps rock's greatest ghost story.  While he could also write a tender love song with the best of them ("Mutineer" is perhaps my favourite of these), I tend to primarily give him credit for writing the greatest expression of desperation ever uttered--"Send lawyers, guns, and money.  The shit has hit the fan."

So it's in honour of some long-overdue honours that he's finally receiving (22 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH), that I submit one of my favourite of his albums.  This was the second-to-last album released in his lifetime.  Released in 2002, he co-wrote most of the songs with writers who typically wrote poetry and prose (some still do).  Novelist Carl Hiaasen, Irish poet Paul Muldoon, sportswriter Mitch Albom, and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson all received what is likely their first songwriting credits, lending the album a literary flair that makes it stand out in Zevon's discography.  This week, please enjoy My Ride's Here.

I would feel remiss if I didn't bring up the song "Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)," co-written with Albom--likely my favourite cut on the album.  In what could be described as a full-circle moment, Paul Shaffer and various members of what was then known as The CBS Orchestra play on the track (in fact, drummer Anton Fig plays on the entire album) with a lovely guest appearance by David Letterman himself that never ceases to make me smile every time I hear it.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember to enjoy every sandwich.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill