[cbBen]

Me too -- a great deal.

Listen, I partially agree with you about Tango [just brilliant, brilliant production], but to remind you it's Christine singing "Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies" followed by Stevie coming in with "Tell me lies" before Lindsey comes in with "Tell me, tell me lies." Stevie's voice is sharp and just makes the whole thing work. It's brilliant. And while Big Love became a great solo acoustic vehicle for Lindsey, Seven Wonders is the best thing on the album, besides Little Lies. I don't care that Stevie worked for ten days and Lindsey worked for 400 days. It's the effect that interests me, not the cause. I think her contributions to Little Lies and Seven Wonders are vital to the album and some of its biggest selling points, and she was at a creative low point mind you. You think The Dance would have been successful without Stevie? No way. And Lindsey probably worked ten times harder on it. Again it's the effect that matters, not the cause.

As for What's The World Coming to, is he saying that the long highway is the only way, or is he saying that the lone highway is the only way?

If the latter, then what on earth is a song that says "the lone highway is the only way" doing on a group album? And kicking off the album no less? If the lone highway is the only way what is Lindsey doing in the band? If it's the long highway, then it still sounds like a sentiment for a solo work. When one has a long hard road to hoe, one typically must do so alone [I'm speaking from a literary point of view here]. Anyway the song seems very individual for a group album.

And moreover the song is terribly self-pitying. Lindsey seems to think he is the last one on earth with any personal and artistic integrity. What's that term Alicia Silverstone's character uses in the film Clueless? Complaint rock?

Zevon had a much wryer sense of humor and a much more self-deprecating manner.

I can appreciate lines such as "There's no truth in my life/There's no light in my eyes/And it's all I guess/That I'll ever miss," but the song seems to indicate otherwise -- that there is truth and light in Lindsey's life, just that he has to fight to preserve it. Welcome to the club, my friend.

And lines such as "I don't take what they want/I don't do what they say/So I'm on their list/So I'm gone I guess" are the heart of the beast. So many times he complains about "they": What *they* say isn't true, *they'll* just turn me down, *[they'll]* turn me inside out, I don't take what *they* want, I don't do what *they* say. It's akin to the "faceless corporate record industry" -- a non-specific enemy that lives in Lindsey's mind.

Just who are "they" and what right does Lindsey think he has to be in their good graces in the first place?