Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy

★★★★★

1. Johnny Strikes Up the Band: 👍🏻
2. Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner: 👍🏻
3. Excitable Boy: 👍🏻
4. Werewolves of London: 👍🏻
5. Accidentally Like a Martyr: 👍🏻
6. Night Time in the Switching Yard: 👍🏻
7. Veracruz: 🤷‍♂️
8. Tenderness on the Block: 🤷‍♂️
9. Lawyers, Guns and Money: 👍🏻

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I had intended to start this project with Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. but when I woke up with a New Years hangover this morning, all of a sudden it seemed like a Warren Zevon kind of day. I think maybe because of this scene from Californication:

…except of course that Keep Me in Your Heart (the song playing in the background of that scene) was the last song on the last album Zevon made, after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. That seemed like a bummer of a way to start the year. But maybe a good way to end this project 364 days from now?

At any rate, I decided to listen to Excitable Boy. By far my favorite Zevon album. It’s crazy how many great songs are on this record. If you’ve heard a Warren Zevon song, the odds are good that it’s Werewolves of London. It’s his best known and I think most commercially successful track. But it’s not even the best song on the album!

It’s pretty amazing how many of the songs on this album have insane premises yet are insanely catchy. The headless ghost of a mercenary in Africa, werewolves in nice suits eating Chinese food, and a rapist and murderer getting out of the asylum and making a cage out of the bones of his dug-up victim. These are pop songs. And they’re GREAT.

It’s hard to pick a favorite song on this album. Of the 9 tracks I love 7 of them. Veracruz and Tenderness on the Block don’t really do anything for me, but they’re 7&8 after 6 great songs, and I think the album closes with probably the best song: Lawyers, Guns and Money. Another ridiculous premise: some rich kid calling home for help. That must have been some vacation.