Warren is the Edgar Allen Poe of rock.

This was the last song Warren ever performed live, on the David Letterman show after giving an interview about his cancer diagnosis

More Warren Zevon is never the wrong answer.

❤❤❤❤❤ There will NEVER be another Warren Zevon ❤❤❤❤❤

Roland was a mercenary. A Thompson gun is a submachine gun famously by gangsters in the 1920's and later by US military forces during WW 2. Warren Zevon is one of the most underappreciated singer songwriters ever. You cannot go wrong listening to anything in catalogue. A few highlights; Lawyers, Gun and Money, Excitable Boy, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and Mohamud's Radio are among my personal favorites.

Warren can go from macabre, to gruesome, to humorous, to sublime and tender in the course of an album. He is absolutely one of my favorite artists ever.

Warren was a regular on the David Letterman show.  After he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he made one last appearance on his show.  He performed several songs on the show before going over to take to Dave.  Dave asked him if he knew something more about life and death now, and Warren uttered his awesome quote - "Enjoy every sandwich".  And then he closed with this song - and it would be his last public performance.  After the show, he gifted Dave with the guitar he always used on the show and told him "take good care of it".

"Enjoy every sandwich" is part of my Twitter bio because it's so simple and so true.  He got into the Rock Hall in 2025 - and it was decades overdue.  One of the greatest songwriters of our time.

He knew things

Now that you have discovered Zevon, your life will never be the same.

He makes dark and doom fun.

He wrote Hasten Down the Wind.

God, I love Warren's music.  So many incredible and unique songs, and such a wicked sense of humor.  Who else would be hanging out with a mercenary and decide to write a song about one.  Warren was a classically trained pianist who read music beyond fluently.  He wrote songs from his unusual soul.  If you've never seen it, check out the video of Warren on David Letterman as his only guest as a tribute to Warren before he died.  He gave incredible performances of three songs - Mutineer, Genius, and 'Roland', in obvious discomfort from the cancer he was fighting.  It was a final goodbye and incredibly powerful and moving.  Enjoy every sandwich....

Warren composed this with the help of a real life mercenary who owned the bar in Spain that he was playing at and hiding out in before he hit it big.

Warren was such a great songwriter. He did absolutely beautiful songs, strange subjects and some that were just funny as hell. Miss him so much.

Song about mercenaries (From Norway and Denmark) hired to fight in the Congo war. CIA got involved and wanted to kill Roland, but, well, who needs a head anyway. In the book, Just for You, Baby: The Aftermath of the War When Things Went Tragically Wrong, mercenaries were also hired, military contactors, in Denmark, to fight in a U.S. foreign war. Mercenaries have been around a long time. Great Brittan hired Prussians to fight against the colonists in our Revolutionary War.

IMHO his best, and his best album. Joni Mitchell is quoted as saying "He was the best and most brilliant of all of us".

Of all my favorite parts of this song, probably my favoritest favorite is the fill in line, "Talkin' about the man..."

Zevon made a couple solo tours before it ended. This song with just Warren and his piano was surprisingly heavy and wonderfully entertaining. It made it my favorite tune of his.

I bought the "Werewolves of London" vinyl-single when it came out. And this song here was the B-side. These two songs were the start of loving his music. So Warren is now one of my favorite songwriters.

Yes.