Added: 3 years ago
From: moonfortyfour
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  • This show was the first time I really gained respect for David Letterman. This could not have been easy for anyone, especially Warren and we are so fortunate to have it watch. How is there only 310,847 hits?

  • Happy Birthday WZ!! I'm happy for the experience of meeting and partying with you and your memory hasn't wavered.

  • six members of the CIA watched this

  • There are amazing acts on this show. I like how Letterman is respectful and knowledgable about good music. Paul and that band are one of the best in the world also and you can see Warren knows it.

  • 240P we meet again 

  • Major props to Letterman on this too, held it together very well. I would've cried like fuck (and I am now).

  • Fantastic, touching stuff. Like Tori Amos' performance on the post-9/11 episode of Late Show, Warren's performances here are just so touching and profound.

    I play Roland on my IPod and usually sing along to it if no ones around. Terrific and clever song.

    I love Letterman and think he shows incredible class and taste with shows like this one and the now-iconic 9/11 show.

  • Warren Zevon, lyrical and musical genius.

  • Dave is such a strange dude to people. You can really see here how much he liked Warren as a friend.

  • You can tell how much Warren and his music really meant to Dave. Not often that somebody in the limelight shows this kind of vivid emotion. Thank you so much for these video posts.

  • Whiskey, weed, and Warren Zevon.

  • Letterman is a true friend to dedicate the whole show to his buddy Warren. You're a idiot if you can't appreciate a good Warren song !!

  • paul didn't help much on this one

  • There is not one thing in this performance that is not wonderful. Warren's piano, Paul's backups, Paul's organ riffs, Oh and Warren's courage, while his body was being ravaged by cancer. The only fitting place for Warrens last public breath was on Dave's show. After this show , it is said, that Warren gave Dave the ax he always played on Dave's show. I'll bet that is one of David Letterman's most prized possesions.

  • beautiful. thanks for posting...

  • Just read Crystal Zevon's great biog while playing 'Stand In The Fire' & 'Learning To Flinch' live albums, loud. I recommend it. Thanks for posting these priceless clips. RIP, Warren.

  • Good music is still being made out there, but you have to search it out. And it won't be easy because as digital recording and web distribution of music has made it possible for common people to put out singles and albums, it has also created an avalanche of shit, and sorting through it all in order to find another "Warren Zevon" is now harder than ever.

  • I saw this the night it was aired- Powerful. It was very touching to see some NYC Zevon fans say a final farewell to him as he got in his limo at the end of the show.

  • This isn't my favourite song of his, however I'm grateful for having seen it.

  • As moving as this is (I'd have to say that watching this is as close to religion as I'll ever get), I just read something on wiki that was just so perfectly Warren as to make me cry with laughter:

    "When his diagnosis became public, Zevon told the media that he just hoped to live long enough to see the next James Bond movie, a goal he accomplished. Coincidentally, the film was titled Die Another Day."

    I don't know if it's true, but it's so absurdly appropriate...

  • I get tears in my eyes when I see this

    

  • 6 people are going to hell

    thumps up if u think so too

  • If you want to learn something from Warren, notice how he values his family and how humble he is on his last Letterman show.

  • I hate to say it, but I've had this song in my head since the Norway shootings last week.

  • RIP WARREN WE LOVE YOU WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU COMRADE!

  • I look forward to the future, because there will always be loyal fans of Warren Zevon to carry on his name.

  • Paul Shaffer. Go away. Please. Forever.

  • Warren - you are so missed.......

  • rip warren-- he was a beloved singer and song writer he was a father a grandfather a husband and a just plain great person his soul lives in all of us in the form of his music his death was a tragic hit to all of his fans he shall be missed

  • this make me cry :(

  • Unique talent. Noone wrote songs like Zevon.

  • Cancer is a wierd bastard. You can look ok on the outside but you're being eaten away within. Chemo makes you look on the outside like what's going on on the inside, totally messes you up and might add a year to your life depending on the cancer you have but it's not the way out I'd like. Warren chose his exit and went out good-looking and un-chemofied. Can't do better than that

  • @Rikk303 Amen about your view on chemo. My dad just died of mesothelioma at an elderly age, 80, and chemo accomplished nothing other than to make him very sick. Does anyone know how Warren was exposed to asbestos?

  • @Rikk303 Good point, Rikk303 - I have to respect his choice on how to hit the exit - especially since the exit is coming our way no matter what.

  • @Rikk303 he only did do he could finish his album unhindered

  • @Rikk303 so

  • @Rikk303 my dad had cancer 32 years ago, had an operation and chemo, couldn't tell the difference, bastard was bald when he was 17, 32 years later he's 73 and still kickin'. warren was an idiot, choosing hunter thompson for a doctor. well liberals are that way, i liked warren's music, but i feared his politics, he brought us Obama..

  • @mrbadx19 I'm totally apolitical and don't see why that should be an argument anyway. As I said, certain cancers are best dealt with by a dignified acceptance. You'll see that in any person who's had to make the choice. Heroic is the only way I can describe it

  • @mrbadx19 How exactly did he bring us Obama?

  • @mrbadx19 From your comments on how WZ chose to live his life and your glib comment about his politics only shows who is the real idiot. BTW, you should try educating yourself about mesothelioma and whom you should actually fear politically.

    OBAMA 2012

  • Warren didn't refuse chemo out of some kind of bravery. He was horrified that people admired him not getting chemo. Life was sacred to him. He didn't want to die and would never have endorsed refusing treatment. He just felt the treatment would leave him unable to work and finish his last album.

  • A True Genius missed by all as songwriter and performer... His music will be with us forever not like a lot of the tripe and one hit blunders that call themselves musicians now...

  • Always brave as sun!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • Not only his last letterman performance, his last ever performance in front of an audience

  • The guitarist on this one is phenomenal.

  • Knee deep in gore

  • the 5 people who disliked this have a heart of stone and a soul of custard

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  • @diamondjimlegend Your wife doesn't speak for all women.

  • @ColeHan100 Given

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  • In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun!!!!!!!!!!

  • Thank you again Mff for posting this

  • i wrote a paper in one of my polisci classes about biafra & the nigerian civil war because of this song. i got an A for the paper & the class. thanx warren.

  • A total, utter, complete bloody genius!, don't even think about disagreeing, this man was so talented and unique.

    No-one can fill his shoes, we have lost someone special, thank you Warren, thank you so much!

  • @cruithneuladh I'm gonna steal someone else's comment because it was so completely correct - Bob Dylan wishes he could write Warren Zevon songs. He is irreplaceable like you say

  • @cruithneuladh well said mate!

  • besides ending slavery, fascism, genocide, etc wat has war done for society?

  • @1775scoutsniper Maybe in some specific situations war has ended those the things you list, but all of them persist in varying degrees to one extent or another right up the present moment. War is clearly inevitable when you have enemies who are itching for a fight, say in the case of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. But to laud war for ending any of the things you listed is wholly inaccurate.

  • He mentions fighting in 66 and 67 and a Thompson gunner. inferring he was talking about the Thompson sub machine gun and Vietnam, does he know the Thompson Sub machine gun wasn't standard issue during the Vietnam War?

  • @1775scoutsniper

    Uhhh, did you catch the mention of "Biafra", "the Congo war", "fought the Bantu", "the Congolese", "Mombassa", "Johannesburg" etc.

    That's AFRICA, no mention of Vietnam. Might want to brush up on your geography and history.

  • @1775scoutsniper first of all, my comments were arbitrary lets just enjoy the song, and second why get into the technicalities of the song its not 100% true get over it

  • @1775scoutsniper Ah yeah - like what you've already been told. There's no mention of Vietnam. The Thommy gun. Huh!? Look, I could be wrong but the Thommy gun was invented in the Twenties - the first automatic machine gun (You know why a gun is called automatic don't you?) And the song is about the revolution in the Congo (Previously British Congo, since then the Belgian Congo.........) And Warren rules this genre, He built it and made it his own.

  • @diamondjimlegend Jackson Browne called Warren "the first and foremost proponent of song noir." Probably as good as description as there'll ever be.

  • @ManeatingLemur I've never heard that. It is a damn good description.

  • @ManeatingLemur I just don't get it,... Noir? so totally not! The most engaging involved songs ever written. Like I've said here on one of the songs, he invented this genre, built it and made it his own. But Noir? I think not.

  • After the show, Warren gave Letterman his guitar he always played on the Tonight Show

  • This song makes me remember listening to Warren back when I was a child, and just loving the hell out of this sad song and getting goosebumps when my parents would play it. We miss you, Warren. Here's to you, a true lyrical genius and musical giant. 

  • A great writter and poet! Thanks Warren!! We won't forget you!

  • I wish I could see the entire show. The relationship between Letterman/Shaffer and Zevon is nothing short of touching.

  • Hats off to Warren, the true eternal Thompson gunner.

  • RIP good troubador! thanks for touching my life, thanks for all the music and all the poetry

  • what a majestic song. thanks, Warren.

  • Outstanding!!! RIP Warren Zevon.

  • God bless ya, Warren....struggling here with his breathing. Paul helps out on the chorus. We miss you, Warren Zevon!

  • Political guys, chill out. Just enjoy the song. RIP

  • What 4 schmucks disliked this??? Losers!

  • @supertenor They were probably shot by Roland

  • Did this really devolve into political flaming? Nice.

  • I'm sure the dislikes of this video were just people who miss Warren Zevon so much they can't bear to see him on any medium.

  • beautiful. simple. haunting. and awesome.

  • paul kills it!

  • Hunter Thompson commited suicide 3 years before this appearance. Leave me out of this liberal shit ! Liberals are hateful people !

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  • @k3304 SOMEDAY THIS LIBERAL ONLY HOPES 4 THE BEST!! R.I.P. HUNTER AND WARREN

  • @k3304 Librals are the best conservatives are the idots who want war and death

  • @snoooo5 , conservatives want peace like everybody else. Appeasement doesnt work. It let's the dictators win.

  • @k3304 what about mcain if he wan he would've nuked the fuck outa everyone

  • @snoooo5 , there's alot of "ifs" about McCain but we'll never know, will we ? What we DO know is North Korea keeps abusing the South and Iran is still developing a weapon for israel. Get ready for WW3 because our enemies know that Obama is a weakling.

  • @k3304 no i dont really think he is then you'll retaliate "typicall liberals" but you do realise world war 3 will be the end of us. there is a famous saying "i know not what wepons world war 3 will be fought with, but i do know that world war four will be fought with sicks and stones" - Albert Einstine

  • @snoooo5 if ww3 is going to be the end of us, how would the weapons of ww4 be sticks and stones if there is nobody alive to use them?

  • @corbamites Really? I doubt you're even close to Warren's tallent. Why don't you go and troll somewhere else.

  • @corbamites what douchie comment.

  • So poignant... and beautifully sung by a dying man who's still missed by all of us, apparently.

  • The four people who disliked this are not the man.

  • This song gives me goose bumps it's so good.

  • @SpartanAirsoft I was thinking the same thing , it would rock you with out words , man it just has ...something about it .

  • warren was a great man and rip warren i first heard this song with my dad in the garage right before he died it is truly a great song it makes you think thumbs up if you agree

  • Most musicians today just cant tell a story with their songs like this man. He will be missed.

  • I love at 3:40 where WZ looks back at Paul Schaffer and the band. Originally, I thought it was critical (for the apparent gaffe at 2:31), but now I think it was real affection.

  • @dropdowndog no gaffe guy, listen to the cd or album, paul was right there w/the goods. don't know what you call it in music terms but it's like overlapping lyrics...

  • @dropdowndog Yes, you're exactly right. Warren wanted to see them, the band, there, playing his song, with him...for the last time.

  • I couldn't do it....Letterman will always be the class of late night since Carson's gone. Good for him to have this lasting image and memory of Warren. Im going to enjoy a sandwich now

  • This performance is amazingly touching, it brought near to tears. We all love you and miss you Warren.

  • man do I hate paul shaffer

  • spain

  • Man this is beautiful.

  • @basefree This was 2002. He was, in fact, dying.

  • @copyryan were all dying, champ.

  • @selfesteemdestroyer Whatever you say, ace.

  • @copyryan u really can't argue my point, chief

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  • @selfesteemdestroyer Right you are, slick. You've given me so much to think about. Thank you.

  • @copyryan no worries, sport. catch ya on the flipside, skipper.

  • @selfesteemdestroyer Thanks, little buddy. You're a real pal.

  • @copyryan fag

  • @selfesteemdestroyer Clever. Very clever. Clearly your hobby, or more likely full-time habit (probably for lack of any social skills or ability to talk to women) of posting irrelevant comments and attempting to piss people off is working out really well for you. Keep up the good work. The sad, sad, lonely work.

  • @copyryan dont be mad cuz ur girlfriend has a yeast infection

  • @selfesteemdestroyer She does? There's so much your mom doesn't tell me.

  • @copyryan ZING!

  • What a great video. David is just glowing and I love Warren Zevon. Saw him and he played piano all night. Man next to me had his ears stuffed for the 'heavy metal' concert! I should have written Warren a note about that. I didn't think at the time, but he might have been able to make a song from that. David has anniversary night programs and Paul plays all Zevon music the night. What a good friend to show so much respect and admiration this far down the road. Great Posting.

  • @copyryan great response.

  • @copyryan well said incredible writer

  • Long live Warren Zevon.

  • This is just good stuff. Good of Dave to devote an entire show to his friend (and surely it was Dave's doing, probably against the network's wishes), and good of Warren to gamely come out and talk about his condition with good humor, then perform these excellent songs.

  • @rollo131 - Yeah, I couldn't help but think the same thing. What a wonderful night for the audience I bet.

  • As for the counter-song Schaffer, in my opinion, does blow it at 2:26, recovering quickly, but he definitely misses the phrasing on the first part of the lyric. Now, Zevon was a bit of a perfectionist - to say the least - and this performance is flawless except for the apparent Schaffer gaffe. That said, this four-part footage is a treasure.

  • @dropdowndog Not by much...it goes Time, time time for another useless war...

    which Paul does, with a bit of a different harmony, but not bad...did get stronger on second line

  • @eclecticNhectic Looking at it again, he may have had a mechanical problem, because at 2:38 Paul puts his left hand to his earpiece/monitor and at the same time the volume seems to modulate. He seems to have started off okay and yes, finished strong. He actually gets Zevon's low tenor sound mimicked pretty good. Thanks for those lyrics. "Time stands still for Roland, 'til he evens up the score" seems to be the rest of it?

  • looked death in the eye and said fuck it

  • Vote Warren Zevon for the rock and roll hall of fame now. One of Americas greatest songwriters. "Keep me in your heart awhile."

  • @basefree well, he died in '03, and Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon came out in 2002, so I'd say 2002.

  • Warren Zevon ir the Best musican ever!

  • what a privelege it must have been for paul n the band to play the last "ROLLAND"

  • @Jimlaregina: you're right, and then again not. Pitty we didn't get the end, but then again, this was to make clear this was about Warren, as it should. Just my opinion.

    @Warren (if the aftermath is connected): Your music will be heard in the millenium to come, man.

  • The most under rated musician in the history of music, bar none. I miss him.

  • @StampedeBull Absolutely. A true master.

  • Too bad it cuts off at the end of the song. I'd like to see the wrap-up.

  • @jimlaregina yes. Could the original poster add in the closing? That would be great, thanks.

  • one word......amazing. in fact fuck that. warron zevon is one of modern days musical greats, he's just never got the credit he deserved....for what its worth warron, we buried my mam to your most beautiful song. we love you. x

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  • @StreetLegal75 Stupid comment LOSER!

  • @StreetLegal75  LOSER comment you're probably bald and can't afford a wig! Why would you even make such a stupid comment. Let the good man RIP.

  • @StreetLegal75 He didn't lose his hair naturally. It was due to the chemo and radiation cancer treatments. I'd give him a pass.

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  • @PatrioticNewYorker

    Actually, Zevon refused chemo and radiation. He is bald here like half the men on earth because of what they call male-pattern-baldness. He balded gradually over the years. He's already balding in the first Letterman interview. He was a real man, not some punk like StreetLegal75. God bless you Warren.

  • @KangootheRabbit Anyone who ran with the Good Doctor had to be the real deal one character flaw Dr. Gonzo didn't put up with was phoniness.

  • @KangootheRabbit Anyone who ran with the Good Doctor had to be the real deal one character flaw Dr. Gonzo didn't put up with was phoniness.

  • Warren....long may you reign.

  • The day Warren left us here, my friend and I left work early went to a small bar, put $15 in the juke box and played every Warren Zevon song it had on it and sipped our beers and sang along. His music was always something that kept us laughing and thinking, hell it still does. God Bless Warren Zevon!

  • God Bless Mr. Zevon. You're in my heart even though you're gone. You brought amazing music and happiness to the world, so even if there's nothing else wherever you are, you're remembered. And missed. And amazing. Thank you!

  • @conservenrgy Keep him in your heart for a while longer. Cheers mate

  • WilliamMelvinHicks -- thank you for that comment...I'm reaping what I've sowed right now...very painful...but in a second-hand store yesterday I found a cassette (!) tape of his greatest hits (yes, I have an old car). But it's helping me, and I'm just discovering this music for the first time. Why wasn't this guy bigger in his life? Maybe that's the point. God bless.

  • so cool of dave,to have warren on for an hour show

  • I used to listen to him with my dad when I was really young, sad that he died =[=[ I had no idea

  • God bless that old bastard!

  • Rest in Piece Warren - True talent.

  • this is why i will always like david letterman.

  • I grew up listening to this song with my mom.

  • my fave Zevon song. I recall when this was first released. Was lucky to see Zevon play a small club in Buffalo years ago.

  • @TheBlackycat warren called my buddy to the stage to sing exiteable boy , but he couldnt 'member the 1st verse. that was the tralf, 94 or 95 me thinks. another friend of mine recorded that entire show. on audio, but cant find it. bummer.

  • @TheBlackycat warren brought my bud on the stage to sing, but he couldnt 'member the 1st verse to xiteable boy, that was the tralf, bflo,94 or 95 i think

  • How many parts were there to his final appearance just the 4? Also was this his last public appearance period?

  • well... all i can think is his place in that ultimate band was ready... that's what makes the most sense to me.. wow - what a band..

  • I'm in a really dark place in my life. I've made some bad choices that have recently caught up with me.

    This song give me so much comfort right now.

    Thank you for posting this and thank you Warren Zevon.

  • Hope you're feelin' better.

  • @Opalwitley

    "The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder"

  • @WilliamMelvinHicks Just enjoy every sandwich.

  • @WilliamMelvinHicks Hang in there, mate.

  • @WilliamMelvinHicks You just hang in there. I was also in that dark place you are talking about. Just remember not to beat yourself up over the past,Just live right today .Do the things that make you happy. Stand strong and cut yourself some slack. Everyone does something they regret. But we can only make this moment better. good luck.