Excitable Boy (Remastered)

 “Werewolves of London” surely paid Warren Zevon’s rent for years and in 1978 briefly made this mischievous songwriter a genuine rock star. However, Zevon should never be mistaken for a one-hit wonder. His song catalog is jammed with suspicious characters and lonely hearts, compact yet complex observations delivered with a deceptive ease by Zevon’s deep, unfancy vocals and the smooth musical perfection of L.A.’s top session musicians. Excitable Boy was his second album for Asylum (an earlier collection from 1969, Wanted Dead or Alive, is his official debut, but not characteristic of his later work) and features several key tracks that would come to define the man. “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,” the title track and “Lawyers, Guns and Money” are tightly-wound psycho sketches where rape and murder come with the family dinner smeared on his chest. The black humor and sense of the bizarre potentially overshadow Zevon’s sensitive side, which is beautifully laid out in the majestic heartbreak of “Accidentally Live A Martyr” and the cultural imperialism of “Veracruz.”  The 2007 reissue includes four outtakes. Zevon’s vocals are undermixed on the looser alternate take of “Werewolves of London,” while “Tule’s Blues” and “Frozen Notes” are mournful piano tunes that tend towards Zevon’s serious side.