Happy Valentine's Day from New Slush City!

Happy V-Day.

'In a sense, a father is a daughter’s true love. No matter what circumstances come into our lives to cloud the purity of that love, a daughter cannot help but feel the echo of her father whenever her heart swells with love. At least this has been true for me. My father and I had a strange and sometimes estranged relationship throughout my life and until the end of his; but despite the awkwardness and the pain we sometimes shared in each other’s company, his love for me and mine for him was unwavering and unquestionable.

Lucky (or unlucky at times) for me, his love songs were the tangible echoes of his capacity to love even when I could not be near him. I can recall as a young girl of 6 or 7 sitting in my mother’s rocking chair hugging the vinyl album cover to Excitable Boy as "Accidentally, Like a Martyr" and "Tenderness on the Block" brought streams of tears to my eyes. Though life’s hard knocks might have made it impossible for my father to always be present and by my side, the sweet melancholy of his lyrics and his voice consoled me and reassured me that wherever he was and whatever he was doing, his love could travel through space and time.'

-Ariel Zevon

Words from the daughter of the late, great Warren Zevon. A posthumous compilation album of love songs, all previously released, has not only made its way to the stores (#922 on Amazon.com music charts), but has been advertised on the networks, and a new video is set to premiere on VH1 Classic today, every hour on the hour.

So is this sheer capitalism? Morbid profiteering on the memory of a dead musician? Perhaps, but the album is out on his own label and his daughter seems to have blessed it. Zevon was a dark, twisted soul, so I think he probably wouldn't mind the profiteering of his work, especially since a side of him is beign exposed that many don't know. He is not all "Lawyers, Guns and Money" and "Werewolves of London." His love songs are amazing and worth a listen if you take a moment to turn off the radio and find his music elsewhere.

Don't let us get sick
Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight

The sky was on fire
When I walked to the mill
To take up the slack in the line
I thought of my friends
And the troubles they've had
To keep me from thinking of mine

Don't let us get sick
Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight

The moon has a face
And it smiles on the lake
And causes the ripples in Time
I'm lucky to be here
With someone I like
Who maketh my spirit to shine

Don't let us get sick
Don't let us get old
Don't let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight

-Warren Zevon, Zevon Music BMI