The 30 Best Warren Zevon Covers Ever

Head back to the beginning.

20. Ric Sanders Trio — Werewolves of London

Ric Sanders has been the main fiddle player in Fairport Convention for nigh on 40 years, yet his background is steeped far more in jazz. Given his day job is most occupied with folk, it is in his side projects that he lets down his hair and indulges in his jazz passions. “Werewolves of London” is decidedly not jazz, but, courtesy his violin licks, he manages to inject vibrant fumes of Jean-Luc Ponty, or Sugarcane Harris, into his between-verse solos.

There is no piano, but bottleneck guitar and fiddle convey well the same swampy insouciance. It’s true, the vocal, from guitar player, Vo Fletcher, is rudimentary at best, both technically inept and with the worst fake American accent you could ever muster. But against all that, through the instrumental play, it works, the shrieking fiddle capturing all the blood ’n’ guts of a werewolf attack, late at night in London. — Seuras Og

19. Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia — Run Straight Down

Omnivorous enthusiasm. Chicago’s Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia want to capture and showcase the things that they love, and ignore the things that they don’t. Someone on the internet, on the screen, on the radio may indeed be wrong, but they are not going to waste energy explaining why their position may be flawed. There is too much to appreciate to spend time on wrongness. They love Zevon, amongst other things, and their time has been productively spent here, creating a sonic decoupage of their passions. — Mike Tobyn

18. Off With Their Heads — Splendid Isolation

Turns out that Zevon’s resplendent putdown of 1980s-style narcissism hits just as hard as an accelerated punk song as a mighty slice of harmonica-assisted heartland rock. The Minneapolis hardcore group Off With Their Heads covered the 1989 Transverse City track for a split single with Carbondale (Illinois) punk band Dear Landlord in 2007. The visceral shotgun riffage they bring to the song is one thing, but it’s the sound of Ryan Young screaming out those lyrics about wanting to emulate Michael Jackson having Disneyland all to himself in the “World of Self” that really makes it. Very funny. And very disturbing. — Adam Mason

17. Bruce Springsteen — My Ride’s Here

Warren Zevon said he didn’t know he was dying when he wrote “My Ride’s Here” but did acknowledge that the song and album of the same name were a meditation on death. Starring John Wayne, Jesus and Charlton Heston, the song is funny, weird and poignant…and an oddly romantic representation of the impending end. The title alone is a gorgeously genius gut punch.

The Springsteen-Zevon friendship dated back to the seventies and Bruce considered Zevon to be “one of the great, great American songwriters.” Bruce’s live cover, which featured on the 2004 tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich is a scenery-chewing joyride. The Boss leans trademark harrrd into his “r’s” (“Marriott”, “Fer”, “Carrion”, “Marion”) and delivers a dusty ‘n’ beautiful “Ride.” And let’s add a bow of thanks to Soozie Tyrell for that sweet violin and E-Street’s accordion master Danny Federici for lifting the whole thing to heaven. Rrrrrrr. — Hope Silverman

16. Phil Cody — Heartache Spoken Here

Phil Cody knows his Zevon. The LA songwriter eschews most of the obvious hits on his 2014 covers album Cody Sings Zevon. There’s no “Werewolves of London,” no “Lawyers, Guns and Money.” Instead, he often chooses deep cuts like “The Indifference Of Heaven” from the Mutineer album or “Lord Byron’s Luggage” from maybe my favorite Zevon album, My Ride’s Here. Those covers are all good, but my favorite is “Heartache Spoken Here,” off a truly forgotten Zevon album, 1991’s Mr. Bad Example. As a good cover can, it takes some deep album cut lost to history and makes it sound like a beloved classic. — Ray Padgett

15. Steve Earle with Reckless Kelly — Reconsider Me

“Reconsider Me” is a low-key lustrous, baby-I’ve-changed anthem, a nearly perfect song for driving and crying (while singing along, of course). How this thing hasn’t hit a million plays on Spotify is mystifying.

Steve Earle and Reckless Kelly’s drawling duet is pretty faithful, more of a tribute than a dismantling. It is the aural equivalent of two weathered Zevon acolytes at a bar talking about how hard he rules, singing “Reconsider Me” to each other, then one or both of them writing “Zevon Rules” on the bathroom wall before they hit the road. — Hope Silverman

14. Taylor Goldsmith — Gorilla, You’re a Desperado

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dawes (@dawestheband)

“Gorilla, You’re a Desperado” is objectively a silly song title, and the lyrics follow suit. It’s a very funny song about a gorilla stealing the narrator’s identity, leaving him stuck in the zoo cage instead. The gorilla lives the life of an LA yuppie, getting a divorce and going to therapy. Taylor Goldsmith, of Dawes, plays it totally straight on his solo piano cover. It sounds like a beautiful heartbreak ballad—until you hear the words. Ray Padgett

13. Lauren O’Connell — Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

Surely one of the weirdest songs in the Zevon canon, “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” sounds as if it should come from the pages of Marvel’s Sgt. Fury & his Howling Commandos, a cousin to Stan Ridgeway’s protagonist in “Camouflage.” It is actually loosely based on the exploits of co-writer David Lindell, a one-time mercenary who operated a bar in Spain. Lauren O’Connell gifts it with a simple organ and drum machine backing, her voice a sparse and spare commentary. A defiantly DIY musician, she has a bevy of material available, mainly of her own composition, but this comes from an all-covers selection called, concisely, Covers. I like the deadpan contrast between the presentation and the content, which adds to the overall oddness. — Seuras Og

12. Kinky Friedman — My Shit’s Fucked Up

When an artist covers a song there is always a hint of “Why didn’t I write this”? Maybe you are not a genius, or were born at the wrong time. It doesn’t matter what the reason is. In the history of cover versions, perhaps no one has meant “Why Not Me?” more than Kinky Friedman here.

His early days of unapologetic provocation were long behind him by the time he recorded this in 2015, and he may have already been having doubts when his friend Zevon released it 15 years before. Yes, there is the mortality that the song is always about, but Friedman may have been thinking of morality also. That what he imagined in his youth was the pricking of pomposity, was actually punching down. That leaves scars on the soul.

The sense that Zevon had captured what Friedman wanted to say adds layers of complexity and pathos to a bare song. In this version, Friedman makes sure that he views the song as a metaphor for the nation also, in 2016. It’s hard to imagine that he would have changed his mind since. — Mike Tobyn

11. Sorry Party — You’re a Whole Different Person When You’re Scared

I love the conceit of the Blind Covers series on YouTube: A band has to cover a song they do not know. They don’t get to hear it. They don’t even get told who the song is by to help guess the correct genre. All they get is the lyrics on a page. Needless to say, the resulting covers never sound anything like the originals—different melodies, different chords, different instruments. That’s the case with pop-punk band Sorry Party. Rather than a spooky organ ballad, it becomes a mosh-pit anthem to throw fists to. — Ray Padgett

NEXT PAGE →

Cover Me is now on Patreon! If you love cover songs, we hope you will consider supporting us there with a small monthly subscription. There are a bunch of exclusive perks only for patrons: playlists, newsletters, downloads, discussions, polls - hell, tell us what song you would like to hear covered and we will make it happen. Learn more at Patreon.