My Ride’s Here features an earnest but silly Dave Letterman cameo on the hockey tune “Hit Somebody!”. Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School (1980) has the goofy “Gorilla, You’re a Desperado”. It’s an understandable place to begin one’s experience with him, but in many ways it’s also the wrong one.Įxcitable Boy isn’t the only Zevon album to contain its share of oddball moments. For all of the genius in Excitable Boy, the album also distorts the rich trove of songs in Zevon’s discography. At his very best, he contends with the greats in the singer-songwriter mold, a fact acknowledged by the wide range of tributes to him after his passing in 2003, with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, and Bob Dylan playing his songs in their live shows. Zevon, however, was much more than death’s jester. Sure, it’s got a catchy chord progression, and the deliciously dark line “Little old lady got mutilated late last night” might be the best use of consonance in a pop song ever put to tape. After hearing the news of JFK’s assassination over his high school loudspeakers, Zevon looked to his friends and said in a JFK accent, “Jackie, I’ve got this real bad pain in my head.” The headless ghost mercenaries, werewolves, and criminals of Excitable Boy sprung forth from that quip.Įxcitable Boy remains the primary gateway into Zevon’s music for new listeners, due primarily to “Werewolves of London”, a charming novelty song that wouldn’t rank among his 20 best tunes. One choice quotation, featured in the oral biography of Zevon compiled by his first wife, Crystal, entitled I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, serves as an early sign of where he would go as a songwriter. But Zevon’s taste for the macabre predated Excitable Boy. Some of these eccentric creations can be chalked up to late nights afloat in alcohol: Zevon’s good friend Billy Bob Thornton describes “Werewolves of London” as being written on “a sea of vodka” in the VH1 documentary on the making of Zevon’s final album, 2003’s The Wind. The record, Zevon’s lone unqualified public smash, most famously featured a headless Thompson gunner and a werewolf with a taste for chow mein. I can’t possibly complain.Anyone who knew Warren Zevon prior to 1978, the year his breakthrough third album, Excitable Boy, was released, could tell that he was bound to put out a record like it. I got to be a wild, crazy, Jim Morrison quasi-rock star, anyway, and I got to be a sober dad for 18 years. I already have great relationships with my children … I’ve already led two lives. “Harder, hopefully with some focus,” Zevon said. When he was asked last year what he does while staring death in the eye, Zevon replied by saying, “Work.” Once a Hollywood wild man of legendary reputation, Zevon had been sober for nearly 18 years and quit smoking almost five years ago. In a candid interview with Billboard last year, Zevon - who had addressed death with frankness and caustic amusement frequently during the course of his 30-year career - joked that he wanted to live long enough to see the latest James Bond film. “The Wind,” which features guest appearances from Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, T Bone Burnett and Dwight Yoakam, among others, sold 48,000 copies in its first week of release.Īs an artist on Asylum in the mid-’70s, Zevon wrote and recorded such much-covered songs as “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” “Hasten Down the Wind,” and “Carmelita.” He scored his biggest hit with the 1978 album “Excitable Boy,” which contained the top-20 single “Werewolves of London.” He later recorded for Virgin, Giant and, most recently, Artemis. 16, his highest chart ranking since “Excitable Boy” peaked at No. The album, dubbed “The Wind” (Artemis), was released two weeks ago and entered The Billboard 200 at No. Zevon had spent much of the past year working on a final studio recording. Zevon was found dead after failing to wake from an afternoon nap, according to the spokesperson. Zevon was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in August of last year.Ī spokesperson for the artist tells that Zevon had been feeling well of late, and died peacefully in his home Sunday afternoon. Singer/songwriter Warren Zevon died Sunday (Sept.
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