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Warren Zevon releases "Excitable Boy" - TIMH

+10 HS
John Cooper's lucky pig's picture
January 18, 2017 at 7:01am
69 Comments

I must admit that "Excitable Boy" and the "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" anthology are the only Warren Zevon albums I own and I am largely ignorant to his background and larger body of work. We've got to have some hardcore Zevon fans in this motley TIMH crew so help me out in the comment section.

Warren Zevon released his most successful album, "Excitable Boy", today in 1978. He was born in Chicago and moved to California where he became a student of Igor Stravinski. He eventually dropped out of school and moved to New York City with a dream of becoming a folk singer.

That didn't pan out like he hoped but Zevon was soon touring with the Everly Brothers as a keyboardist. In 1975 he moved to Los Angeles where he lived with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (if the walls could talk). L.A. at that time was a hotbed for the burgeoning singer-songwriter movement and Zevon scored a record deal. In 1976 he released his major label debut, which was produced by Jackson Browne.

I feel like I'm name dropping quite a bit here but this is a recurring phenomenon in Zevon's career. The guy worked with, was covered by or wrote songs for everybody - David Gilmour, Jerry Garcia, Jorma Kaukonen, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Chick Corea, Neil Young, The Eagles, Tom Petty, Flea, REM, and funk master George Clinton are just a few.

On the "Excitable Boy" album, luminaries like Waddy Wachtel, Jeff Porcaro, J.D. Souther, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne all stopped by to lend a hand. Fleetwood and McVie played on the album's biggest hit, "Werewolves of London", which reached #21 on the singles chart, while the album charted at #8 and sold over a million copies. Other notable songs on "Excitable Boy" include "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Excitable Boy", "Veracruz" and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" (which was co-written by an actual mercenary named David Lindell).

Most of Zevon's songs go over my head. When you attract so many other phenomenal musicians you must be doing something right but I am unfortunately too dense to appreciate it. Zevon fans, let us know what makes his music so special.

 

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