The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 20, 1978, Page Page 21, Image 21
-^Zevon alb
By TOM "ED" CLYDE
Gamecock Staff Writer
Warren Zevon's "Excitable
Boy" provides a pleasant change
from the usual colorless music
being packaged these days. Aside
from being unique, Zevon's album
is musically superior.
Warren Zevon grew up studying
classical music, but one day turned
his energy and talents toward, rock
and roll. For a while he toured with
the Everly Brothers as a pianist
and leader of the band. He became
friends with .lackaon Browne and
Hip
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Zevon's new album . . .
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made his second album, "Warren
Zevon" in 1976 with Browne serving
as producer. (His first,
(Wanted: Dead or Alive," is a
collector's item.) Three of the
songs, "Hasten Down the Wind,"
"Carmelita," and "Poor, Poor
Pitiful Me" have been recorded by
Linda Ronstadt. Zevon's
songwriting and musical skills are
utilized to their true potential on
"Excitable Boy."
ACCORDING TO Rolling Stone.
"Warren Zevon's 'Excitable Boy'
is the best American rock & roll
album since Bruce Springsteen's
"Born to Run' . . . and Jackson
Browne's 'The Pretender'." They
also say he is one' of three major
rock & roll artists of the Seventies,
the others being Browne and
Springsteen.
Those are very strong
statements, but "Excitable Bov"
has prompted similar comments
from critics all over in the past
month or so. Utilizing the talents of
several excellent musicians (The
Section, Waddy Wachtel, Mick
Fleetwood, John McVie, Browne,
Ronstadt, and Karla Bonoff), the
production of Browne and Wachtel,
A the excellent engineering of
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Greg Ladanyi, Zevon has provided
the listener with a montage of fine
songs, dealing mainly with bizarre
and violent subject matter.
The inside sleeve is a picture of a
.44 magnum revolver sitting in the
middle of vegetables and potatoes,
as if the gun is the main course
being served up. In the title cut, an
upreai numoer teaturing the crisp
piano work of Zevon, a psychotic
"Excitable Boy' went down to
dinner in his Sunday best and he
rubbed the pot roast all over his
chest, Excitable Boy, they all
said."
ZEVON IS criticizing society's
often ineffective ways of labeling
people. Later in the song "he took
little Suzie to the Junior Prom, and
he raped her and killed her, then he
took her home, Excitable Boy, they
all said."
Two of the songs, "Roland and
the Headless Thompson Gunner"
and "Veracruz" are similar in that
they both have a sad and historic
sound to them as they deal in the
realities of war. "Veracruz,"
lyrically excellent, tells the tale of
a family forced to leave their
homeland as a result of U.S.
pressure ... "I heard Woodrow
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crying
Late last night I heard the news
that Veracruz was dying.
Someone called Maria's name, I
swear it was my father's voice.
Saying 'If you stay you'll all be
slain,
You must leave now, you have no
choice."
The first song on "Excitable
Boy" is "Johnny Strikes Up the
Band," priming the listener for
what lies ahead. Zevon bellows,
"Freddie get ready, rock steady,
as Johnny strikes up the band."
Waddy Wachtel, musician extraordinaire,
scorches on lead
guitar.
"WEREWOLVES OF LONDON"
is the album's first single, a
solid, rhythmic tune which
probably won't sell well, and involves
some gutty, howling vocals
by Zevon. "Tenderness on the
Block," co-written with Jackson
Browne, is a song which bluntly
tells the parents of a growing girl
that she ain't so little no more.
The last song is "Lawyers, Guns,
and Money," about a reckless
wanderer who keeps getting
himself into trouble. Dad always
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. . . and his main course
seems to bail him out ...
"I'm an innocent bystander,
somehow I got stuck
between the rock and the hard
spot, and I'm down on my luck.
Now I'm hiding in Honduras, I'm a
desperate man.
Send lawyers, guns, and money,
the shit has hit the fan."
WHETHER OR NOT "Excitable
Boy" is truly a landmark album is
purely relative. The critics are just
about unanimous in their praise,
and this reviewer agrees that it is a ,
superb album. Although it contains ,
the force of a nuclear warhead, }
"Excitable Boy" does not offend; {
rather, it fascinates the listpn?r
and provides him with a fine *
departure from the sad state of j
music these days. <
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lERLING, PASTOR
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[ MAIN ST
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WNTOWN