Warren Zevon

Bad Karma

Nov 30, 2022

Good Morning!

Today we’re listening to “Bad Karma” by Warren Zevon

Bad karma. It explains so much, doesn’t it? I mean, how else does a genius like Warren Zevon never truly crack pop stardom? That's gotta be it, right? Nothing to do with radio stations not wanting to play songs about excitable boys building cages with bones?

Was it something I did
In another life?
I try and try
But nothing comes out right
Bad Karma
Killing me by degrees

In 1987, Zevon had long been pegged as a genius. He’d also been pegged as mercurial and erratic- mostly of his own doing—leaving him stuck between almost famous and the “critic’s darling” purgatory.

Sentimental Hygiene was a quasi-comeback record five years after The Envoy was met with tepid reviews and dismal sales. He’d also been booted from his label, fought alcoholism, and come out on the other side. It’s no secret that Zevon had seen some things by this point. He’d also written plenty of well-loved songs— but not enough love to have them consistently make the charts.

So what do you do when you’ve got nothing to lose? You go for broke.

In this case, you pivot from an otherwise pretty consistent discography, add some synthesizers, and go a little heavy on the keyboards. And you learn that your new—and newly promoted—manager went to school with some guy named Peter buck, so you employ his up-and-coming group R.E.M. as your backing band and test drive that chemistry under the name Hindu Love Gods.

It seems like an unusual pairing, but hiring three-quarters of the Athens, Georgia quartet (drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills) was an inspired decision and one that went a long way in giving Zevon’s new songs plenty of grit and gravitas. At the time, R.E.M. were a highly respected band but hardly the household name they would very soon become. Sentimental Hygiene was recorded and released the same year as Document, the album that would turn R.E.M. into a worldwide phenomenon. Leaving behind – at least for the time being – their jangle-rock, Byrds-inspired trappings, Berry, Buck, and Mills embraced a loose, garage-rock sound and an affinity for blues and punk stylings that made them the perfect foil for Zevon.

Then you sprinkle a little Dylan and Young across the top for good measure, to say nothing of Heartbreakers Stan Lynch and Mike Campbell. The liner notes are really just a long list of all-stars. While Peter Buck, Bill Berry, and Mike Mills play throughout, “Bad Karma” is the only track where lead singer Michael Stipe appears.

If nothing else, Zevon excels at songcraft and the sort of winking nod that comes with accepting one’s fate. On being in on the joke. In this vein, “Bad Karma” is a classic.

Really it’s just Zevon doing Zevon things; a loveable loser on the fast track to the “All time Losers Hall of Fame” carried along by Buck & co.

This is where the band really does the heavy lifting- it would be easy to get caught in Zevon’s quicksand of cynicism, but the band keeps it all above ground and moving right down the tracks.

Sentimental Hygiene came out the same week as REM’s Document- the record that dropkicked them into worldwide fame. I’ll leave it to you to decide which has held up better. At any rate, Zevon had no such luck.

But singing about misery and seeming to have fun doing it? This is what he does best. And getting us to love it? That’s gotta be good for some karma points, right?

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But the heavier songs on Sentimental Hygiene – not surprisingly – deliver the most potent sonic punches. “Bad Karma” – featuring Michael Stipe on backing vocals – races along with a catchy, power-pop fervor, while the breakneck rockabilly punk of “Even a Dog Can Shake Hands” skewers the vapidity of Hollywood. The buzzing garage funk of “Detox Mansion” is a sarcastic jab at celebrity rehab centers, which shows that Zevon wasn’t above poking fun at his rise from rock bottom…

Read the rest of the lookback here.

“Bad Karma” by Warren Zevon| Sentimental Hygiene, 1987

Click the record to listen on your platform of choice.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this track!

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