Made a run to the record store today and picked up (among other things) Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy" on vinyl. It's an album I haven't listen to in it's entirety in some time even though I own the CD. Just getting to the middle of side B and damn if this album isn't deserving of it's critical acclaim and then some.The song writing is, of course, top flight. Zevon's lyrics are dark, the music stripped down for the most part letting each bizarre and twisted tail stand on it's own. "Nighttime In the Switching Yard" is dense and funky with the rest of the album pretty much straight-ahead 70's rock. The big songs are of course the massive radio hit "Werewolves of London" and the classic "Lawyers, Guns & Money".
The title for this post comes from the Amazon.com review of this album,
Zevon achieved some fame, albeit not what his talent would have earned him had he written songs more like his mellower pal Jackson Browne and a little less like Jack the Ripper in a convertible.
Zevon is one of those performers who is critically acclaimed and beloved by music lovers but who is probably over-looked by many others as merely a 1 hit wonder because of the success of "Werewolves"
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