(Credits: Far Out / Netflix)
The late-night laconic David Letterman once joked, “America is the only country where a significant proportion of the population believes that professional wrestling is real but the moon landing was faked.” It’s only a joke, but it is indicative of a rather chaotic society that has given rise to some of the most beautifully satirical music of the modern age.
From Randy Newman to Bob Dylan, a plethora of American stars have skewered the nation’s strange disposition in song. Letterman’s own goal in comedy was to achieve something similar. As he put it himself, “I’m just trying to make a smudge on the collective unconscious.” As he well knows, even aiming for a mere smudge doesn’t always ‘endear’ you to the masses.
Case in point is the fact that his friend and favourite musician, Warren Zevon, is often overlooked. In fact, Zevon is a figure whose career was littered with ironies. For instance, Letterman believes that his late buddy’s biggest hit was actually an achievement he could’ve done without. ”I often wondered if he had been victimised by ‘Werewolves of London’, as that may have created an indelible impression of the man’s work,” he told Vulture.
”While it’s delightful and humorous and funny and silly and good-natured and upbeat, it’s in no way even the tip of the iceberg,” he said of Zevon’s work. However, curiously, the same could be said for a lot of his lesser-known songs, too. While his lyricism was often comical, and the arc of this very piece decrees the mainstay of his repertoire to be satire, the Chicagoan songwriter was equally capable of sentimentalism.
In fact, Letterman believes that he may well have written the greatest love song ever. Singling out ‘Searching for a Heart’ as a song everyone looking to get into Zevon should listen to, he commented, “Kill me. I’m sure there are love songs as good as that, but any better? I don’t know.” With its oozing melody and power pop rhythm, Zevon croons about a search for love in the dark.
(Credit: Alamy)
There is a simplicity to it and a straightforward nature that, ironically, almost leaves you waiting for Zevon’s trademark catch. The fact that it doesn’t arrive from an artist of his usual ilk adds to the earnest nature of the searching lyrics and sugary sound. In essence, it is imbued with greater depth by virtue of the back catalogue that it stands among—shuffling around with its hands in its pockets, asking to bum a cigarette from the sardonic ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’.
As Letterman put it, “I can remember the first time I heard ‘Searching for a Heart’, and I listened to it a thousand times in a row. I’d tell someone to listen to ‘Werewolves of London’ because we all get a kick out of that. But then listen to ‘Searching for a Heart’. And you tell me, is that the same guy?” Therein lies the complexity of Zevon and, quite possibly, the reason America largely overlooked him in his day: he embodied everything about the country so seamlessly that he effectively blended in.
‘Searching for a Heart’ is a great American love song—it’s soppy, sentimental and always striving for better. No matter how jaded it feels in the shroud of “darkness”, “shadows” and “certain individuals” who “aren’t sticking to the plan”, it still returns to the optimistic adage that “love conquers all”. That’s perhaps why even a wry American comic like Letterman adores it.
As Stephen Fry said of the differences between European and American culture: “If you go into an American book shop, by far the biggest section is self help and improvement; the idea that life is refine-able and that you can learn a technique for anything. […] There is an unbelievable sense that life is improvable.” Even when there’s an acceptance that life can get you down, you can come out swinging and hit a home run.
The tears of a clown are the saddest of all in American culture—and they’re not afraid to bawl their eyes out, either. They joke and joke, as Zevon’s back catalogue often shows, and then comes the moment of pathos that reveals those jokes derived from the same search for connection that drives this sudden, unexpected onrush of tears. In Letterman’s view, that is perfectly summarised by ‘Searching for a Heart’.
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