Accidentally Like a Martyr by James Campion

Author:James Campion
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Backbeat Books
Published: 2018-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

You know, I just had a short vacation, Roy

Spent it getting a root canal

“Oh, how’d you like it?”

Well, it ain’t that pretty at all

The “Roy” is LeRoy Marinell, cowriter of many of Zevon’s most manic tunes, back again to lend support to this ode to self-inflicted pain. “This is a perfect example of Warren and LeRoy getting crazy with a song, which they always did over the years, I love it,” says longtime friend and songwriting partner Jorge Calderón. This time Roy gets into the act, asking Zevon knowingly, “Oh, how’d you like it?” to the age-old comedic axiom that something is so bad it can only be underwhelmed by a root canal, perhaps the most invasive and painful of procedures in the sadistic craft of dentistry. It so happens that when he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, Zevon revealed to interviewers that he had failed to see doctors for decades to avoid the type of horrible news he was eventually handed. His one medical contact was his dentist, Doctor Stan, regarding whom he mused to VH1, “If Dr. Stan can’t fix it, call 911. I’m done.”

Dr. Stan is another colorful character in the cadre of confidants Zevon kept close during his professional life, while also hitting many touchstones. Beyond being Zevon’s dentist and only real physician, Dr. Stan was also Bob Dylan’s cousin. A swashbuckling character who rode a motorcycle and proudly displayed signed photos of Mick Jagger and George Harrison on his office walls, the good doctor played, according to talent manager and later CEO of Zevon’s last record label, Artemis Records, Danny Goldberg, “a paternal role that Warren coveted and appreciated.”

Once again, without being too Freudian, Zevon uses the second verse to merge his dentist (“root canal”) with his father (“paternal role”) in a song about pain.

Zevon admitted to Rolling Stone’s Richard Skanse in 2000: “Sickness. Doctors. That scares me. Not violence—helplessness. That’s why I turn to violent stories, I think. Nobody’s ever asked me that, and I’ve never said that before, but I think that’s true.”

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