A strings version is on Dad Get Me Out Of This: The String Quartet Tribute To Warren Zevon. The song is also available in sheet form in The Warren Zevon Guitar Songbook. It is also featured on the live albums Learning to Flinch and the 2007 reissue of Stand in the Fire. The song appears on the compilation albums I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (An Anthology) and Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon. It is one of Zevon's more tender songs, even if dealing with such an unhappy relationship. His perception of her personality has changed so much since they met that he can't find the woman he loved, and is only hanging on to half her heart. In response she says that she would actually rather be with him, but the man comes to realize that this is only her way to keep him on the limb. In the end he comes to agree, she needs to be free. She tells him that "she thinks she needs to be free", a euphemism for leaving him, noting that the relationship does not seem to be really working out. The song describes a man's turbulent relationship with a woman. Like the best moments of the preceding nine, though, the best moments of Hasten down the Wind will be with us a long, long time."Hasten Down the Wind" is a song from Warren Zevon's 1976 self-titled album. But it is, despite its flaws, a fine album that begs closer inspection than, I fear, many of us are willing to give to Linda Ronstadt’s art. After the tumult of “Try Me Again,” “Crazy” is rather a boozy coda a “what the hell, you gotta give love a try” barroom ballad that is lighthearted and loose enough for Ronstadt to falter on the last line without destroying the mood. Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” an inspired choice, follows. Near the end of the song, Gold hammers out angry piano chords beneath Dan Dugmore’s sorrowful steel guitar lines, then comes back with a powerful guitar solo that is the instrumental topping for the quintessential Ronstadt performance. Realization and abject resignation in the second verse turn into frustration by the third (“When you say you tried/And you know you lied/My hands are tied”), which elicits the final, desperate plea of the title. The song’s theme summons from Ronstadt myriad emotions midway through the first verse, she is befuddled - not yet wanting to admit what is going on in her life: Ultimately, there is the Ronstadt-Gold song, “Try Me Again.” As in “Love Has No Pride” and “Long Long Time,” something precious is at stake here. She simply allows the beauty of this well-structured song to speak for itself. She doesn’t battle the instruments she doesn’t strain for high notes. She sounds at peace with herself as she sings of foolish lovers who don’t take the time to discover love’s true meaning. Ronstadt’s interpretation is extraordinarily subtle, sly and witty. Swirling electric piano figures and a barely audible mandolin establish an irresistibly exotic ambiance. Ry Cooder’s “The Tattler” is one of the album’s two gems. Her reading could be tougher, but the music behind it - particularly the solo sparring between guitarists Andrew Gold and Waddy Wachtel - has enough bite to overcome the vocal shortcomings. The version of “That’ll Be the Day” included here neither alters my feelings for nor threatens the Buddy Holly original. I’ve always appreciated Ronstadt’s good-natured approach to her remakes of rock ‘n’ roll oldies. And in a few instances it’s as good as anything Ronstadt has done. Worse still, one verse of an immaculately beautiful reggae song, “Rivers of Babylon,” is ruined by being used as a prelude to “Give One Heart.” No amount of sweetening can rescue lyrics as inane as “That’s the paradox of I love you” or “If your baby loves you right/You can have skyrockets any old night.” A rock & roll bridge has been punched up, which only makes things worse by forcing a scream from Ronstadt as she tries to move up the scale. Orleans couldn’t salvage it, nor can Ronstadt.
![song hasten down the wind live by waren zevon song hasten down the wind live by waren zevon](https://images.eil.com/large_image/WARREN_ZEVON_STAND%2BIN%2BTHE%2BFIRE-422877.jpg)
The album’s only other major mistake is John and Johanna Hall’s “Give One Heart,” one of the worst songs - reggae or otherwise - I’ve heard.