Allegedly a member of
William Gibson's mutual admiration club, he is a better songwriter than a singer.
Back in the 70s he helped make Linda Rondstadt a household word by writing several songs that she covered into Top 40 hits. The most famous was probably
Poor, poor, pitiful me.
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The version that LR covered did NOT include these original lyrics:
" I met a girl at the Hyatt house, she asked me if I'd beat her, I took her back to my hotel room,........ I don't want to talk about it."
The often repeated phrase "I'll sleep when I'm dead" is the name of one of his songs on his first album (Warren Zevon). The album with the coolest cover art? Bad luck streak in Dancing school album. Warren and a room of ballet dancers.