CD Odyssey Disc 901: Warren Zevon

As you may have noticed, I buy a lot of music. The more music you hear, the harder it is to impress you (I think this is why so many music critics are such hard markers). But that also means when an album does blow your mind, it is that much sweeter of an experience. This next album blew my mind.

Disc 901 is….Excitable Boy

Artist: Warren Zevon

Year of Release: 1978

What’s up with the Cover? A classic giant head cover, very common to 1978. Is it just me or does it look like Warren Zevon is about to order an espresso and start pontificating about Sartre?

How I Came To Know It: Everyone knows the song “Werewolves of London” but my interest in Zevon (and this album in particular) was the result of my friend Randall introducing me to the title track. Many thanks to Randall, even though he is about to cost me a bit of money

How It Stacks Up:  Zevon made 12 studio albums, but I only have this one at present so I can’t really stack it up. However, that is going to change soon since I’ve recently listened to four more and they are all good, and will soon be mine. I can’t wait.

Ratings: 5 stars

Warren Zevon, where have you been all my life? “Excitable Boy” was a revelation, an album that pulls it all together – memorable songs, thoughtful lyrics, perfect production and players at the height of their creative ability.

It all starts with Warren Zevon, who wrote or cowrote all nine songs on “Excitable Boy.” Yes, in addition to being an amazing album, it is also tastefully restrained in terms of overall length.

Zevon’s voice has a deep gravitas that delivers meaning and emotional import with every word. Neil Diamond has the same talent, but this comes across less hokey than Diamond. Diamond preaches easy listening, but you can tell Zevon’s soul is sold to rock and roll.

The album has a perfect opening with the triumphant and celebratory “Johnny Strikes Up The Band” as Warren does just this, delivering a track full of dramatic flourishes and soaring melodies.

The opening track is great, but it is impossible to pick favourites on a record this good. The weakest song on the record is the R&B flavoured “Nighttime In the Switching Yard” and even it is great. It made me think of David Bowie’s work on “Young Americans” except that it is better. Zevon keeps it simple and lets the R&B flow, with perfect timing, and a band that is as tight as hell.

Zevon loves turning historical events into works of art. “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” is set during the 1960-1965 Congo War and it is part history, part romantic tale and part ghost story. Zevon starts out singing about “Roland the Thompson Gunner” but after Roland is murdered he becomes “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” who sets out to exact vengeance on his killer. Zevon’s phrasing is so perfect that he works the word ‘headless’ into the exact same number of notes as the original moniker, and it feels so natural you don’t even notice.

“Veracruz” is the story of the United States invasion of the Mexican city of Veracruz in 1914. Zevon tells the story through the eyes of one of the many residents of the city, and he ably combines the bigger picture and the immanence of the tale to those affected:

“I heard Woodrow Wilson’s guns

I heard Maria calling.

‘Veracruz is dying’”

It is heart-wrenching stuff and bonus points for successfully singing a song about Woodrow Wilson, which you just don’t see very often.

The title track juxtaposes an upbeat fun ditty about giving an energetic lad a bit of freedom, with the ugly narrative when he takes advantage of that permissiveness to rape and murder “Little Suzie.” (Yes, that Little Suzie – Zevon toured with the Everly Brothers in the seventies. I wonder what they thought of the dark twist to the story).

And what can you say about “Werewolves of London”? which is a perfect song in every way. It sounds as fresh and fun almost forty years later as it did when it was released. It is sad that it has caused Zevon to become a one-hit wonder in the minds of ninety percent of the population, but if you are only going to be remembered for one song you could do a lot worse. The song has awesome lyrics and Zevon even makes howling like a wolf work. In other songs like Hank William’s “Howlin’ at the Moon” this comes off as kitschy, but Zevon manages to walk that line and never cross over. Yes, on a single album he manages to outdo both Hank Williams and David Bowie.

“Lawyers, Guns and Money” ends the album with an amazing journey into bad decisions and three of the things that can help make those bad decisions go away. Or are those the three things that cause the problems? Whatever the case, the lyrics are incredible, opening with:

“Well, I went home with the waitress

The way I always do

How was I to know

She was with the Russians too.”

This song is full of musical flourishes and an irresistible riff played on both guitar and piano with equal impact.

Like a lot of Zevon’s albums, “Excitable Boy” is packed with guest musicians drawn by his genius and ability. This record features appearances by Jackson Browne, Mick Fleetwood, Jennifer Warnes, Linda Ronstad and Leland Sklar and many others.

Warren Zevon was taken from us far too soon, dying of cancer in 2003 at the age of 56. He leaves behind an exceptional legacy of music, of which “Excitable Boy” is one of the best. In fact, just like that werewolf’s hair in “Werewolves of London,” it’s perfect.

Best tracks:  all tracks. Listen to all of them!