His Take On Steve Winwood's Classic, The Split Personality, Images And Inspirations In His Compositions.

When I first heard your version
Of Back in the High Life Again
I was wondering if you were seeing it straight
Or ironically
How did you approach it?

Let me answer you this way
I wrote a song a few years ago
For a great, unique American director, Alan Rudolph
I wrote the song searching for a part for a movie of his
That didn't do very well

And strangely, for a Alan Rudolph movie
They had one of those test showings
For a test audience in a mall, in a theater in a mall
Way out in the valley in L.A

And, uh, the audience was laughing and hooting
But I guess they were laughing in the wrong places
Or, or something, it wasn't, it didn't go well

They had a focus group that gives their opinion
And they give 'em five dollars
So they give a bad opinion
And they hope they'll get compensated for that

I don't know, but I stood outside the theater
With Alan Rudolph, and I said, I mean
"I guess, I guess they don't know if it's ironic or not
They don't know if you're trying to be funny
Or if you're not trying to be funny, Alan"
And he said, "Well, did they ask Neil that?"

Well, let me ask you
Songwise, does Warren Zevon have a split personality
The, the sensitive baladeer versus the archnarrator?

Well, if I had a split personality I'd only know it
I'd only know it half of the time, wouldn't I?
I mean, with all due respect to Alanis Morrissette
Who I think it's very, very good

I think that irony is something
If you define that you're being ironic
You're automatically nothing ironic
And vice versa, whatever that means

When these two elements of your songwriting personality
Are in the same song, you know, the sentimental Warren
And the arch Warren, are in, both in I think
For My Next Trick I'll Need a Volunteer
And Hostage-O, which both are on the new album

Is it harder for you to get across
What you're trying to say with them
When you clearly do a sentimental ballad
Or clearly do a humurous song?

Unless I'm overwhelmed by some kind of toxic emotion
I don't know if it's ever completely clear to anybody
What they're trying to get across, or what they want
And also, you know, my parents came from
Such incredibly different backgrounds
Were so different from each other

There's always been, I guess, two sides of me
That's what people always tell me
And that's what people seem to perceive about me
But again, I try to spend as little as time as possible
Addressing what people perceive about me

And necessarily everything doesn't have to be
A clear, linear, uh, message that a song gets across
And you've got these images sometimes
Uh, I'll throw a few of them at ya

Sentimental hygiene
Monkey wash, donkey rinse
Uh, an invalid haircut
And my favorite new one is, uh
"You know I hate it when you stick your hand
Inside my head and switch all my priorities around"

Where does this stuff come from?
I don't know
Well, do you keep a notebook around for
When these phrases arise and then jot them down?

Well, certainly like a comedy writer or anything else
You think of a phrase
And you're on the phone with a friend, and say
"Oh-oh, you've got a pencil?"
You know, that's a goofy idea

I don't really keep notebooks or anything too much
Because if I get an idea that I like well enough
Then I can go to work, then I have a job again
And I, and I work on that song
Until I develop something out of the original idea

There's one song on Life'll Kill Ya that is packed with
Outstanding imagery, it's almost a celtic gospel song
And it also stands out because it has some of the
Few harmonies in the whole album
Fistful of Rain, what inspired that song?

Jorge, that was Jorge's idea
I think we kinda saw it as a Buddhist gospel song
'Bout the, you know
The harder you try to hold onto things, the
The more they slip through your fingers sometimes

And the more they flow, the-
The more they stay with you