"...Rub The Pot Roast All Over His Chest..."
Like most Warren Zevon fans - I bought the March 2010 "Original Album Series" 5CD Mini Box Set to
have the albums "Warren Zevon" (1976) and "Bad Luck Streak In
Dancing School" (1980) on some form of CD. But despite its wickedly good
content and cheap price – I was disappointed to find that all five titles are
non-remasters - especially given that Rhino did stunning audio versions of
"Excitable Boy" (1978), "Stand In The Fire (Live)" (1981)
and "The Envoy" (1982) way back in 2007 and could have used those
(all three were first-time-on-CD Expanded Remasters).
So as I own them I thought
it time to return to my fave – the spiked, tender and yet wickedly contemporary
"Excitable Boy". And rubbing pot roast all over my chest is exactly
how a feel. What a winner this 2007 single disc CD reissue is. Here are the
wet-haired two-fanged details...
UK and USA released late
March 2007 – "Excitable Boy" by WARREN ZEVON on Asylum/Rhino
8122-79997-7 (Barcode 081227999773) is an 'Expanded' CD Remaster with Four
Bonus Tracks and play out as follows (41:59 minutes):
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. Nightime In The Switching
Yard [Side 2]
7. Veracruz
8. Tenderness On The Block
9. Lawyers, Guns And Money
Tracks 1 to 9 are his 2nd
album "Excitable Boy" – released 24 January 1978 in the USA on Asylum
6E-118 and March 1978 in the UK on Asylum K 53073. It peaked at No. 8 in
February 1978 on the US album charts – but didn’t chart in the UK - Singer Jackson
Browne and Guitarist Waddy Wachtel Produced.
BONUS TRACKS:
10. I Need A Truck (Outtake)
11. Werewolves Of London
(Alternate Version)
12. Tule's Blues (Solo Piano
Version)
14. Frozen Notes (Strings
Version)
Tracks 10 to 14 are
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
The 20-page booklet is a
pleasingly substantive affair – DAVID FRICKE's superb liner notes making much
of Jackson Browne's friendship and musical patronage of Zevon who in 1975 was a
complete unknown. Browne had already three charted US albums under his belt "Jackson
Browne - aka "Saturate Before Use" (1972), "For Everyman"
(1973) and the stunning "Late For The Sky" (1974) – so when he
announced at a September 1975 Philly gig that this Warren Zevon friend of his
was going to be 'big news' – people took notice and cheered (Browne then played
several of Warren's songs including an early version of "Werewolves Of
London"). Some years later the album "Excitable Boy" containing
that winning song both sat pretty on the American charts. The 'empty shell-casings
of bullets' and the 'gun on a dinner plate' photos that made up the inner US
sleeve are reproduced on Pages 11 and 20 as are the lyrics to the album tracks
(oddly not the bonus cuts). The song-by-song musician credits show his core
band as – WARREN ZEVON on Piano, Guitars and all Lead Vocals, WADDY WACHTEL on
Guitars and Vocals, LELAND SKLAR on Bass and RUSSELL KUNKEL on Drums with
Guests (discussed below). There's even an advert for the Book "I'll Sleep
When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life And Times Of Warren Zevon" by Crystal
Zevon...
But the really big news for
fans is the DAN HERSCH and BILL INGLOT Remaster. The audio on this sucker kicks
you in the nuts – and its not loudness for the sake it. Every track is improved
- given muscle and clarity - and the listen is so much better for it right
across the board (this Expanded Edition also features four tasty Previously
Unreleased Bonus Tracks dropped from the "Original Album Series" Box
Set version).
Asylum launched three
singles around the album in the UK – "Werewolves Of London" b/w
"Tenderness On The Block" (February 1978, Asylum K 13111) –
"Nighttime In The Switching Yard" b/w "Roland The Headless
Thompson Gunner" (May 1978, Asylum K 13124) and finally "Excitable
Boy" b/w "Veracruz" (October 1978, Asylum K 13140) – none charted.
In the USA they faired better when "Werewolves Of London" lead the
charge as the album's debut 45 with "Roland The Headless Thompson
Gunner" on the flipside (Asylum E-45472). It rose to a respectable No. 21
on their pop charts in May 1978 giving the album a sustained bout of sales long
after its February 1978 placing. They also issued "Lawyers, Guns And
Money" with "Veracruz" on the B-side in May 1978 (Asylum
E-45498) - but like "Nighttime In The Switching Yard" b/w "Johnny
Strikes Up The Band" in October 1978 on Asylum E-45526 – neither charted.
The "Excitable
Boy" album is a sensation really. All the potential that had shown up on
his guest-heavy 1976 self-titled Asylum Records debut "Warren Zevon"
came screaming to fruition on record number two. Admittedly at 31:49 minutes
and with only 9 songs – it wasn't exactly a musical War & Peace. But there
isn't a bad track on "Excitable Boy" and many of these quirky songs
would become synonymous with Zevon and beloved by fans. And it didn't take a
Mensa membership card to hear that beneath all that humour and blood and sex
lurked the niggling ongoing aspects of his zigzag personality peeking through
the lyrics like a cut he couldn’t plaster – his addictions to alcohol and pills
that would take years to beat...
The bloodthirsty and kooky
"Werewolves Of London" features Mick Fleetwood and John McVie of
Fleetwood Mac on Drums and Bass while Linda Ronstadt and Jennifer Warnes lend
backing vocals to the giddily macabre "Excitable Boy" with Waddy
Wachtel chopping that axe and sessionman Jim Horn blowing a mean Saxophone.
Karla Bonoff does lovely Harmony Vocals on "Accidentally Like A
Martyr" while his long-time musical cohort Jorge Calderon plays Spanish
Guitar on the hurting "Veracruz". Waddy Wachtel's Acoustic guitar
work makes the gorgeous "Tenderness On The Block" - a song that
always makes me think of our growing teenagers who aren't kids anymore (she's
all grown up – she has a young man waiting). And who doesn't laugh at the
touch-and-go 'gambling in Havana' wit of "Lawyers, Guns And Money"
where the you-know-what has unceremoniously hit the fan...(send help Daddy
please). There's an ache too in "Accidentally Like A Martyr" where
"...the hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder..." But for me and
second-only to the lovely "Tenderness..." is one of the album's true
hidden nuggets - the hard-core Talking Heads guitar-funk of "Nighttime In
The Switching Yard" – a song I used to constantly put on 70ts Fest CDR's
when I worked at Reckless Records in Soho's Berwick Street. Without fail its
funky-as-gnat's-underpants rhythms would bring excited kids to the counter –
Who the Hell is this?
The Bonus Tracks are
typically eclectic – the entirely Acapella "I Need A Truck" has him
singing alone into an echoed microphone for less than a minute about trucks to
haul his guns, his bad thoughts, Percocet tablets and Gin. Any version of
"Werewolves Of London" is good news by me - and the 3:42 minute
Alternate is just as quirky and rocking as the finished article. It doesn't say
who's playing the Guitar – sounds like Wachtel – and the Bass is more
pronounced too. It's like they’re almost there but still working out the kinks
(and that 'ah ooooh' howl at the end is a hoot). "Tule's Blues" is
probably the real prize here – a ballad named after his 1st wife about a
relationship falling apart. It's a piano led melancholic thing – lovely and sad
at the same time with lyrics like "...I hear a child's voice...does he ask
if I'll be coming home soon..." The orchestral strings in "Frozen
Notes" add a huge poignancy to another hurting song.
Zevon succumbed to Cancer in
September 2003 aged only 56 – defiant, whimsical and thoughtful to the end. And
as I replay the truly gorgeous and deeply wise "Tenderness On The
Block" - I'm tearful. I for one am glad that this criminally overlooked CD
only hammers home Warren Zevon's undeniable lifeforce and the rich legacy of
his music. Be with the Boogie Angels you hard-knocks traveller...
This review is part of my SOUNDS GOOD Music Book Series. One of those titles is CLASSIC 1970s ROCK - an E-Book with over 250 entries and 2100 e-Pages - purchase on Amazon and search any artist or song (click the link below). Huge amounts of info taken directly from the discs (no cut and paste crap).
