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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

‘Accidentally Like a Martyr’ was released on Warren Zevon’s brilliant 1978 album “Excitable Boy”

BF: Who are some of your favorite songwriters?
Bob Dylan: Buffett I guess. Lightfoot. Warren Zevon. Randy. John Prine. Guy Clark. Those kinds of writers.
~Bob Dylan (to Huffington Post – May 2009)

original version:

Here is a fantastic live version from Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ. Oct 1, 1982:

Also Check out: Bob Dylan: Mutineer (Warren Zevon)

Bob Dylan

A few weeks after Warren Zevon announced that he was terminally ill with cancer, Dylan began his 2002 Fall tour in the USA. At the opening concert in Seattle, Washington (October 4), Dylan surprised his audience by playing a song that left many people guessing. The song, ‘Accidentally Like a Martyr’, a Warren Zevon number, was a tribute to its writer. Six songs later Dylan played another of Zevon’s songs, ‘Boom, Boom Mancini’, and before the concert ended, he paid a further tribute by performing a third Zevon song, the utterly gorgeous ‘Mutineer’. Although this was the only performance of ‘Boom, Boom Mancini’, ‘Accidentally Like a Martyr’and ‘Mutineer’ were both played frequently on the remainder of the tour and a further Zevon song, ‘Lawyers, Guns And Money’, was also added to the sets. For Dylan to perform four covers as tributes to Zevon was an astonishing and unprecedented homage to an extraordinary yet criminally under-appreciated talent. ~Derek Barker (The Songs He didn’t write)

Dylan performed Accidentally Like a Martyr 22 times in 2002. Here are 3 great versions…

from larrycampbellmusic.net

“Accidentally Like A Martyr”, hit me like the proverbial large railway vehical moving at high speed. The vocals conveyed an astonishing depth of feeling and insight and an immense gravity. You could fail to understand immediately that this song was of import.
~Andrew Muir (about the Seattle performance of Accidentally Like A Martyr – from “One More Night“)

First Union Center
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
21 November 2002

unknown location, but beautiful performance:

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

Check out:

• Bob Dylan – Old Five And Dimers (Like Me) (Billy Joe Shaver) – audio & video
• Bob Dylan – Across The Borderline (Cooder/Hiatt/Dickinson) – Audio & Video
• Bob Dylan: House of Gold (Hank Williams) Audio & Video
• Bob Dylan: Peace In The Valley (Thomas A. Dorsey)

-Egil