A new version of Accidently Like A Martyr

Here is a new release of the great old Warren Zevon song I love it. – this one with @kiwichrys on backing vocals.

About the Song

Like many of Zevon’s songs about love and relationships, this song is a mournful ballad about romantic loss. The song mostly consists of the singer lamenting about opportunities lost and times long gone. Along with its original release on Excitable Boy, an early rendition of this song appears on the 2007 compilation album Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings. The version included there has a variety of alternate lyrics, changing the song’s focus from romantic loss to the singer lamenting how he fell for a cruel heartbreaking woman, against the advice of his friends.

A strong contender for the title of Bob Dylan‘s 1997 album Time Out of Mind is this song, which is coincidentally heavily influenced by Dylan as its title suggests. The phrase is featured in the last line of the second verse. Furthermore, when it was revealed in 2002 that Zevon was dying from cancer, Dylan added for weeks in his concert setlists songs by Zevon. “Accidentally Like A Martyr” was the second most performed song, with 22 performances during October and November.

This release was performed, recorded and produced by Steve Keith at Baselines Designs studio. Special thanks to @kiwichrys for backing vocals.

Song Lyrics

Note: the text of this song’s lyrics is not under the same copyright license as the wiki’s encyclopedic text, it is used under fair use/dealing.

The phone don’t ring

And the sun refused to shine

Never thought I’d have to pay so dearly

For what was already mine

For such a long, long time


We made mad love

Shadow love

Random love

And abandoned love

Accidentally like a martyr

The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder


The days slide by

Should have done, should have done, we all sigh

Never thought I’d ever be so lonely

After such a long, long time

Time out of mind


We made mad love

Shadow love

Random love

And abandoned love

Accidentally like a martyr

The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder

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