![]() ![]() ![]() Tracks from this album received heavy FM airplay, and the single release " Werewolves of London", which featured Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, was a relatively lighthearted version of Zevon's signature macabre outlook and a Top 30 success. The title tune is about a juvenile sociopath's murderous prom night, referred to "Little Susie", the heroine of his former employer the Everly Brothers's song " Wake Up Little Susie", while songs such as "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and " Lawyers, Guns and Money" used deadpan humor to wed geopolitical subtexts to hard-boiled narratives. In 1978, Zevon released Excitable Boy (produced by Jackson Browne and the guitarist Waddy Wachtel) to critical acclaim and popular success. music business (which was, in fact, about his long-time girlfriend and the mother of his son, Jordan) and " Desperados Under the Eaves", a chronicle of Zevon's increasing alcoholism. Representative tracks include the junkie's lament "Carmelita" the Copland-esque outlaw ballad "Frank and Jesse James" "The French Inhaler", a scathing insider's look at life and lust in the L.A. The album Warren Zevon (1976), produced by Browne, was a modest commercial success, but it was later termed a masterpiece in the first edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide and is cited in the book's most recent revised edition (November 2004) as Zevon's most realized work. peers shared a grounding in earlier folk and country influences and a commitment to songcraft with roots in the work of artists like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Zevon was a much darker and more ironic songwriter than Browne and other leading figures of the era's L.A.-based singer-songwriter movement. Zevon's first tour, in 1977, included guest appearances in the middle of concerts by Jackson Browne concerts, one of which is documented on a widely circulated bootleg recording of a Dutch radio program under the title The Offender Meets the Pretender. Ronstadt elected to record many of his songs, including " Hasten Down the Wind", " Carmelita", " Poor Poor Pitiful Me", and "Mohammed's Radio". Contributors to this album included Nicks, Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, members of the Eagles, Carl Wilson, Linda Ronstadt, and Bonnie Raitt. There he collaborated with Jackson Browne, who produced and promoted Zevon's self-titled major-label debut in 1976. and major-label debutīy September 1975, Zevon had returned to Los Angeles where he roomed with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, who had by now gained fame as members of Fleetwood Mac. Together they composed " Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner." Return to L.A. His dissatisfaction with his career (and a lack of funds) led him to move to Spain in the summer of 1975, where he lived and played in the Dubliner Bar, a small tavern in Sitges, near Barcelona, owned by David Lindell, a former mercenary. Later during the same decade, he toured and recorded with Don Everly and Phil Everly separately, as they tried to launch solo careers after their breakup. Flashes of Zevon's later writing preoccupations of romantic loss and noir violence are present in songs like "Tule's Blues" and "A Bullet for Ramona."ĭuring the early 1970s, Zevon toured regularly with The Everly Brothers as keyboard player, band leader, and musical coordinator. (To suit its place in the film, the song was re-recorded in the female version of "He Quit Me", performed by Leslie Miller.) Zevon's first attempt at a solo album Wanted Dead or Alive (1969) was produced by 1960s cult figure Kim Fowley but did not sell well. Another early composition ("She Quit Me") was included in the soundtrack for the film Midnight Cowboy (1969). He wrote several songs for his White Whale labelmates The Turtles ("Like the Seasons" and "Outside Chance"), though his participation in their recording is unknown. He spent time as a session musician and jingle composer. Zevon turned to a musical career early, including a stretch with his high-school friend Violet Santangelo as a musical duo called lyme & cybelle. Zevon's parents divorced when he was 16 years old he soon quit high school and moved from Los Angeles to New York City to become a folk singer. By the age of 13, Zevon was an occasional visitor to the home of Igor Stravinsky, where he briefly studied modern classical music alongside Robert Craft. Warren's mother was from a Mormon family and was of English descent. William Zevon worked as a bookie who handled volume bets and dice games for the notorious Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen he worked for years in Cohen's Combination, in which he was known as Stumpy Zevon, and was best man at Cohen's first wedding. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia, whose original surname was Zivotovsky. Zevon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Beverly Cope (née Simmons) and William Zevon. ![]()
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