Warren Zevon lost his battle with cancer Sunday night.

"Dry your eyes, my little friend
Let me take you by the hand
Freddie get ready
Rock steady
When Johnny strikes up the band"

There are about twenty other songs that are more appropriate, but that one is the one that I first put on after I woke up to the news on the radio that he’d died.

Zevon was one of the first rock and rollers who showed me that rock could be intelligent and biting and and hard and fun. He didn’t have the earnestness of the folk musicians I loved, and he had that piano energy that just flowed through his songs. There were weeks on end when his CD didn’t leave the player. And when you grew up in the 1980s, intelligent rock and roll music was rather hard to find.

Good bye, Warren… and thank you.