BEST WARREN ZEVON ALBUMS FULL
BEST WARREN ZEVON ALBUMS SERIES
BEST WARREN ZEVON ALBUMS MAC

Zevon’s career is completely unpredictable. I have a problem,” he told one of the interviewers. He is attracted to the losers, underdogs, and addicts in life, perhaps because he sees something of himself in them. instability and general contempt for the world. Born in Chicago but coming from his 60s in Los Angeles, he could easily have carved out a successful career as a straight-line pianist like Elton John or Billy Joel, if not for his spicy, chemical wit.

BEST WARREN ZEVON ALBUMS SERIES

Instead, this most agile musician released his final farewell album, Wind, and begins a series of interviews in which he treats his impending death as a source of black comedy and philosophical musings.īut then Zevon is no ordinary singer-songwriter. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2002, he refused to wallow in depression or feel sorry for himself. The Steve Winwood cover is the tearjerker.Warren Zevon died just as he lived: without fear. “For My Next Trick I’ll Need a Volunteer” and “I Was in the House When the House Burned Down,” the latter Paul Ryan’s theme song as he departs the House for financially solvent climes, are the thematic unguents. The noblest of the My Shit’s Fucked Up Trilogy. “Gorilla, You’re a Desperado” attempts a “Werewolves in London” crossover. Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School (1980)įlush with cash after Excitable Boy hit, Zevon conducts orchestral interludes and as far as titles go quite likes what his perfervid imagination comes up with. “I’l Sleep When I’m Dead” became his theme, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” a meal ticket thanks to Linda Ronstadt’s cover, and “Backs Turned Looking Down the Path” one of his many superb titles I hope he thought of it first and found a tune for it.Ħ.

BEST WARREN ZEVON ALBUMS FULL

New track “The Fire” belongs.Īs noted above, the line separating his terrific second album from the third album breakthrough is easy to cross if listeners prefer full band arrangement to El Zev’s expert piano tinkling. After enjoying the versions of “Excitable Boy,” “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” and “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” I was tempted to rank this second.

BEST WARREN ZEVON ALBUMS MAC

Included is the valuable insight into Woodrow Wilson’s oft-forgotten perfidy in Mexico, the Fleetwood Mac rhythm section getting re-aquainted with Lee Ho Fook’s through the eyes of a dapper werewolf, and the track that lent its title to one of my favorite American political blogs.Ī live album, like The Envoy out print for years, thus keeping its powder dry for audiences unprepared for Zevon’s ferocity. This album, again produced by Jackson Browne, gets the edge for its slight aggression and for foregrounding Zevon’s rolling piano - for example, the way the title track combines Allen Toussaint and L.A. The earworm: “The Overdraft,” to which Lindsey Buckingham contributes crazed backup.ĭistinguishing his breakthrough from the eponymous debut is foolish. “Looking for the Next Best Thing” rebukes a culture obsessed with finishing first.

The Reagan administration’s Middle Eastern skullduggery inspire the synth-happy title track (a pity he wrote nothing later about Oliver North and Richard Secord) “Ain’t That Pretty at All,” even more synth happier, revels in a sardonicism that competes with John Lydon’s, although the pithy quip “I’d rather feel bad than feel anything at all” I expect from the he-man writers from whom he often gets lyrics. Its sweetness is a surprise, a sweetness toughened by scuzz guitar and Zevon’s determination to wail like his beloved wife hadn’t walked out the door, as she would two years later. Unavailable on CD until the late 2000s, The Envoy perhaps embarrassed the Zevon estate: its failure sent him back to the bottle for his last and worst bender. He predates Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” with the electro-bop “Leave My Monkey Alone.” He writes “Reconsider Me.” His most satisfying record - a hoot. Elsewhere, El Zevo moves from topic to topic like a man awakening from a slumber and wondering what’s for dinner: boxers (noted), working class Springsteen/Cooke pastiche (“The Factory”), feeling like a werewolf on Mulholland Drive (the should’ve-been-a-hit “Even a Dog Can Shake Hands”). On tracks like “Boom Boom Mancini” Zevon plays more lead guitar than he had previously his lines are pungent, pinched. With R.E.M.’s twenty-first-century profile at its lowest ebb, the percentage of the listening audience that remains curious should stream/”consume” Zevon’s first comeback record, on which three-fourths of the Athens band hide the mandolins behind the kudzu, giving the material the what-for they learned on Lifes Rich Pageant (their own breakthrough was a couple months away). The talented hellion recorded a number of excellent albums.

Best warren zevon albums