headphones and BBQ: Enjoy every sandwich

The single best show I have ever seen was Warren live and solo in 1992. It was in a small club in Manchester, NH on a snowy night with about 75 other people who had braved the weather on an awful, snowy night. Prior ot the show, I wasn't a Zevon fan, and could probably only name two songs he sang. I was amazed to hear many songs I recognized and how much heart he put into a club show with a small audience.

Rolling Stone is easily the most bipolar magazine in circulation today. One issue puts the Jonas Brothers on the cover without irony, and next they do something brilliant, like the current "New Golden Age of Comedy" issue, featuring an extensive, very interesting interview with David Letterman.

One of the highlights of the interview concerns the 2003 show Dave did with Warren Zevon.It was amzing. after Zevon had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had just months to live:

"After the show, it was heartbreaking -- he was in his dressing room, and we were talking and this and that. Here's a guy who had months to live and we're making small talk. and as we're talking, he's taking his guitar strap and hooking it, wrapping it around, then he puts the guitar into the case and he flips the snaps on the case and says, 'Here, I want you to have this, take good care of it.' And I just started sobbing. He was giving me the guitar that he always used on the show. I felt like, 'I can't be in this movie, I didn't get my lines.' That was very tough."

During the show, Zevon calls Letterman "the best friend my music ever had." And the multitude of appearances Zevon made as guest and fill-in bandleader certainly bear this out.

Herewith, the entire Zevon farewell edition of Late Show with David Letterman. It's a landmark night of music-related television, as Zevon approaches his public farewell with the humor, humanity, perspective and insight that characterized his music for so many years.

Warren Zevon, Late Show with David Letterman final appearance, 2003, Part I