Warren William Zevon
(January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003)
was an
American rock singer
and songwriter.
His most famous
compositions include
"Werewolves of London",
"Lawyers, Guns and Money",
and
"Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner".
All three songs are
featured on
his third album,
Excitable Boy (1978),
the title track
of which is
also well-known.
He also wrote
major hits
that were recorded by
other artists,
including
"Poor Poor Pitiful Me",
"Mohammed's Radio",
"Carmelita",
and
"Hasten Down the Wind".
Per
The New York Times,
"Mr. Zevon had a
pulp-fiction imagination"
which yielded
"terse, action-packed,
gallows-humored tales
that could sketch an
entire screenplay
in four minutes
and often had death
as a punchline.
But there was also
vulnerability and
longing in
Mr. Zevon's ballads,
like
'Mutineer,'
'Accidentally Like a Martyr',
and
'Hasten Down the Wind.
I'M DRINKING
HEARTBREAK MOTOR OIL,
AND BONBAY GIN
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD....
Wanted Dead or Alive
is the debut
studio album
by singer-songwriter
Warren Zevon
It was released in 1970
by Liberty Records
under the moniker
“Zevon.”
The project began with
Kim Fowley
as producer,
but he departed after
disagreements with Zevon
and did not
take credit for production.
“Wanted Dead or Alive”
was a commercial
and critical flop,
as Fowley described it,
it was released
“to the sound of one hand clapping.”
Zevon later remarked.
Sales were poor,
and critics ignored
the album.
Jackson Browne
later commented,
"I don't remember thinking
[the album] was as good
as he really was.
" Attempts to record a
follow-up album,
called
Leaf in the Wind,
were abandoned,
and Zevon
found work as
band leader
and musical coordinator
for The Everly Brothers.
His next album,
the critically
acclaimed classic
Warren Zevon,
was not released
until 1976.
Warren Zevon
is the
second
studio album
by American
musician
This album was
recorded in 1975
and released on
May 18, 1976,
by Asylum Records
Reviewing in
Christgau's Record Guide:
Rock Albums of the Seventies
(1981),
Robert Christgau wrote:
"I am suspicious of
singer-songwriters
who draw attention to
phrases like
'hasten down the wind,'
and I would suggest a
moratorium on songs
about the
James Brothers
that don't also rhyme
'pollution' and 'solution.'
But I like the way
Zevon resists pigeonholes like
'country-rock'
while avoiding both
the banal and the
mystagogical,
and I like quatrains like:
'And if California slides
into the ocean/Like the mystics
and statistics
say it will/I predict this motel
will be standing/Until I pay my bill.'"
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